More steps toward gender equity

World Sailing’s global sailing festival, Steering the Course, celebrates its fifth year in 2025 and continues this year’s theme of #AccelerateAction to celebrate the steps taken towards gender equity.

While thousands of women will take to the water around the world to promote the sport, World Sailing is taking the opportunity to reflect on its strategic achievements in line with the goals of Ready for the Future 2024-2029.

As part of Steering the Course, World Sailing has pledged to fund a minimum of three Women’s Technical Courses per year. In 2025, courses have already been completed in Algeria (May 2025), Egypt (June 2025), and Chinese Taipei (September 2025).

World Sailing is also supporting a minimum of three Women’s Race Official Clinics per year. This year, courses in Brazil (July 2025 – Judging), Algeria (September 2025 – Race Management), and Hong Kong, China (October 20205 – Umpiring) have met that goal.

With backing from the International Olympic Committee’s Solidarity Fund, World Sailing has also supported women coaches in high performance through the WISH Program. This year, as part of cohort five, one coach has been accepted, following in the footsteps of four sailing coaches to pass through the program to date.

The launch of the World Sailing Academy in June 2025 opened up a world of possibilities for e-learning in support of new and ongoing training initiatives run by national federations and by World Sailing. To date, 1218 sailors, coaches and officials – 31% of which are female – have registered with the World Sailing Academy and new courses are being added every month.

A focused ‘Women in Sailing Hub’ on the platform recently published Taking the Bias out of the Start Line, a guidebook produced by the World Sailing Trust to help events and clubs become more inclusive with regattas, structures and facilities.

Furthermore, the launch of the Sailing Programs for Social Inclusion Guidebook in September 2025 provides guidance for building socially inclusive sailing programs. This is supported by four case studies of programs and webinars for extra inspiration.

“World Sailing is strongly committed to creating more opportunities for women in sailing,” reports Fiona Kidd, World Sailing’s Head of International Development. “At all levels, there has been great progress in the past five years, but there is always more we can do.

“Events and initiatives around the world have shown how sailing can impact communities and sailing clubs by providing the impetus to do more, encourage people of all ages to discover the sport. By assessing this progress against our longer-term goals, World Sailing is able to identify which areas need a greater focus going forward and where the sport could benefit from extra resources.

“Steering the Course has proved to be an incredibly valuable initiative over the past five years and we look forward to another fantastic edition which can be the spark for even more people to experience the thrill of sailing.”

Off the water, World Sailing’s commitment to equality within the sport extends to the World Sailing Board. Elections at the 2025 World Sailing Annual Conference will confirm two female Vice Presidents, creating a balance of four male and four female members. This strong female representation provides a valuable perspective and informs future decisions for the benefit of sailors everywhere.

Committee and Sub-Committee membership has also reached the constitutional requirement of 30% female representation, with a requirement to use best endeavors to reach 50%. As positions within the committees become available, it is hoped that the impact of female representation across the sport will be more visible, especially in the position of Committee and Sub-Committee Chair.

The second festival in this year’s Steering the Course gets underway on Friday 26 September 2025 and runs until Sunday 5 October 2025.

On  October 1, Dhuha Albeshr (UAE), a participant in last year’s World Sailing Scholarship program, will be presenting an update on her project entitled ‘Developing a National Female Program in the United Arab Emirates’. Register here to join the webinar.

A full calendar of events taking place during Steering the Course can be found on the World Sailing website.

Source: World Sailing