Ep 30 - Rosie Chapman

Statistics show the number of females who belong to yachting and boating clubs in this country drops from about 30 percent at youth level to 20 percent at senior level. This is something clubs and Yachting New Zealand are trying to address and leading a lot of the work in this area is Rosie Chapman.

Rosie is the women’s sailing manager and Laser Radial coach at Yachting New Zealand and is focused on attracting more female participants, retaining those already sailing and also advancing equal opportunities. We talk about a range of things in this podcast from quotas and gender equity at the high performance level to pathways and obstacles. But we also discuss important topics like menstruation and body image and what needs to be done to cater more to the needs of female sailors.

Rosie also talks about her journey from high performance sailor to coach and how this has affected her outlook and opens up about some of the struggles she’s faced. This was a really good discussion about some important issues and it would be useful for any young sailors, both female and male, and their parents and coaches to have a listen.