High-performance sailing has visibility and authority to accelerate change
Russell Coutts, CEO SailGP has – without a doubt – done a marvellous job bringing sail racing to a wider population. But is that helping to bring in the young people (of both genders) needed to stem the demographic time bomb?
During his panel (Insights into SailGP’s latest and future technological developments) and being interviewed by Shirley Robertson (iconic sailor and chair for YRF) – Coutts discussed the growth and evolution of sailing as a sport, with a focus on making it more accessible, commercially viable, and gender-balanced within SailGP.
“What’s really going to drive change is marketing. If we can have a top female athlete winning at the top level, that will change the game,” Coutts believes, underpinning Thompson’s (and – again – every marketing book’s) thesis. “We’ve taken steps by mandating one female athlete on boats, and we’ve seen women’s crews in the America’s Cup and Ocean Race, but it hasn’t created enough change yet.
“What will really change the game is when a young female child getting into sailing sees an aspirational female athlete winning. That will change everything.”
And, of course, that would be nice. But will it change ‘everything’?
As Robertson frequently pointed out during the forum, the room was literally full of rule makers. They could make an immediate and straightforward difference to change ‘everything’ in 2026 without waiting for a top female athlete (who also has to win against social inequity by overcoming unequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and burdens).
At one point in the proceedings Robertson declared: “There is no change and no progress. And it is quite alarming, actually.”
During the Future technological developments session, Alex Reid, SailGP’s director performance engineering, said: “It’s a great thing about SailGP . . . the way that you can make up the rules . . . as you go along.”
At the time he was referring to allowing coaches to speak to the boats, and added propulsion for light wind venues. Surely determining crews need to have more women shouldn’t be that hard?
Shirley Roberston (pictured). Image courtesy of Yacht Racing Forum tick tick tick
What older leaders see as progressive, younger audiences see as inadequate
Thankfully never one to hold back, Frostad recalled his daughter’s experiences visiting SailGP in Cadiz. While he was pleased to see gender inclusion (the one woman per boat mentioned by Coutts), his daughter had naturally expected a 50/50 split.
And that’s the difference in generations. Expectations of parity. Especially when it was often mentioned during YRF that, as a sport, sail racing enjoys a strategic advantage on gender equity.
Frostad says he doesn’t feel that entry-level sailing is an issue these days, but the challenge happens afterwards. He sees a 50-50 gender split in entry-level fleets, but then club races happen in bigger boats and that’s when structural difficulties start.
“Sailing has been run by 65, 70 year olds for a long time. They grew-up in a man’s world.”
Representation, pathways, and mindset change are crucial
Robertson – who was “slightly miffed” that sustainability and gender inequality were being presented together in one panel – says she sees them as very different.
“Sustainability is a problem that we all need to fix around the globe, we need solutions to fix this problem that we’ve all created. And I don’t see that particularly with gender, it’s a mindset.”
tick tick tick 90 | ISSUE 115 | MAR 2026 | THE REPORT
“We need to look very clearly and carefully at ourselves, because we are in a bubble, we’re in a massive bubble and there’s a whole load of other things going on in the world, and I sometimes wonder whether we actually do realise that,” agrees Low.
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