All World Cup teams must include a woman….
Britain’s first female America’s Cup sailor since 1937 inspired by SAS soldier dad
Jemima Lines, who has enjoyed extreme sports from an early age, will race with GB’s next challenger for yachting’s most famous trophy
Women have not always been welcomed with open arms at the Royal Yacht Squadron (RYS). The Cowes-based yacht club dates back to 1815, the year of the Battle of Waterloo, but only voted to allow female members in 2013.
The men-only policy has led to some awkward moments down the years. When Queen Victoria, who had a holiday home in nearby Osborne House, expressed a desire to watch the squadron’s annual regatta from the Castle, where the clubhouse is based, the members did not know what to do.
“Obviously they needed to accommodate the monarch,” says Bertie Bicket, the RYS’s commodore, with a smile. “But they also needed to stick to their rules. So they built a structure on the seaward side of the castle, now known as ‘The Platform’, with a kind of glass structure, along with some steps leading up to this new structure, so that it was possible to keep both the members and the monarch happy.”
It is fair to say times have changed. This year marks the 175th anniversary of the founding of the America’s Cup, also here in Cowes. So it felt rather symbolic that on Tuesday, GB1, Britain’s challenger for yachting’s best-known trophy, chose the club as the venue from which to announce Jemima Lines, a 29-year-old kitefoiler and adventurer, as their first female sailor since Phyllis Sopwith, wife of Sir Thomas Sopwith, in 1934 and 1937.
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All World Cup teams must include a woman…....[more]