The result was the 2\u00d725 Review \u2014 the most comprehensive study of gender equity in sailing in the past six years, drawing on responses from 2,500 people across 68 countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Six years on, the findings still did not make comfortable reading. Sixty- five per cent of women in sailing report experiencing discrimination, 42 per cent of people in the sport are aware of incidents of non-accidental violence, and 49 per cent do not know how to report abuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Advertisement, article continues below – The 29 per cent pay gap in professional sailing exists not because of unequal pay, but because women lack access to high-level roles and elite racing experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n These are not abstract statistics. They describe the lived experience of women in clubs, on racecourses, and in coaching and officiating roles across the globe \u2014 including in New Zealand.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yachting New Zealand has done more than most. The Women and Girls in Sailing strategy<\/a>, the She Sails NZ brand, support for women-only regattas, and the Starling Girls Accelerator Programme<\/a> are all evidence of genuine commitment. The early signs from the Starling programme \u2014 stronger female representation in the top 10 at class nationals \u2014 suggest that targeted investment in pathways works.\u00a0<\/p>\n But hard work remains.\u00a0<\/p>\n – Advertisement, article continues below – As the 2\u00d725 Review highlights, the initiatives that tend to work in the early stages of equity programmes are visibility initiatives, creating spaces where women feel welcome, celebrating female participation, and making the sport more accessible at the entry level.\u00a0<\/p>\n Visibility alone does not change the structures that determine who progresses, who gets appointed, and who ends up at the decision-making table. The 2\u00d725 Review is clear on this point: the barriers that prevent women from advancing in sailing are structural, not attitudinal.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yachting New Zealand\u2019s Starling Girls Accelerator Programme is showing encouraging signs.<\/p>\n Women are not absent from coaching, officiating, and leadership roles because they lack ambition or ability. They are absent because the pathways are not designed with them in mind. Appointment processes that rely on informal networks, progression routes that do not accommodate caring responsibilities, and a culture in which the people who make decisions about who gets opportunities tend to look for people who look like them.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, what does this mean at club level, where most of the sport actually happens? It means moving beyond events and visibility campaigns and asking harder questions. Who is on your committee, and how did they get there? What does your appointment process for coaches and race officials look like, and who does it favour? When a woman raises a concern, does she know what to do and trust that something will happen? It means making inclusion a condition of how your club operates, not an add-on to it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clubs that are serious about this do not just run women\u2019s regattas; they examine their governance structures, their coaching appointments, their safeguarding policies, and their culture, and they ask honestly whether any of those things get in the way. And it means being willing to sit with some uncomfortable data.\u00a0<\/p>\n Victoria Low, CEO of the Magenta Project. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n The 2\u00d725 Review found that 49 per cent of people in sailing do not know how to report abuse. That number should give us pause. Knowing a policy exists is not the same as knowing how to use it, and closing that gap is something every club can act on today.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yachting New Zealand is well placed to lead this next phase. The foundation is there. The strategy exists. What is needed now is a shift from programmes that invite women to structures that ensure they can stay, progress, and lead. The 2\u00d725 Review is not a verdict on what sailing has failed to do. It is a map of where the work still needs to happen.\u00a0<\/p>\n – Advertisement, article continues below –<\/p>\n \n 2016 Elite 15M 15 Mid-Pilothouse\n <\/p>\n \n NZD $1,500,000\n <\/p>\n \n 2016 Elite 15M Mid-Pilothouse, 15.2m, Cummins QSC500 500hp, 2900L fuel capacity. A serious bluewater cruiser with exceptional range and premium fit-out. Located Auckland. Asking NZD $1,500,000.\n <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Boating-NZ-Rayglass-728-x-90.png\")
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