Six of the world’s most accomplished women sailors recently raced solo around the world on giant, 60ft foiling IMOCA monohulls in the Vendée Globe, hitting speeds of up to 40 knots, shattering records and stamping their mark on the sport.

Justine Mettraux was the first woman to cross the line, finishing eighth out of 40 competitors, closely followed by Clarisse Crémer (11th) and Samantha Davies (13th). Mettraux is now the fastest ever female solo monohull sailor around the world and her record 76-day circumnavigation beat the previous record by 12 days.

The world of offshore sailing has traditionally been a male-dominated arena, but with only six women in a field of 40, we must ask, are the barriers to women’s participation in elite sailing still too high? How can we support women and girls in club sailing to take it up as a career?

‘The wonderful thing about the IMOCA class is it’s the only class where men and women compete on equal terms,’ Vendée competitor Pip Hare tells YM. ‘And when we cross the start line, we’re all sailors. I never feel anything other than respect from my fellow competitors.

‘When I was a sailing instructor on the Solent in the nineties, there were three women in the whole of the Solent working professionally. That has really changed, particularly in the last 10 years.’

Fostering inclusivity

‘Early on in my career,’ adds Hare, ‘I was constantly being challenged, constantly being forced to validate my own right to be a skipper, to be on the race course. As an instructor, I had people who didn’t want to get on a boat with me because they really struggled to have a female instructor. That’s why I felt the need to validate and to assert my rights to be in a position when others just walk through the door and are accepted. Even now there is this unconscious bias.’

The challenges faced by women in the sport reflect broader societal issues and although there are now more opportunities for women, the struggle for acceptance and recognition as equals is ongoing.

‘I think there is definitely an imbalance in sailing with women in the sport in general,’ says Francesca Clapcich, Olympic athlete and winner of The Ocean Race.

‘I feel that it’s not only in sailing. You know, it’s pretty much the nature of a lot of sports in reality, unless you’re a very experienced sailor who has been on the team for a really long time. Adding to that, if you’re female, it can be quite tricky to actually get a chance to do a lot of the roles on the boat,’ she says, interviewed in Musto’s Evening The Keel documentary.

Achieving equality is complex, as it involves not just providing opportunities but also changing perceptions and attitudes.

‘I feel optimistic about our sport and how it is encouraging inclusivity and adapting to a changing landscape. We have opened the door to change, but I do not feel we have moved past the doorpost,’ Dee Caffari MBE, chair of the World Sailing Trust tells YM.

‘It does not happen naturally yet, but I am sure given time and the new generation of male sailors that are more open and comfortable with the idea of competing alongside their female peers, we will see change for the better.’ Dee was the first woman to sail single-handed, non-stop around the world in both directions.

Allies in common

‘Until then, we need to keep mandating rules to encourage inclusivity and force the change to happen. We need to create pathways to give young women the opportunities and the inspiration to see what is possible and we need the allyship from our male sailors to help speed up the process,’ she concludes.

The World Sailing Trust has worked hard to address the gender imbalance in sailing. It carried out a Strategic Review of Women in Sailing in 2019, launched Project Juno in 2023 to better support maternity policies in sailing and in 2024 initiated a Gender Design Survey to show how the design and function of sailing equipment can have an impact on female performance and safety.

Bold steps have also been taken by some sailing organisations to foster inclusivity, triggering a chain reaction that should create more opportunities for women in sailing.

Indeed 2024 was a landmark year with gender parity in numbers of sailors competing in the 2024 Olympics; the first women’s America’s Cup in its 173-year history; and Maiden, the all-female team coached by Tracy Edwards MBE, won the Ocean Globe Race around the world.

But as we celebrate these successes, we should also recognise why creating women-specific opportunities to progress in sailing is necessary.

A significant milestone was a decision by the Volvo Ocean Race (The Ocean Race from 2019) in the 2017-18 edition to create a new rule for all teams to include at least one woman. Many skippers were initially sceptical, but as male and female sailors worked side-by-side and built mutual respect, attitudes have shifted dramatically, although there are calls for teams to be properly mixed. The rules now mandate mixed teams in both the VO65 and the IMOCA classes.

The Magenta Project stands out as a beacon of progress. Born from the success of Team SCA’s all-female sailing team in the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, the project aims to achieve gender parity and greater diversity in sailing through skills clinics, mentorship, networking and experience on board high-performance yachts.

