Boat nameAviva - Gaes

Launched in December 2007, Dee’s purpose-built race boat, Aviva, was designed by Merfyn Owen of Owen Clarke Design and constructed by Hakes Marine in Wellington, New Zealand.

As part of the technical alliance with Mike Golding’s Ecover team, Aviva shared the same design as Ecover III and two near identical boats were built. The alliance included the sharing of data during the boat building process and a period of two-boat test sailing that helped to optimise the set up of each of the yachts and enabled both skippers to gain invaluable experience in extracting the best performance from the complex yachts.

Dee Caffari, the first woman to sail non-stop alone around the world in the wrong direction, sailed this boat to sixth place in the 2008-2009 Vendée Globe.

It was on board her that Dee set a new Round Britain and Ireland record in 2009 with a completely female crew including Samantha Davies, Alex Sizer and Miranda Merron. It was also in 2009 that Aviva finished fifth in the Rolex Fastnet Race and eighth in the Transat Jacques Vabre, with Brian Thompson.

In 2010, she was skippered by the only female crew in the Barcelona World Race, made up of Dee Caffari and Anna Corbella, and finished in sixth place of the Barcelona World Race, under the colours of Gaes Centros Auditivos.

Aviva is now for sale: see full details