It's not a quota rule, but the new crew regulations for the 13th edition of the Volvo Ocean Race offer professional female sailors the best chance to get started since the premiere in 1973. The Volvo Ocean Race has changed its regulations to finally offer women the opportunity to learn at the highest level and thus also to catch up with the men in professional sailing. Various brainteasers have been added to incentivise women to form their ideal crew. The following combinations are permitted for the most famous team regatta around the world in 2017/2018:
A) 7 men
B) 7 men and 1 or 2 women
C) 7 women and 1 or 2 men
D) 5 men and 5 women
E) 11 women
The game options are expanded by allowing future teams to change the combinations from stage to stage. They will be restricted by the requirement that the crew of a harbour race may not change compared to the offshore stage before or after. The new regulations still allow all-male crews, but they will be so severely limited in the coming edition with only seven men that they will think more than once about actually choosing this option.
Volvo Ocean Race winner Ian Walker says: "It would be very hard to race with only seven people on a Volvo Ocean 65 against teams of eight or nine. The new rule will almost certainly force teams to recruit women. This will provide a great platform for learning. If female ocean sailors ever want to compete at the same level as the best in the world, they need to train and race with the best."
The debate about better opportunities for women in international offshore sailing flared up after the participation of the SCA women's team, which had initially made a disappointing start to the last ocean marathon with a huge budget and intensive preparation, but was able to win a leg towards the end. A lack of entry opportunities and a lack of experience were quickly identified as the reasons for the long learning curve. Volvo Ocean Race CEO Mark Turner, who among other things had accompanied and strengthened England's ocean sailing heroine Ellen MacArthur through her world career and also supervised and managed her legendary second place in the Vendée Globe, said: "Some people will say that this lowers the standard. But that's not the point. The opposite is the case: it will give the best female sailors in the world the chance to compete at the same level."
The new rule is intended to motivate skippers to hire one or more female crew members. So far, only 100 women have taken part in the Volvo Ocean Race since its premiere in 1973, compared to around 2000 men. Four-time circumnavigator Dee Caffari, who last raced with the SCA women, said: "This is great news for female athletes not just in sailing but in sport as a whole! I'm confident there are plenty of female sailors out there who can do it and prove that they can perform and deserve a place on board." In addition to the new mixed rule, the junior rule will also be retained and even slightly tightened: two crew members must still be under 30 years old at the end of the race.
Tatjana Pokorny
Sports reporter