Sailing and motherhood

‘Sorority and women empowering other females have really changed the dynamics of sailing,’ Justine Mettraux tells YM. ‘I feel this especially as a mentor for the Magenta Project. It gave women opportunities they would normally never have.

‘I believe all-female projects and teams are an accelerator for women to move into positions in the industry, either earlier in their careers or later on.
It’s truly an accelerator for that.’

One of the greatest challenges for women is how to combine a career with motherhood, particularly in offshore sailing. The issue was catapulted to the top of the agenda in 2022 when Clarisse Crémer, the fastest woman to sail around the world in the 2020-21 Vendée Globe, was abandoned by her main sponsor after giving birth to her daughter in November 2022.

Crémer was dropped by Banque Populaire, which assumed that motherhood would prevent her from sufficient participation in races to ensure her qualification for the Vendée Globe 2024. The move sparked outrage across the sailing world and beyond.

‘Obviously, the worst moment of my professional career was when I lost my previous sponsor and that I realised my Vendée Globe campaign was not going to happen the way I wanted to,’ Crémer told the Musto documentary.

‘No one is officially against the fact that women can have babies and do the Vendée Globe, or have very ambitious professional goals.

‘But sometimes you have to take this specificity of pregnancy into account, and you have to organise things so that it is possible to happen, and this is not accepted by everyone.

‘What has happened to me highlights that having a baby doesn’t have the same consequences for men and women, and it will never have the same consequences because it happens in our bodies.

‘I wanted to start talking about this difficult subject because I was not willing to imagine a world in 20 years time that would be exactly the same for my little girl.’

Crémer started campaigning, saying that no one should have to choose between having a family and a sailing career, and leading by example. She raced in the Vendée Globe with the words ‘Race for Equity’ stamped across her sails.

Her campaign bore fruit and the Vendée changed the qualifying rules for the 2028 race, allowing a race discard, which meant sailors need not compete in certain races and skippers could be away from the circuit for a given period, enough time to take a maternity break.

Article continues below…

What makes a good team?

‘Offshore sailing and being a mum is possible,’ says Sam Davies in the Musto documentary. ‘I try really hard to show that it’s possible because I believe it is. Just doing what I do is not easy, but doing what I do and being a mum makes it a little bit more complicated.’

Anje-Marijcke van Boxtel, organisational psychologist and executive team coach in The Ocean Race, explains how our brains are hard-wired to connect with people who think like us, who see challenges the same way, and who make similar decisions. This familiarity feels comfortable, so we naturally resist novelty and change.

Stereotyping, as she puts it, ‘is our brain’s autopilot – it’s efficient. One big downside is that we end up buying into the “team of clones” idea, surrounding ourselves with people who think, act, and look just like us. The more cognitively and experientially diverse your team is, the more agile and adaptable you become because you can cover a full spectrum of perspectives and skills.

‘You’re more creative and innovative because of the range in capabilities, thinking styles, behaviours, experiences, and backgrounds – all of which ultimately allow you to tackle more complex challenges,’ says Anje.

‘The first step is to break down those stereotypes and retrain your brain,’ she says.

‘Find a common ground where you can collaborate beyond those surface-level assumptions. What you need to do is dive into all those differences and take two steps. First, be genuinely curious about each other’s drives and motivations – that’s how you build trust. When you do understand each other’s intentions, trust grows naturally. Don’t just show interest in the motivations of a new female crewmember – make it a team effort.

‘Create opportunities for everyone to connect on a personal level. Simple, active exercises where team members share what brought them to the team or what drives them can quickly build bonds. That shared understanding is essential because trust is built when people feel genuinely known and valued.’

What can you do?

Media, organisations, race committees, sponsors and sailing clubs have the greater platform to implement change. The load must be shared – starting from the youth sailing section at your local club all the way up to the America’s Cup.

‘The world is changing. I can see it and I am really happy to see the change, but it’s a slow journey,’ says Pip Hare.

And what is it that we, as cruising sailors, need to do? We all need to look hard at our assumptions and question any allocation of roles on board that are automatically assigned. Everyone should have direct experience of all roles for safety and for greater enjoyment, so nothing is a mystery in a crisis.

