Mentorship gets female sailors into multihulls
In a unique mentorship programme, French sponsor Leyton has teamed up with The Magenta Project to select three women to fast-track into elite racing. American Kass Schmitt, Pamela Lee from Ireland and Cassandre Blandin from France will take part in a series of training sessions with Leyton’s skipper, British sailor Sam Goodchild, aboard the team’s Multi50 trimaran.
Multihull racing is one of the hardest areas of professional sailing to break into, and despite producing icons such as Florence Arthaud and Ellen Macarthur, has slipped back to almost complete male dominance. This forward-looking project provides a pathway.
The three women chosen have taken part in training days and offshore workshops, including some hosted by Sam Davies and Thomas Coville.
All three women already have considerable offshore racing experience in the Figaro class or other short-handed races, but in monohulls rather than multihulls. They were chosen from 34 applications from nine countries.
“It is going to give us many tools and will help guide us through the steps of creating a multihull project: the logistics, how a shore crew works, how to handle such a racing machine… It’s also an opportunity to meet other women who share the same passion,” says Cassandre Blandin.