Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza

Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza was born to be an art collector and ocean activist. Her father, Baron Hans Heinrich, owned one of the world’s finest art collections – his trove of treasures was surpassed only by Queen Elizabeth II, and Thyssen-Bornemisza recalls touring the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg in 1982, viewing Matisses and van Goghs in candlelit basements as her father negotiated an exhibition. He also kept a yacht in Monaco’s Port Hercules, so it comes as no surprise that Thyssen-Bornemisza followed suit in both respects once she reached adulthood.

Her own yachting odyssey began in Venice. “You probably know Johnny Pigozzi?” she asks, referring to the madcap collector of African and Japanese art. “Johnny said: ‘The whole point of having a boat is to take it to the far ends of the world. And where you want to go is Greenland.’” Thyssen-Bornemisza took a long lease on , a 121ft Vitters explorer she found “lingering neglected in a harbor in Barcelona” which she still rents on a long-term basis for her research projects. The vessel had form, as it had already circumnavigated the globe.