All professional, all women, this crew are trailblazers with victory in their sights
When Stacey Jackson and her crew start in the Sydney to Hobart at 1pm Wednesday they have more than equality in their sights - they are eyeing victory.
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When Stacey Jackson and her crew start in the Sydney to Hobart at 1pm Wednesday they will be following in the footsteps of two intrepid women who set sail south at exactly the same time 73 years ago.
Like Jane Tate and Dagmar O’Brien - the first women to race to Tasmania a year after the inaugural event in 1945 - Jackson and her Ocean Respect Racing team will be trailblazing as the first fully professional women’s team.
That means they are being paid for their talent, skills and time like most sailors aboard top-notch Sydney to Hobart racers in a sport renown for its blokieness.
Their numbers are compelling. Sixty eight Sydney to Hobart’s between them along with 21 laps of the world gives this crew serious street and ocean cred.
And instead of whingeing about lack of opportunity for female sailors they are instead getting on with creating their own opportunities.
The first part of the plan is for Jackson and her crew to make an indelible mark on the race.
Rather than just being just the 11th women’s crew to compete in a Sydney to Hobart since the first in 1975, they want their names penned in history as the first to win it overall aboard the 66-footer Wild Oats X.
“This is a crew of top sailors, with probably more experience than most other boats and the goal is to win,” says Jackson of her Ocean Respect Racing team also working to promote ocean health and reduce plastic consumption.
“Of course it will be weather dependant but we have the team to do it if it works in our favour.”
It’s a lofty but attainable goal for a remarkable crew boasting some of the most sound and experienced sailors in the race.
“The boat has a good track record, good IRC rating, we have good sailors, we have done our preparation,” says Jackson whose aim is to encourage and increase female representation in sailing and to promote ocean health and sustainability.
“We have tough women on-board who can handle any condition.
“Hopefully this shows there is a place for women in professional sailing.”
Another objective is to make the sport step up and acknowledge winds of change need to be more in line with a southerly buster than a light and fickle breeze.
Jackson, 35, who has sailed aboard top racers including the supermaxi Wild Oats X1 and Black Jack, says she could not say 100 per cent if her entire crew would have picked up rides south if she had not formed the team.
And if they did jump aboard, would they be taken seriously and doing serious roles?
It’s hard to know.
“Maybe everyone would have got a ride, the ones willing to go without pay,” says two-time world sailor of the year Carolyn Brouwer, who is racing south with Jackson on the boat backed by 11th Hour Racing and with former foreign minister Julie Bishop as its ambassador.
Jackson, Brouwer and crew mate Sophie Ciszek raced together in the all-women’s Team SCA in the 2014-2015 Volvo round the world race - and won a leg - before competing as part of mixed teams in the latest edition.
A new rule was introduced for the most recent Volvo race which allowed teams additional numbers if mixed.
The change meant all-male crews would be restricted to seven sailors and at a disadvantage over mixed teams which could comprise eight, nine or 10 crew. All eventually opted for the second option.
While the rule effectively mandated women should be included, it was still hailed as watershed moment for women in sailing and the sport at large.
The women themselves have mixed feelings about the change.
Ciszek says she disliked the feeling they were being forced on the men, but at the same time acknowledging it was creating an expanded and more experienced pool of female sailors for the future.
“There wasn’t going to be an all-women’s race so if there hadn’t been any women it would have meant we had to start from zero again,” Jackson says.
“In a way it is upsetting we had to have a rule but what it did was change things.
“They made it more beneficial to take women. At first a lot didn’t respond but as it went forward everyone had at least three on their crew.
“It has created a big pool of experience.”
Jackson says it has been a benchmark year for women in sport with surfing finally introducing prize parity for men and women, big wins for Australian women cricketers on and off the field and the success of new competitions like the NRL and AFL women’s competitions.
She hopes she and her crew will trigger further change by showing the community there are numerous women whose skill, talent and professionalism makes them ideal crew.
“Sailing is still a step behind some other sports but there’s no reason to assume you need men to sail well,” Jackson says.
Ichi Ban skipper and president of Australian Sailing Matt Allen, along with vice president Sarah Kenny, have been at the forefront of a big push in the Olympic arena towards gender equity and parity in the sport.
Both Jackson and Ciszek have been part of Allen’s campaigns in the past with the Sydney to Hobart veteran one of the men behind the successful push to have an offshore mixed class on the 2024 Olympic sailing program.
“In Paris seven out of 10 classes will involve a women,” Allen said
“We hope this gender balance will flow through the sport.”
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