For generations, offshore sailing has overwhelmingly been a male-dominated sport, particularly at its highest professional levels. Women have competed, led teams and achieved extraordinary results, but the pathways into elite campaigns have often been narrower and opportunities harder to access.
You cannot build experience without being given a place on the boat.
By requiring gender-balanced crews, The Ocean Race Atlantic changes that equation. It creates opportunities for women to accumulate the miles, technical knowledge, leadership experience and professional networks that are essential if sailing is to become genuinely equitable over the long term.
The race starts on 1 September, with the fleet starting offshore from New York City before racing across the North Atlantic to Lorient, France, the heart of the IMOCA sailing community. The boats are expected to arrive in Lorient around 8-9 September.
The six teams competing are Team Malizia (GER), Team Francesca Clapcich Powered by 11th Hour Racing (USA), United by the Ocean (FRA), DMG MORI Sailing Team (JPN), Embrace The Challenge (SUI) and MSIG Europe (NZL).
For our partners at Aotearoa Ocean Racing MSIG Europe (NZL), it also means showcasing the depth of New Zealand talent.
Skipper Conrad Colman is joined by co-skippers Anna Merchant, Aaron Hume-Merry and Megan Thomson, with Georgia Schofield joining the campaign as On Board Reporter. The women involved bring serious experience.
Anna Merchant has competed across high-performance inshore, offshore and foiling disciplines. Her career includes two double-handed offshore World Championships, medals at the Women’s World Match Racing Championships, national titles and racing aboard everything from keelboats to foiling multihulls. Joining the IMOCA fleet represents another step into one of sailing’s most demanding environments.
Megan Thomson is the helm of 2.0 Racing, one of the world’s leading women’s match racing teams. In 2023 she became the first female helm to reach the podium at the Open Match Racing World Championship, finishing third. She is a two-time Women’s Match Racing World Championship silver medallist and was named the 2025 Yachting New Zealand Female Sailor of the Year.
Georgia Schofield brings another perspective on what participation in professional sailing can look like. A sailor from the age of seven, she represented New Zealand twice at the Youth Worlds before building an international career as a photographer and videographer. She was On Board Reporter for Team Holcim-PRB during the 2022–23 Ocean Race and has since worked across the European offshore sailing scene.
These careers underline an important point: equity ensures talented people of all backgrounds, gender and age have opportunity.
Earlier this year, Ocean Regeneration Aotearoa and EnviroStrat joined Aotearoa Ocean Racing and Conrad Colman at the 25th Auckland Boat Show, creating an opportunity to talk with the marine sector about ocean regeneration, innovation and the future of sailing.
Alongside the Boat Show was another initiative with a deliberate focus on who gets to participate in that future: a Magenta Project STEM clinic for women.
The Magenta Project works internationally to create greater equity and inclusion in sailing, helping women build skills, networks and pathways into professional roles. Its work recognises that representation does not happen automatically. Sometimes opportunities have to be deliberately designed. Developed as part of the organisation’s STEM Pathway initiative, the Auckland clinic attracted 22 women and formed part of a broader effort to connect students and early-career professionals with opportunities across the marine industry.
Whether we are talking about sailing, marine science, restoration, engineering or the emerging blue economy, the people shaping the future of the ocean should reflect the communities that depend upon it.
Photo: The Ocean Race.
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