Over the course of 2025 the National Yacht Club hosted several ‘Women on the Water’ activities and initiatives.
The NYC ‘Women on the Water’s’ goal is to grow women’s sustained participation in sailing. Their initiatives target all women, whether complete beginners, those looking to improve, those returning to sailing after a break, as well as seasoned cruisers and racers. Their adult sail training programme is accessible to non-members as well as members and has proven very successful in bringing people into the sport.
They ran pre-season shore-based sessions in February and March, a J80 training weekend in March with over 16 participants.
In August they organised a Women on the Water dinghy race day which was open to NYC members as well as non-members. The NYC club Fireflies, Toppers and Optimists were used, and a series of short races took place within the Harbour on a warm sunny day.
They held adult sailing courses in May, June and September. Though not exclusively for women, and catering for members and non-members, the adult sailing courses continued in September. These courses cater for complete beginners as well as those looking to hone their crewing skills. The September course followed Course 1 in May, and Course 2 in June. Female participants numbered 34 out of the 52 who competed in these courses.
For Winter Racing in November and December, they plan to enter a club J80 in the DBSC Turkey Shoot with a mix of novice and improver sailors along with a coach. In addition, approximately 4 other NYC boats will be entered by their female owners, including Slightly Steamy, the J80 purchased by the 6 women who have progressed along the NYC Women on the Water pathway to become boat owners this year.
NYC also provided Dinghy coaching in July and Autumn Dinghy training from September to December. These weren’t exclusive to Women but are open to both members and non-members.
For Winter they plan to organise a number of shore-based sessions to cover various topics including rules, protest scenarios, racing tactics, sail trim, and general winter preparation for next season.
In addition, they will round off the summer 2025 sailing season with a Women on the Water End of Season supper in October where we hope to have female sailors from the Water Wags, the Dublin Bay 21 Footers, Dinghies, SB20s, J80s, Flying Fifteens, Ruffians, and cruiser classes, and race management volunteers. In keeping with our other events, it will all be open to non-members.
At Junior and Instructor level there is a fairly equal gender balance. However, of the 96 women on the NYC WhatsApp group, only 15 are regular racing helms, and whereas 33 are boat owners, less than half of this number are the primary owner, similar to the number of regular racing female helms.
They very much look forward to building on the 2025 initiatives next year, and especially to hosting the biennial Women at the Helm Regatta in 2026.