Sailing rocks because there is absolute equality between men and women.
Amateur racers are commonly a husband and wife team. Every team is different and each divide up the rolls differently. Examples of this range from 505 dinghies where the wives typically helm to Tasars, where the husbands generally do.
See:
http://natasar.org/wp/
http://www.int505.org/
The sport of Olympic sailing has been challenged by the International Olympic committee to make its classes affordable, fast and representative of the boats that are sailed internationally. The International Sailing federation has met this challenge when it introduced the Nacra 17 as its catamaran class and required the boat to be crewed by a man and a woman. We have a local team preparing to represent Canada at the next games in Rio . You can find information on them here:
http://www.nikandluke.com/
and here:
Internationally, there are several successful women sailors sailing on equal footing against men. Canadian Diana Reed from Toronto who is doing the single handed Mini Trans-at race from France across the Atlantic in a 20 foot ocean racer. She is currently waiting for a weather window for the event to start. Maybe Tuesday October 29th? See here:
http://www.onegirlsoceanchallenge.com/?page_id=32
Here:
and her website here:
http://www.onegirlsoceanchallenge.com/
Sam Davies is also a successful single handed ocean racer, but this year she is part of a different project. She is part of the womens team that has started preperations for the Volvo Ocean race that starts next fall. Check out these videos:
Basically its all about the boat. When the boats are equal, both men and women can race together or separately in the same event or on the same team with absolute equality. Just another thing that makes sailing an awesome sport.