‘What I do think matters is that it should feel normal for a woman to go sailing, if she chooses. I want to get past a time when it’s considered exceptional in any area of the sport. Obviously we haven’t got there yet, but it may be coming,’ says Julia Jones, author of Stars to Steer By, Celebrating the 20th Century Women who went to Sea.

Women need to summon the confidence to insist on the chance to skipper. Take the boat out on your own or with your own choice of crew, go on courses, find female friends you can train up as crew, consider buying or chartering your own boat.

We should strive to ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have the same opportunities to have a go at sailing or even just helming that we offer to our sons and grandsons.

Who knows, encouraged and inspired by your love of sailing, they might just go on to become the first Olympian in your family.

Sailor profiles

Dee Caffari MBE

Chair of the World Sailing Trust, Dee Caffari has sailed around the world six times. She is the first woman to have sailed singlehanded and non-stop around the world in both directions and the only woman to have sailed non-stop around the world a total of three times.

‘As Chair of the World Sailing Trust, I was very proud of the work myself and the trustees achieved. One of the strongest pieces of work we undertook was the Strategic Review into Women in Sailing. This was back in 2019, and it produced nine recommendations, one of which was to increase female participation in our sport and create a safe space for women to compete.

‘We need to keep mandating rules to encourage inclusivity and force the change to happen. We need to create pathways to give young women the opportunities and the inspiration to see what is possible and we need the allyship from our male sailors to help speed up the process.’

Justine Mettraux

Justine Mettraux has been making headlines for all the right reasons. Her latest achievement saw her finish eighth overall in the Vendée Globe, becoming the first woman to cross the line in 76 days, 1 hour, 36 minutes, and 52 seconds, beating the previous record by Clarisse Crémer by 12 days.

Even more impressive? Justine was considered a rookie going into the race, despite having three crewed round-the-world races under her belt – including winning the last edition of The Ocean Race. And she only began solo IMOCA sailing two years ago.

As she crossed the finish line, Justine held up a sign that read, ‘Thanks to my team’. Reflecting on her journey, she said, ‘The boat is tired, the skipper too, but I’m really happy with the work done by the team.’

But Justine’s impact goes beyond the water. A passionate advocate for equal pay in professional sailing, she speaks out for fairness in the sport she loves. Justine proves that with hard work, resilience, and the right team behind you, even the most daunting challenges can be overcome.

Anje-Marijcke van Boxtel

Anje-Marijcke van Boxtel is an organisational psychologist, executive team coach in business and sports who earned her stripes as a mental coach in The Ocean Race. The sailing industry is making waves for women in the sport, with progress showcased in the Vendée Globe, The Ocean Race, America’s Cup, Athena Pathways, SailGP, and The Magenta Project. But what’s the common thread?

‘All demand intelligence, adaptability, and growth in high-pressure environments. Success isn’t just about individual performance – it’s about team dynamics. While I wish change could happen organically, quotas are, unfortunately, necessary to speed things up.

‘The real goal should be to foster cognitive and experiential diversity, with inclusive leadership that values every voice – I don’t like to frame it as a male versus female teamwork. My hope is to drive progress without further polarising the conversation.’

Women in sailing initiatives

RYA – Reflections on Water

An initiative to meet the sailors, coaches and groups that are making a difference in sailing. Led by the Together on Water strategy, the RYA is on a mission to make our waters a welcoming space for all.

The Magenta Project

The Magenta Project is an award-winning global charity, created to build a sustainable network and programme to ensure more equity and inclusion for women in our sport.

Sunsail with The Magenta Project

Sunsail partners with charity The Magenta Project in a sailing initiative designed to encourage more women to pursue sailing, compete in yacht racing and consider careers in the marine industry.

British Offshore Sailing School

Twice a year, BOSS runs five-day women-only courses. Sailing with other women as part of a crew, many women find that their learning is enhanced, and self-confidence given a real boost.

Second Star Sailing

Women at the Helm offers training in a supportive learning environment with female instructors to foster women’s sailing skills as well as an apprenticeship programme. www. secondstarsailing.com/women-at-the-helm

UpWind by MerConcept

UpWind aims to get a female skipper on the Ocean 50 start line of the next Route du Rhum race. The programme will provide female sailors with racing opportunities at the highest levels, racing for the next two years in the Ocean Fifty offshore trimaran circuit, including a west-to-east transatlantic race.

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