SailGP and a new Multi 50 campaign are both pushing gender equality to the fore as these racing programmes try to create space for women at the top of our sportPhoto: David Gray for SailGPAs part of a remix for this second full season of the foiling world-spanning race series, SailGP, each of the eight teams are to add one female athlete per team. Teams will be incentivised to include female athletes in rotation for \u2018active roles\u2019 and to include women in the sixth position, progressing to \u2018practice and\/or training in key roles\u2019.
\nThe Danish team announced early there will be two women in its squad, including Anne-Marie Rindom, a two-time World Champion and Olympic medalist.
\nPhoto: Craig Greenhill for SailGP
\nThe SailGP circuit, launched by Russell Coutts with backing from Larry Ellison, is an annual international series with similarities to the America\u2019s Cup World Series, but sailed in foiling F50 catamarans. It features many big names from the America\u2019s Cup, a competition which has not seen a women sailor on any team since America3\u2019s Mighty Mary 26 years ago in 1995.
\nThe SailGP Gender Equity Initiative is intended to \u2018fast-track the development of top female sailors to race on F50s and perform at the highest level\u2019.
\nTo help achieve this, SailGP has set up a women\u2019s committee which includes three-time Olympian and Ocean Race winner Carolijn Brouwer, Maria del Mar de Ros, CEO of Spain\u2019s SailGP team and Emily Nagel, former Ocean Race crew member and data analyst specialist.
\n\u201cThis is a big step forward for women in professional sailing,\u201d Brouwer comments. \u201cSailGP is creating the opportunity for high-performance female sailors to compete alongside their male peers, in the world\u2019s most advanced sailing league.
\n\u201cThis type of initiative will allow us to achieve true gender equity in the future.\u201d
\nThe teams are headed by some of the top names in racing. Peter Burling and Blair Tuke lead a team from New Zealand. Jimmy Spithill has newly taken the role of helm for a refreshed US team, Nathan Outteridge the Japanese challenge, Tom Slingsby the Australian team (and reigning champion) and Ben Ainslie leads the British team. There are also teams from Denmark and Spain for the series which began with the first SailGP regatta of this second full season in Bermuda at the end of April.
\nAhead of this first event, New Zealand\u2019s SailGP team announced that sailors Liv Mackay and Erica Dawson would be \u2018immersed in their team\u2019 for at least the opening event in Bermuda.
\nSam Goodchild\u2019s Leyton x Magenta programme will be developing opportunities for women sailors. Photo: Yann Riou\/polaRYSE
\nElsewhere in sailing
\nMeanwhile, the super-talented all-rounder Sam Goodchild, who is now heading up the Multi 50 campaign Leyton, is to offer opportunities to women sailors.
\nOrganised in partnership with the , a charity dedicated to developing opportunities for women sailors, the Leyton x Magenta programme will comprise three-day clinics for aspiring offshore sailors which was held in France in April. It was open to \u2018all female sailors keen to pursue a career in offshore sailing, in particular multihulls.\u2019
\nTwo additional clinics are planned in July and September in France and the UK.
\n\u201cI know how hard it is to break into sailing, especially the offshore multihull class. There are some great female sailors out there that just need to get that lucky break and we are hoping that, through this process, we will be able to find sailors that could, in the future, join our team,\u201d says Goodchild.<\/p>\n
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SailGP and a new Multi 50 campaign are both pushing gender equality to the fore as these racing programmes try to create space for women at the top of our sportPhoto: David Gray for SailGPAs part of a remix for … <\/p>\n