Sharon Ferris-Choat - 'Extreme Sailing Series is where we want to be'

by Extreme Sailing Series on 18 Oct 2016 The skipper of the first ever all-female crew to compete in the Extreme Sailing Series says they are more determined than ever to be part of the 2017 season after an action-packed debut in Lisbon.

Double Olympian, Sharon Ferris-Choat (NZL) and her hand-picked crew, comprising 12 of the world’s top female sailors, enjoyed an eye-opening four days onboard a ‘flying’ GC32 catamaran at Act 7 of the Extreme Sailing Series.

The groundbreaking team, called Thalassa Magenta Racing, were invited to compete at the event as a wildcard alongside the Series’ established teams to give them the necessary experience and exposure to put together a full campaign for next year.

And it didn’t take long before the crew were thrown into the deep end when the wind gods delivered a fresh 20 knots of breeze, pushing even the most experienced of outfits to the absolute limit.

Despite having only had three days’ practice before the Act began on the waters of Portugal’s capital, the ladies’ team took on the enormous challenge of taming their GC32 with sheer grit and determination.

Their efforts were rewarded with two impressive podium finishes over the course of the 23-race regatta, proving to themselves and everyone else that they were more than capable of holding their own against some of the best sailing teams on the planet.

They finished Act 7 psychically and mentally exhausted but with huge smiles on their faces. Ferris-Choat said the team’s experience had just cemented their drive to become a full-time Extreme Sailing Series team.

“The Extreme Sailing Series is such a great event to be part of,” she said. “It’s just such an inspiration to get out there and show that we girls can do it. These boats are so physical, we definitely need six girls on the crew compared to the five men the other teams have, and we simply need more time on the water. But we have to be realistic, we only had three days training in the boat and we did we really well. We should all be proud.”

Ferris-Choat assembled a star-studded line-up of female sailors for her team’s maiden outing including ocean racers Dee Caffari (GBR), Elodie Mettraux (SUI) and Abby Ehler (GBR); Olympians Sally Barkow (USA), Annie Lush (GBR) Annemieke Bes (NED) and Gemma Jones (NZL); Nacra 17 World Silver medallist Hannah Diamond (GBR) and 420 World and European champion Annabel Vose (GBR). Each day the team was rotated to give each sailor both time on the water and behind the scenes on shore, all the time growing the exposure as they hunt for a sponsor for 2017.

“We’ve got a great bunch of girls, and we tried our absolute hardest,” Ferris-Choat said. “We’re a squad and we want to show the ropes to as many girls as we can so we have that depth of talent. It’s all about learning for us and that’s what Lisbon was for us.

“It was also a great opportunity to get the awareness out there that we are looking for commercial partners for next year. We have really achieved our goals and also shown that we can be competitive – we got a second, a third and a fourth over the regatta and we can’t complain about that.”

It might have been physically and mentally draining but Ferris-Choat said competing in Lisbon was the realisation of a dream.

“We were just so thrilled to be in Lisbon,” she said. “It was a huge week for us – the learning, the energy… We’re completely shattered. But it was a lot of fun and it just confirmed that the Extreme Sailing Series is exactly where we want to be.”