Where are all the female Clipper Race skippers? asks Dee Caffari
Round the world race organiser Clipper Ventures has selected 11 new skippers for its next crewed round the world race, starting in August from the UK. The sailors have over a million sea miles between them and will each lead a crew in one of the hardest tests of seamanship and team leadership in sailing.
The skippers range in age from 26-year-old Seumas Kellock from Edinburgh, who has come up through the race, crewing in the 2017-18 edition and becoming a watch leader of the yacht Unicef, to 55-year-old Mark Surridge, an experienced cruising and racing sailor who has taken part in five Fastnet Races, the ARC and many more events.
There are two skippers from South Africa, David Immelman and Nick Leggatt. The latter was one of Steve Fossett’s crew on Playstation when he set the outright round the world record in the maxi cat in 2004.
The other non-british skipper is Jeronimo Santos-gonzalez, who comes from a seafaring background in Galicia and in his youth represented Spain in national and European championships.
Besides Seumas Kellock, two other skippers have come through the ranks at the Clipper Race. Josh Stickland, 31, has been a training mate and member of the refit team, while Guy Waites, 52, sailed the second half of the last Clipper Race as a mate.
But despite following an edition of the race in which female skippers Wendy Tuck and Nikki Henderson took 1st and 2nd places respectively, there will be no female skippers in the next event. Challenged by top round the world racer Dee Caffari on why, Clipper Ventures chairman Sir Robin Knox-johnston replied: “Where are they? If you find them, I’ll employ them.”