Racing Into a New Era: The Ocean Race Atlantic and what a 50/50 Crew really means
© Meredith Rodgers / 11th Hour Racing
On September 1, we’ll set off from New York on The Ocean Race Atlantic, racing to Lorient in France. It will be the first fully crewed race for our team and I'll have three really strong sailors and one onboard reporter right by my side.
It will be an important milestone in my career and the first time I’m skippering the IMOCA with a fully crewed team. This is an especially monumental year for The Ocean Race Atlantic, not only because it is the first point-to-point race in the history of The Ocean Race, but also because of the race’s new mandated 50/50 crew rule. This initiative is a concrete step in The Ocean Race's broader ambition to achieve equal representation across the entire event by 2030.
The 2x25 Review — which you can read more about in our recent blog post — showed the world something many female sailors have known for decades: visible progress at the elite level and lived reality at the grassroots level are still far apart. More women are competing at the top of the sport than ever before (as was seen in The Ocean Race 2022-23, where female sailors made up 28% of all competitors, the highest proportion in the event's 50-year history). Yet more than half of respondents to the 2x25 Review reported having to adapt their behavior, language, or mannerisms just to feel accepted in sailing environments.
Offshore racing is one of the main sports in the world where women and men can compete equally alongside each other. This new mandate puts world-class female sailors in the most visible, high-performance context in offshore racing while also sending a message to every young sailor watching from the dock or the club that this sport has a place for them. The rules of the game are changing, and that belonging is not something you have to earn by shrinking yourself to fit in. These quotas are a transition to a better working environment for all sailors and we hope to one day see a world where it is the norm for women and men to compete freely with no fear of discrimination for who they are in the sport we all love.
The question we have been asking ourselves at Team Frankie is - getting women - or any minority group - into the sport is one thing - but what’s their experience like once they are in the door?
That is why the work we are doing matters. From our Believe, Belong, Achieve Workshops, to how we have set ourselves up with our Team Constitution, to our Sailing Instructor Program and the conversations we're having at clubs and training centers ... Because structural rules change who gets to compete next but culture change determines who stays, who thrives, and who brings the next generation with them.