Yachts & Yachting — March 2018

RICK TOMLINSON

Tracy Edwards was the first woman

to race in the Whitbread in 1986 along

with 17 men, then sailed the 1989 race

with her own boat the 58-foot Maiden

with an all-female crew. She says: “Men

and women have been sailing together

for a long time. I skippered Maiden II,

the 102-foot catamaran in 2000. We had

six girls from Royal Sun Alliance and

the Jules Verne attempt, and then we

took on six lads, so we had the world’s

first ever fully mixed professional

record breaking project and we were

hugely successful. We broke the 24-hour

record. Everyone really complimented

each other. It was the best and happiest

team I have ever sailed with.

“Men and women aren’t better or

worse than each other. We have different

qualities, so you throw 50:50 into the mix

and you have the best of both worlds.

“I think there is still a place for

all-female crews, such as the Magenta

Project is putting together; it’s a safe

environment for young women to learn

in. Those are fantastic learning platforms

for women; extraordinary women are

giving up their time to make sure the

youngsters are finding their feet and

getting those miles under their belts,

so they can get on the mixed crews.”

Dawn Riley, the two-time Whitbread

sailor who sailed in three America’s

Cups, believes that coaching is critical

to breaking down barriers. “It is the

coach making the decision and not an

individual guy or girl. It is important

to have women in leadership in those

senior and other junior coaching roles.

She adds: “The final frontier is to

have more female boat owners. It’s

incredibly important to have female

boat owners who want to make

decisions and want to go racing.”

CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

The youngest veteran to give her

perspective is Katie Pettibone, who

at 19 sailed on EF Education, and

then Amer-2, has competed in three

America’s Cups and is contemplating

a second Nacra 17 campaign.

Although it’s now less a novelty and

more the norm to see women competing

offshore, she feels there’s still a way to

go. “We are not seeing many women

on the mains or strategists or tacticians

or even bow – and that troubles me, as

professionally you need to be in those

positions to jump up to the Cup or the

Volvo.” Despite that, she is optimistic

about widespread change. “I think that

Mark Turner’s incentivisation was just

brilliant. He was phenomenally ahead of

the curve, going where the International

Olympic Committee and the corporate

boards are heading. The fact that he did

it in a way that makes performance sense

is fantastic. Increasingly corporations

are going to want to sponsor projects

that look like their workforces or their

employees and what they are about.

I do think if corporate sponsorship

is what you are looking for you are

going to see diversity on the boats.

“It’s important to have corporate

sponsors for both women’s and mixed

teams in the feeder type events,

and it is important to have teams

with women in the management

positions and not just on the boats.”

Back to Greenhalgh, who when not

racing, is one of the Magenta Project

directors. “To be the best, you must

sail with the best so obviously sailing

in the mixed teams is going to benefit

the women in the race. As part of

Above

Team SCA

opened the door

to offshore for

many current VOR

sailors; but do

all-female teams

remain relevant?

March 2018 Yachts & Yachting 21