Published July 2025
Story PDF: Anchors Aweigh: Finding a life jacket in the stormy seas of farming life
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Many will remember the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race stopping in Scotland for the first time in its 27-year history last summer. Led by professional skippers, the famous biennial sailing race takes amateur crews on one or more legs of its circumnavigation of the globe and huge crowds gathered to cheer them into Oban last summer.
Farmer Stephen Mackenzie, 57, had more reason than most to welcome the sailors ashore. For the previous November he had waved goodbye to his traditional 700 acres at Auchmore Farm, west of Muir of Ord in Ross-shire, and taken a turn onboard one of the 11 identical vessels. He joined the race in Cape Town, South Africa, and took on legs including Australia, Vietnam, China and finally disembarking and flying, in April 2024, home from Seattle in the United States.
