Mornington Yacht Club

This season Mornington Yacht Club (MYC) has put a lot of focus and effort towards female participation in sailing. MYC’s Girls Out Sailing (GOS) program was re-designed and altered in its format to create a more enjoyable experience that provided a smoother step from the program into club life as a member. This change saw the GOS keelboat program move from being a Sunday program, to being incorporated during Thursday evening twilight racing.  Each Thursday began with a theory session led by one of MYC’s female instructors/coaches followed by the ladies being paired up and taken as part of the crew on one of the racing boats, with a designated mentor on board with them. 

Thursday twilight racing is the most popular activity at MYC, so this structure allowed the ladies to immediately be part of club life and see exactly where they could fit in if they became members following the program. With the theory sessions/ briefings and a mentor on board with them, the participants were being taught and mentored throughout the whole race and were given roles on the boat. Again, this allowed for a smooth transition from the program into sailing/racing as a member. Additionally, Thursday racing is the most social, and the ladies were also encouraged to stay for dinner after racing, making the most of the club facilities. We ran two of these programs, putting 14 participants through (even though we could not offer the program until late in the season with covid), and were proud to be featured in the AS SheSails video! Furthermore, our Lady’s Skippers Series was also moved to be included across the Thursday Twilight races, encouraging more ladies to be involved, and more boats to get a lady skipper on board. A total of 20 boats with female skippers joined the series this season!

Additionally, this year the GOS Stand Up Paddle-boarding (SUP) initiative got off the ground, with 13 women joining our SUP day, instructed by two of MYC’s female AS SUP endorsed instructors. The inclusion of SUP provided an extra avenue for the female membership base to get active on the water and enjoy the club’s facilities.

Female participation was also a focus at the junior level, and this season MYC’s annual ‘Girls Camp’ was also a big hit! 10 girls between the age of 9 and 18 joined the camp, which involved an evening of sailing trying out new classes (such as windsurfer, 470 & 29er) followed by pizza, movie and sleepover in the club house, and then a SUP session the next morning. It was great to see the mix of age groups from various classes all joining together, and for the junior girls to try out some youth classes.

Furthermore, this year MYC’s Training and Development committee has grown to include 3 females of the 7 members, including MYC’s two (female) head coaches. This leadership has been fundamental in growing a large base of female coaches and instructors, with our regular Sunday coaching/instructing group consisting of more females (4) than males (3). MYC believe that having these strong female role models is important in inspiring young female sailors and keeping them in the sport, and this season four new female junior members joined up following their introductory sail training courses. Similarly, hosting the Victorian Junior Carnival continues to promote participation beyond sail training, with one third (17/50) of entries being girls, and 5/6 lead instructors being female.