Sydney to Hobart yacht race: Skipper Zoe Taylor turns to female pirate Grace O’Malley for inspiration
WHEN former investment banker Zoe Taylor decided to quit her job she kickstarted a journey that on Boxing Day will see her skipper her own yacht in the 73rd Sydney to Hobart.
Other Sports
Don't miss out on the headlines from Other Sports. Followed categories will be added to My News.
- Sydney-Hobart skipper: I thought, this is the end
- Julia's slice of history on supermaxi
- Romantic proposal at end of race
WHEN former investment banker Zoe Taylor decided to quit her job she kickstarted a journey that on Boxing Day will see her skipper her own yacht in the 73rd Sydney to Hobart.
It’s a journey that has also seen the now 40-year-old admirer of 16th century pirate Grace O’Malley sail two-handed across the world, work on super yachts in exotic locations and take on a job as a deckie aboard Rupert Murdoch’s old yacht Morning Glory when owned by former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
TOKYO: Aussie surfers ready for Olympic challenge
2017 RACE WRAP: Highs, lows and the big blow
“They had though I was bloke so when I tuned up they got quite a shock. But it all worked out in the end. I ended up being the first female to work for him,” Taylor said.
She’s also worked in the construction industry and now finally in a job she loves as a director with global energy management giant, Schneider Electric.
“When I quit my job my mother said I was ruining my life,” Taylor said.
“But I wanted to sail round the world. I wanted the adventure, to navigate, to experience every part of it.”
SUPERMAXI CENTRAL: Big race on the cards in 2018
Taylor purchased her credentialed Cookson 40-footer in June and since then has done most of the maintenance on it herself while recruiting a well-respected crew, including 22-race veteran Vanessa Dudley.
She also named it after a women who inspires her in O’Malley.
“She was an adventure and she was also a pretty smart businesswoman,” Taylor said.
“She was passionate and driven and really loved the water.
“It is still basically a man’s world. But there are positions on the boat that don’t just require just strength, like being a steerer, a trimmer and a navigator. “
“And she’s like me, she doesn’t believe in gender barriers.”
In a sport where women are actually considered unlucky by superstitious mariners, there have been plenty of barriers to vault for women.
Amanda Wilmot, a veteran of the race and skipper of an all-female crew in 1995, knows how hard it has been for woman to make a mark.
“Females can sail all season with a team and coming up to the Hobart you would get eased for some bloke. It didn’t happen to me but I saw it happen to others,” she said.
“Many of the older guys would have women on boats but then the women got eased because the wives of the men though the women sailors would steal their husband.
“So in some respects it was women holding other women back.
Dudley has sailed for a number of years on the supermaxi Ragamuffin and an assortment of top handicap boats.
“It is complicated. I have sailed with so many great guys who have never had a beef against women. Guys who like sailing and like us because love it so much too. I’ve sailed with many inclusive people,” said Dudley, a respected steerer who has sailed in all-female teams previously but prefers mixed crews.
“But there’s that thing - I don’t know how it might have been if wasn’t so male dominated
.
“There is no denying it’s an extremely male dominated sport. I have just found a way, because I love sailing, to find opportunities.
“There is good change coming. I just though there would be more (women) by now though.”
The 73rd Sydney to Hobart boasts strong numbers of female sailors thanks to the inclusion of 11 Clipper round the world yachts who have 68 women in their teams.
There are six female skippers, with Lisa Blair and Libby Greenhalgh co-skippering the all-women’s crew on Climate Action Now.
With top women including Liz Wardley, Sophie Ciszek and Stacey Jackson currently competing in the Volvo Ocean race and multiple race winning navigator Adrienne Cahalan on the veteran yacht Dorade this year, LDV Comanche is the only supermaxi with a woman aboard (Julia Cooney).
Two of the Clipper skippers are women - one is Australian Wendy Tuck - and there are numerous other women in key positions on boats throughout the fleet.
“It is a weird sort of pastime, this. You sit in the rain, the cold, for hours wondering why you are doing it and the next minute something happens and it becomes awesome,” Dudley said.
“It’s why we all do it. Men and women.”