What's taking so long?
As the Admiral’s Cup mandates female crew on board, top sailors share mixed views. Is it tokenism or progress? Joy Fitzgerald, Abby Ehler and others weigh in.
“Honestly, my first reaction to the crew rule was a bit of an eye-roll - are we really still having to tell teams to include women?”
That was the quote – from Scottish sailor Joy Fitzgerald – that jumped out at me from this week’s press release from the Royal Ocean Racing Club about the mandated inclusion of at least one female sailor on all the boats taking part in this summer’s revival of the Admiral’s Cup.
Joy’s quote stood out for me because I had precisely the same reaction when the mandate was first announced.
It’s 20 years this year since Ellen MacArthur made headlines around the world when she set a new benchmark time for racing around the world alone. It’s 10 years almost to the day since the all-women crew on Team SCA won the eighth leg of the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race in a campaign that also saw them win th…