Event
Consolidating progress
World Sailing’s open days for women are a big success around the world While all host countries have
Out of chaos came direction – and World Sailing encouraged women to take the helm in a post-pandemic movement that continues to make an impact at grassroots levels, worldwide. The biannual Steering the Course festival was hosted at the end of May, and will be hosted again at the beginning of October. Both festivals help launch the respective sailing seasons by encouraging and supporting women to join and thrive in the sailing community. Steering the Course was born from
theWorld Sailing Trust’s Strategic Review intoWomen in Sailing and its associated recommendations. Recommendation #4 was “Increasing participation and creating space for women to compete” andWorld Sailing heeded the call to create a movement that would inspire action around the globe. The international festival was launched off the back of the COVID-19 pandemic, which ultimately provided a strong opportunity to focus locally and kickstart grassroots movements for more women in sailing. While many of the World Sailing Member National Authorities (MNAs) already had their own initiatives in place, the collective Steering the Course Festival provided connection, community, and inspiration from countries all around the world. Since the festival’s launch in
2021, 38 different countries have participated with their own unique
72 SEAHORSE
activities, and this number continues to increase year over year. In 2023, new countries joined the movement – Estonia, Papua New Guinea, Malta and Morocco – which proves that Steering the Course is headed in the right direction. ‘With the support we could
provide, we then hoped to empower programmes, clubs and MNAs to run and deliver activities to suit them, in their areas. We found the range of activities completed incredible, with each participant taking ownership of the activities and seeing some amazing results,’says Catherine Duncan, World Sailing’s training and development executive. The results are outstanding.
Chile saw the participation in their Women’s Nautical Festival increase by more than 50 per cent from 2022 to 2023. St. Vincent and the Grenadines recently held a Women’s Coaching Course to train a group of new women instructors. This then led to 22 new sailors being introduced to the sport through their Steering the Course Vincy Try Sailing event, and a first regatta run solely by women. ‘This has a real lasting impact in a
country, where there is now a model of sustainable coaching and race management. World Sailing’s impact will also be if women and girls know there is a path they can take from participation to other areas such as coaching, instructing, administration and race officiating,’ says Duncan.
Above: World Sailing’s first female coach developers. One key goal of the organisation’s new Steering the Course initiative is for women and girls to know there is a path they can take from participation to other areas such as coaching, instructing, administration and race officiating
taken creative freedom and a local application of their ‘Steering the Course ‘ events, the most popular events and formatting has been the open days, also known as Try Sailing. The National Sailing Academy in Antigua reported that they had so many subscribers in 2021, more open sail days needed to be added, and then eventually the NSA started running a weekly women’s session based on demand. Try Sailing events and
opportunities are not only impactful for entry-level and grassroots initiatives, but also successful models for performance sailing. This year at Foiling Week, event organisers teamed up with international sailing charity, The Magenta Project, to offer Try Foiling opportunities to rising female talent in top foiling boats at the event: from WASZPs and ETFs to 69Fs. These higher-level foiling experiences help build talent and confidence in female foilers so that they can reach the top of our sport. Learn more about Steering the
Course on the World Sailing website, and join them and The Magenta Project in the collective mission to make sailing a more inclusive sport. Support The Magenta Project’s worldwide career development programmes for more equity and inclusion by liking, following or donating to the cause @themagentaproj
www.themagentaproject.org ❑
WORLD SAILING
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125
