Burling and Tuke embrace womanpower
Six of New Zealand’s top women’s sailors are vying for a place on the SailGP team headed by Peter Burling and Blair Tuke.
Once Burling and Tuke complete their America’s Cup programme with Team New Zealand in March their attention will quickly turn to the 50-foot foiling catamarans and the global circuit that New Zealand will join starting in April.
SailGP, headed by New Zealand yachting great Sir Russell Coutts, is dedicated to improving diversity and getting women crew involved is a priority.
The New Zealand process is already under way with Alex Maloney, Molly Meech, Gemma Jones, Jo Aleh, Liv Mackay and Erica Dawson attending a training camp at Manly, north of Auckland, last weekend to begin a selection system.
Two will be chosen to go to a Bermuda training camp on the F50 catamarans in April, and one woman will then be named to join the New Zealand SailGP crew that is headed by Burling and Tuke.
Meech, who won a silver medal with Maloney at the last Olympics in Rio on the 49erFX skiff to go with their 2013 world championship, sees the move as boosting a professional pathway for women sailors.
‘‘As soon as SailGP came out and said this was part of their vision for the future I got quite excited,’’ Meech told Stuff.
‘‘Having the best sailors around the world competing in similar boats . . . it’s an awesome circuit and any opportunity to be involved is really cool.
‘‘This is the start of it and it will be really exciting to see where it goes, having females involved. But it’s awesome to see a pathway post-Olympics.
‘‘It will be a steep learning curve for all of us, but we’re up for the challenge.’’
Meech and Maloney have a juggling act, already being named in the New Zealand Olympic team for this year’s postponed Games in Tokyo. They are not alone in that department. Dawson is also in the Olympic mix, sailing the foiling Nacra17 catamaran while Burling and Tuke will defend gold in the 49er.
The F50 catamaran has a fiveperson crew with two dedicated grinders. The boat has been modified from the design used in the 2017 America’s Cup in Bermuda.
It’s likely the female involvement will come on the wheel, trimming the wing sail, or controlling the foils – all highly technical roles.
There’s mixed experience in terms of foiling among the women’s squad but huge ability abounds and Tuke is adamant this is the start of something big for women’s sailing in professional terms.
‘‘I think we’re pretty fortunate here in New Zealand, we have a great talent pool of world-class women sailors,’’ Tuke said.
‘‘They have all proven to be fast learners and with the right opportunity they can step up.
‘‘Give them time on the boat in a training environment to begin with in those key roles . . . this is just the start really. The league and this New Zealand team are pretty driven to make sure it works and that we get some good results.
‘‘With professional sailing,
there hasn’t been opportunities there for them. I think we are lucky starting this team . . . it’s a great chance for us to imbed them in the team from the outset and try and close that gender gap and ultimately get them more experienced. With the higher skill levels, that will give them opportunities in the future.’’
The six women were sailing the small single-person foiling Waszp boats last weekend. It will be a big step up to deal with the speed of the foiling catamarans that have gone past the 50 knots mark. While ultimately only one woman will make the cut, Tuke sees this as an ongoing exercise.
‘‘Once we get to the F50s, we have to see who has the broadest skill set because it is new for a lot of them,’’ Tuke said.
‘‘But we’d like to keep this group and a wider group going to keep that connection and a transfer of knowledge rolling.’’
Burling and Tuke are also using the
SailGP platform as an opportunity to promote their environmental cause Live Ocean.
‘‘We want to win races but keep having a positive impact on the ocean and start making some change,’’ he said.
SailGP’s ambitious 2021-22 season takes in regattas in Bermuda, Italy, Great Britain, Denmark, France, Spain and the United States with other destinations to be added, including the possibility of New Zealand.
Last year’s circuit was cancelled after the opening event in Sydney as the Covid-19 pandemic spread around the globe and the new season will surely be threatened.
‘‘It will be a steep learning curve for all of us, but we’re up for the challenge.’’
Molly Meech