WOMEN SAILORS
59º North Reserves TWO BUNKS FOR WOMEN ON ALL OF OUR OFFSHORE PASSAGES!We're proud that our core team of professional skippers and mates is comprised of a mix of men & women. We hope that this action will trend our paying crew’s gender ratio closer to our 50/50 ideal. Historically, 28% of our paying sailing crew have been women, and we are looking forward to raising that.
We have learned that the risk of there being no women, or just one woman, on the crew can be a barrier for some when considering whether to sail with us. Past crew Laura Ladenheim said, “I was the only woman on my trip with you all, and it was still wonderful, but I do think it would have been great to have another female present.”
We strive to create opportunities to include more people in offshore sailing, and are confident that this change will break down that barrier.
“If we are unable to fill the two reserved spaces with women, then we will not fill them with men, irrespective of the demand. This is a values based decision; we are not prepared to undermine our goal of making sailing more inclusive in order to make small financial gains.”
THE FINE PRINTIf you have already signed up for a trip with us, your spot is secure. We will be implementing this change for all future passages that have spaces open.
It is not possible for us to guarantee there will be two women on every trip. There is always the risk that a space or two on a passage does not fill up. There is also a risk of a last minute cancellation due to unforeseen circumstances. However, we guarantee the following:
We will continue to actively encourage and empower women into offshore sailing.
We will actively seek out women to fill these spaces, and encourage our crew to do so.
We will aim to fill at least one of the skipper/mate roles with a professional sailor who is a woman.
TAKING ACTION59° North passages are simply more fun and more inspiring the more diverse the crew - we’ve had men and women of all ages and lots of nationalities sail with us, and inevitably the diverse trips are the most memorable. By taking this small step we believe that while it’ll definitely attract more women to our sport, more importantly, it’ll attract more people, of all backgrounds, who share our values and want to sail with us.
All Women’s Passages 2024 / 2025In 2022 we sailed our very first ‘All Women’s passage’ on ICEBEAR and it was a huge success. From now on, we offer at least one ‘All Women’s Passage’ on FALKEN every year, and in 2025 will be our first one sailing on ISBJØRN!
