Female sailors excited for America’s Cup opportunity
When two-time Olympian Lisa Darmanin’s cousin and sailing partner Jason Waterhouse was offered a gig with a Japanese America’s Cup team in 2016, she also got a job – making media videos and working in the hospitality suite talking to guests and “fluffing pillows”.
The doors that opened for Waterhouse in the male-dominated world of the America’s Cup were not ajar for his cousin at the time.
When Waterhouse, a new father, was offered another job for this America’s Cup cycle with Alinghi, it meant he had to sacrifice his Nacra 17 campaign – one male and one female crew – with Darmanin for the Paris Olym
pics. The mixed class had already reaped a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, a top five in Tokyo and could well
have delivered a gold in the waters of Marseille.
“It was his dream come true and I was so proud of him,” Darmanin said of Waterhouse’s career move. “But at the same time I was devastated as well.”
Almost a year to the day after they last sailed together in an Olympic class regatta, Darmanin and 12 other Australian women and young male sailors have been confirmed as the Team Australia Challenge sailors for the 2024 America’s Cup.
The squad will be split between the inaugural women’s and under-25 Youth America’s Cup regattas in Barcelona in September and October on the head-turning AC40 foiling monohulls, with Australia II skipper John Bertrand a patron of the campaign.
“Now I’m going to be involved in racing this supersonic boat,” said Darmanin. It’s a dream come true. The pendulum has finally swung our way
“All we ever wanted was an opportunity and now we have one.”
Joining Darmanin in the women’s team will be London 2012 Olympic silver medallist crewmate Olivia Price, who will also be racing at the Paris Olympics in the 29erfx, and Nina Curtis, who is with the Australian team on the Sailgp circuit.
None were even born when Australia won the America’s Cup.
Curtis still struggles to find the words to describe where she is heading later this year.
“As a young sailor I dreamed of the America’s Cup but I knew it was a near impossibility as a female,” she said.
“To do this as the first team of women and under the Australian flag means more than I can say.”