Hong Kong to stage Women’s Sailing Festival as part of global effort to attract more female sailors

Hong Kong’s Hebe Haven Yacht Club (HHYC) will be part of a global effort to improve gender parity in sailing when the Sai Kung club hosts a 10-day festival aimed at attracting more women to the sport.

World Sailing’s Steering the Course Women’s Sailing Festival will be held from May 21-30, organised jointly by HHYC and Sailability Hong Kong, and will feature a variety of activities to promote sailing among women. It will also coincide with one of HHYC’s major competitions, the Open Dinghy Regatta on May 22 and 23.

“I’ve been involved in sailing for a long time and I’m disappointed that we don’t have more representation from women so I thought we should do something about it,” said Juliet Ashton, chair of the HHYC working group that is organising the festival. “So I wrote a proposal to Hebe Haven about this in the light of the fact that World Sailing themselves are working towards gender parity in their organisation, in management and people in sailing.

“And in the 2024 Olympics, we will have gender parity [in competitors], so for Hong Kong that really means we need to bring more girls into sailing anyway. We have participation at the clubs, not that there are women out there on the water.

“It’s just that we don’t have enough. It’s not that women don’t enjoy sailing and being on the water. We need to encourage them more and incentivise it so they are actually involved.”

The festival is supported by the International Olympic Committee’s development fund and is aimed at not only introducing women and girls to sailing but also offers other pathways for involvement in the sport such as coaching or officiating.