James, Dame Naomi (1949-…), a New Zealand yachtswoman, was the first woman to sail around the world single-handed by way of Cape Horn. She accomplished this feat between Sept. 9, 1977, and June 8, 1978, sailing her 53-foot (16.15-meter) yacht Express Crusader from the English port of Dartmouth, Devon, and back again in one of the fastest times ever recorded. In 1979, her historic journey was recognized when Queen Elizabeth II made her a Dame Commander of the British Empire. James recorded her exploit in two books, Woman Alone (1978) and At One with the Sea (1979). She also wrote At Sea on Land: Homecoming 78 to Ostar 80 (1981), an account of her participation in a 1980 trans-Atlantic race.
James was born on March 2, 1949, in Rotorua, New Zealand. Her maiden name was Naomi Christine Power. She was educated at Rotorua Girls’ High School. In 1976, she married the British yachtsman Robert James. Robert James drowned in a sailing accident in 1983, 10 days before the birth of the couple’s daughter, Lois. In 1990, Dame Naomi married the Canadian lawyer Eric G. Haythorne.
