When imbalance is the topic

Prominent among notable offshore races is the Sydney Hobart Race, with Mark Chew sharing observations on the recently completed 80th edition. Here are two takes:

• Allowing two different groups of boats to compete for one prestigious Trophy under two different sets of rules was never going to work. The double handed fleet dominated the overall title, such that 4.7% of the fully crewed IRC fleet finished in the top ten boats, while 58.3% of the Double handed fleet finished in to top ten. If I was a betting man, I’d be putting my money on a few rule tweaks in this area for the 81st race.

• Probably the most important headline was that the race had its first woman to win the overall. This occurred despite how crew lists were made up of only 12% women. And what’s more disappointing is that only half the boats had a woman on board. Estimates of female participation in the 1994, 50th Hobart were around 9%. That’s means there has been a one percent rise every decade. At that rate we reach equality in the year 2405. Not good enough!

For Mark’s full review of the race, click here.

Editor’s note: We’re not sure about the percentage of women in other 600 mile classics like Fastnet or Bermuda, but Sydney Hobart starts on December 26 with preparation during the holidays. This is family time with women as a core element, so can gender balance ever sufficiently improve?