Steering the Course 2025 strengthens commitment to #AccelerateAction for women in sailing

Steering the Course 2025 © World Sailing

In support of this year's International Women's Day, held annually on 8 March, the fifth edition of World Sailing's global women's sailing festival, Steering the Course, will reaffirm the federation's commitment to creating new pathways at all levels of the sport for talented female sailors, coaches and officials.

Two global festivals will be held in solidarity with the International Women's Day theme of #AccelerateAction and elevating women and girls' participation and achievement in sport. The first will take place from 23 May-1 June 2025 and the second later in the year, from 26 September-5 October 2025, to allow as many nations as possible to be involved.

Events and activities will be organised around the world to introduce sailing to a new audience and demonstrate the opportunities available within the sport.

Submit your activities as part of the global calendar here

World Sailing will also be funding Technical Courses for sailing instructors, club race coaches and performance coaches, as well as race official clinics to introduce race management, umpiring, judging and race measurement to countries where there is no formal certification.

Across the two previous years of the program, courses and activities have been held in Bolivia, Barbados, Brazil, Bahamas, Greece, Grenada, Japan, St Vincent & the Grenadines, UAE and Uruguay.

Fiona Kidd, World Sailing's Head of International Development, said, "To date, 56 countries have participated in or ran activities as part of Steering the Course, and we would love to keep that number growing. We are encouraging Sailing Clubs, Centres, Member National Authorities (MNAs), Class Associations and volunteers to sign up to host activities as part of the two key festival times. This could be through creating more opportunities for women to train as Race Officials, creating new activities in a program to bring in new women members or just by making a more inclusive club."

Read more about Steering the Course, World Sailing's plan to support women in sailing, on the World Sailing website.

Get involved and share your story

Throughout the two festivals, World Sailing's social media channels will be sharing content from people, clubs and countries taking part in Steering the Course, to elevate the fantastic efforts of those involved worldwide.

Please feel free to share imagery and video content from your country or sailing club with us on social media.

Use the hashtag #SteeringTheCourse and tag in our social media accounts on the following platforms:

• Facebook
• Twitter / X
• Instagram

You can also send your photos, videos and stories directly to , using WeTransfer.com to send larger files if required.