Women sailors creating waves in 2017 Sydney-Hobart yacht race
MORE than 70 years after the first women raced to Hobart the famous ocean race is gearing up for a record wave of female sailors — including six skippers — in the 2017 edition of the bluewater classic.
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MORE than 70 years after the first women raced to Hobart, the famous ocean race is gearing up for a record wave of female sailors — including six skippers — in the 2017 edition of the Bluewater classic.
The inclusion of the Clipper round the world fleet has significantly boosted numbers with 68 women — ranging in age from 24 to 68 — racing south on the 12 Clipper boats which are part of the 107-strong fleet entered for the Boxing Day race.
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While some of our best and brightest sailors — Liz Wardley, Sofia Ciszek, Stacey Jackson and Australian-based Dutch sailor Carolijn Brouwer — will be absent due to their duties aboard Volvo round the world yachts, others will be spotted throughout the fleet, including one of the world’s leading navigators, Adrienne Cahalan, the first female to reach ‘Hobart Hero’ status by contesting her 25th race in 2016.
This year’s event will also boast an all-female crew headed by Lisa Blair and co-skipper Libby Greenhalgh and four other female skippers in Zoe Taylor, Sibby Ilzhofer, Wendy Tuck and Nikki Henderson.
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Taylor, an experienced sailor who bought her 40-footer Grace O’Malley in June so she could race in her second Sydney to Hobart, has put together a top-class crew which includes the likes of 20-race veteran Vanessa Dudley.
“I just wanted to be able to run my own program the way I wanted to run it,’’ said Taylor of her decision to skipper her new yacht. “I’ve have always had success at work when I run my own team.’’
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Tuck, a well-known Sydney to Hobart racer, is skipper of Sanya Serenity Coast and helmed her boat to victory in the last Sydney to Hobart leg of the Clipper race back in 2015.
Henderson is the other Clipper skipper racing this year and is in charge of Visit Seattle.
Blair, the first woman to sail around Antarctica solo, will co-skipper Climate Action Now with British sailor Greenhalgh from the Magenta Project, a group working to accelerate women in sailing and industry.
This will be the first all-female crew in the Sydney to Hobart in 16 years with four inexperienced sailors chosen from 170 applications joining four experienced women aboard.
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“One of the things which is a trend for women in sailing is you are often stuck in the cockpit,’’ Blair said. “We want to give them roles outside there, like doing the bow and steering.’’
The Jane Tate Memorial trophy is up for grabs for the first female skipper to Hobart and is in memory of the first woman to finish the 1946 race — the first women sailed and a year after the inaugural event.