Olympians and America's Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke have launched a sailing team to help propel women into professional sailing events.
Live Ocean Racing's foiling catamaran. Photo: Georgia Schofield
Skippered by Liv Mackay the Live Ocean Racing team line-up includes New Zealand Olympic and world-champion sailors Jo Aleh, Molly Meech, Alex Maloney, Erica Dawson and Jason Saunders as coach.
The first campaign for the team will be the ETF26 Grand Prix, a five-event series based in France and Italy starting on Saturday.
Inspired by the catamarans used in the 35th America's Cup, which went on to provide the base for the F50s in SailGP, teams will compete in 26-foot one design catamarans built for high-speed races reaching speeds of up to 35 knots.
"Sailing is evolving rapidly, with new technology and innovative boat designs dominating professional sailing," Mackay said.
"Up until now the majority of women have spent their careers in single or double-handed dinghies with very limited opportunities to move beyond that into professional campaigns and foiling boats.
"The ETF26 Grand Prix offers opportunities for more time training and competing in foiling boats, a larger team environment and a chance to hone and refine racing skills. The boats are advanced and undergoing constant refinement so it's awesome to be leading a team taking on this challenge. And with the announcement of SailGP and America's Cup women's programmes, it's exciting to see more opportunities arise."
The Live Ocean Racing team competing in ETF26 Grand Prix along with founders. Peter Burling, Erica Dawson, Molly Meech, Liv Mackay, Jo Aleh, Alex Maloney and Blair Tuke. Photo: Josh McCormack
Expanding on Burling and Tuke's Live Ocean mission, Live Ocean Racing will operate independently of Live Ocean Foundation but share the same vision - a healthy ocean for a healthy future.
"When we started Live Ocean Foundation, we did it with the vision of using our sailing platform for good. We've launched Live Ocean Racing now as we've seen the need to provide more opportunities for women in foiling boats and felt that this was the right time and place to start," Burling said.
"Looking ahead, Live Ocean Racing will break the mould of traditional sailing team's assembling only for a single campaign, creating an agile team that races with purpose. ETF26 is just the beginning."
Yachting New Zealand high performance director Ian Stewart said Live Ocean Racing was an exciting development.
"These opportunities for women are long overdue and Live Ocean Racing will help inspire an inclusive generation of sailors," Stewart said.
"Many of those involved in the Live Ocean Racing team this year are also working towards the 2024 Paris Olympics and we know, managed well, this will ultimately make them better sailors."
Live Ocean Racing will take on a range of racing events in the future.
"Our vision for Live Ocean Racing is to rethink what a professional sports team looks like. With purpose at the heart of the team, Live Ocean Racing will race for Aotearoa taking on awesome challenges at the pinnacle of sport, while championing action for the ocean on the world stage," Tuke said.
Live Ocean Racing is a separate entity to Live Ocean Foundation with its own governance, board, management and funding.
No funding from Live Ocean Foundation goes towards Live Ocean Racing.
