Most yachts are sailed by men, we would like to change that!

The permanent crew consists of Captain Maria and First Mate Sofia, during some parts of the cruise we will be accompanied by friends (women of course) who come along for a once in a lifetime sailing experience. The longer crossings will hopefully be made with at least three persons in the crew.


Captain Maria Ingerup
mariaingerup@hotmail.com

Birthday: 8th May 1984
Hometown: Ängelholm, Sweden
Occupation: Surface Designer

Spent almost every summer during her childhood aboard a 26 feet motor yacht. Started to learn how to sail when the family bought a 17 feet sail yacht when she was 12. Later the family felt the need for a bigger yacht, sold the motor yacht and found the 31 feet sail yacht Cantare, a B31. When the time came to choose which high school to attend she decided on a sailing school and left home at the age of 16 to live on an island outside Gothenburg. Three months each year were spent aboard Sweden's largest sail yacht, a three masted bark named T/S Gunilla. Sailing an Atlantic circuit with Gunilla she has already crossed the ocean twice. Now it's time to do it in a much smaller yacht as captain!





First Mate Sofia Ivansson
sofiaivansson@yahoo.se

Birthday: 18th February 1985
Hometown: Ängelholm, Sweden
Occupation: Student (Economics)


Her sailing career started rather recently although she has already sailed to Russia with the Swedish Scout ship Biscaya. Spent one summer vacation in the archipelago outside Gothenburg aboard a small HR Misil and last summer Sofia crewed aboard the captains yacht. They sailed to Poland from Höganäs in Sweden and back again via Germany. She has also made a trip with Cantare to Anholt and various other harbours in Denmark, tried winds of 23 m/s and practised patience when the enginee decided to take a break and the wind was weak. This will be her first voyage with longer crossings, but what she lacks in experience she makes up for in dedication!





Deckhand Emelie Paulsson

Birthday: 13th May 1984
Hometown: Ängelholm, Sweden
Occupation: Store Support


Being the captains best friend from birth has no doubt influenced her and made her if not love at least like sailing a lot. She was there when Cantare was bought in Stockholm and sailed to the southern part of Sweden and she was there when it was time to leave home and start at the sailing school. Although she did have a period in her life when horses were more beautiful than yachts she has now come to her senses and decided to join us over the Atlantic and from the Azores to Europe.









Deckhand Catrine Ingerup

Birthday: 22th October 1986
Hometown: Helsingborg, Sweden
Occupation: Web Designer

As you probably can guess, considering the fact that they have the same surname, she is the captain's kid sister. She was also brought up in a marine environment and she does love sailing but one thing she never took to heart was being in charge of the yacht. That makes her a perfect deckhand, lot's of knowledge but no desire to make any decisions. But one thing she really wants is to sail to Cuba and hopefully we will be able to do that. Catrine will probably join us somewhere in the Caribbean and we will do our best to keep her as a crew member to the Azores.

Hull Length: 9,33 m
Waterline: 6,79 m
Beam: 2,78 m
Draft: 1,70 m
Displacement: 3500 kg

Doing a blue water cruise has been a
dream for the captain since she was sitting on the school ship Gunilla outside Venezuela and thinking about the future. When, how and where were not a part of the picture then, it was all about the possibility of doing it in a much smaller yacht where the crew has more influence of how the life aboard is to be lived and where the stops are going to be. After graduation she talked about the idea with friends from time to time, but there were always other thing that dragged the crew appart. Backpacking, studies, jobs, boyfriends and the fact that they had no yacht made the plans postponed.

Sofia and Maria moved to Gothenburg around the same time to study. They started to take powerwalks and talked about anything from the small village they grew up in to boyfriends. One crisp morning Sofia mentioned that a mutual old date was about to send his yacht in a container to the Caribbean and sail her from there to Sweden. Maria then told her about her dream and Sofia said let's do it. Time passed, Maria graduated and got a nice job at a consulting-firm. Soon after she took up the position the financial crisis started. Being one of the last engaged at the company Maria finds herself redundant and is forced to think about other possible occupations, finding a new job as a surface designer seemed impossible. Sofia is at that moment in Germany as an exchange student. Talking over Skype they discussed their old plan of sailing. Sofia is going to take a year off and travel, perfect, why not make it aboard a yacht. But what yacht? Maria's parents have an old 31 feet yacht, the other times she has brought up the idea they haven't been positive at all but now they suddenly seem ok with it.

The plan is to sail from Sweden to the Caribbean and back again. Right from the beginning we wanted to do this without men, because if we bring a man aboard everybody assumes he's the one in charge. We want to show ourselves that we can do this just aswell if not better! And of course we wan't an adventure! / Maria & Sofia