Advancing women in elite ocean racing

The Magenta Project, IMOCA Class, and 11th Hour Racing have launched the Magenta x IMOCA Female Leadership Development (FLD) Program, a joint-initiative aimed at fostering female talent in elite ocean racing.

To promote equity, 11th Hour Racing’s support will provide subsidized pay for women participating in the program, ensuring they receive equal pay for their work and time – a core value of The Magenta Project and pledge it requires member teams to make.

Established by the sailors from the all-female Team SCA in the Volvo Ocean Race 2014-2015, The Magenta Project is a collective of passionate people committed to developing pathways and generating opportunities for more equity and inclusion in sailing, leading with gender.

The Magenta Project and IMOCA have been working together since 2022 to advance equity and inclusion in international ocean racing. To date, fifteen women from seven different nations have had career-advancing internship experiences through this collaboration.

While the IMOCA Class currently has equal representation of women and men in team manager roles, only 15% of skippers are women, and only one boat captain and one technical director within the entire Class are female. This program combines the Magenta mentorship model with hands-on apprenticeship experiences to prepare women to become future leaders in the sport.

The FLD program includes one-on-one mentoring between mentors and mentees, typically in the form of monthly meetings or phone calls to discuss mentee career goals, progress, challenges, and triumphs. This mentoring model, which has been The Magenta Project charity’s flagship program since 2018, has helped develop over 200 women and their careers in the industry.

In addition to mentoring, the program offers hands-on experiences for mentees to work and learn with IMOCA teams. Skipper mentees will sail with their skipper mentors, team manager mentees will work with team manager mentors, and boat captain mentees will work with boat captains, all in preparation for this year’s Vendée Globe Race.

Cole Brauer, the first American to race solo non-stop around the world, is part of the inaugural Magenta x IMOCA FLD programme, and is paired with Boris Herrmann of Team Malizia as her mentor in the Future Skipper track. She is transitioning from her Class40 platform, in which she raced solo around the world earlier this year, to the IMOCA – which is an extra 20 feet long and a whole lot more boat!

Brauer reports to be “shockingly close” to realizing her dream of becoming an IMOCA skipper, and in this mentorship and apprenticeship experience, “I want to learn how the boats work, how the teams work, and how to be fully successful for the Vendée Globe 2028.”

Lorraine McKenna, sponsorship director of 11th Hour Racing, notes how these partnerships push the boundaries by creating opportunities and accelerating the presence of women in competitive sailing. “Together, we are ensuring an equitable and sustainable future for the sport.”

Source: IMOCA