The landmark nature of the first female America’s Cup of sailing, beginning Saturday in Barcelona, is not lost on Canadian team crewmember Maura Dewey from Vancouver Island.
“I have watched the America’s Cup since I was a kid. This is incredible and a huge honour to take part in the first-ever America’s Cup for women,” said Dewey, who is out of the Royal Victoria Yacht Club.
“This is a fantastic platform on which to build women’s sailing.”
The Canadian team, known corporately as Concord Pacific Racing, will compete against teams from the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland. The women’s regatta begins this weekend with the finals to be held alongside the main America’s Cup finals beginning Oct. 13.
The America’s Cup, described as the Super Bowl of sailing, is held every three years, has been raced for 173 years and is the oldest trophy still being contested in international sports. While women have competed on crews in the past, this will be the first standalone America’s Cup competition for females.
“It’s cool to be part of the first women’s race. Fans are all around the harbour [the main America’s Cup races have begun]. The crowds and energy are amazing. It’s such a gift,” said Dewey.
But it’s not a gift that was just handed out. It was hard-earned. An exhaustive process to select the first Canadian women’s crew came up with the Concord Pacific Racing team of Dewey, captain Isabella Bertold and Maggie Drinkwater, both of Vancouver, and Olympians Mariah Millen of Toronto and Ali Ten Hove of Kingston, Ont.
“I may not be the most talented but I work really hard,” said Dewey, who won a spot as the crew’s starboard trimmer.
“It was a lot of work to make this team but it was a super fun opportunity.”
After graduating from Lambrick Park Secondary, and the University of Victoria with a degree in atmospheric physics, Dewey is studying for her PhD in meteorology at Stockholm University in Sweden.
“I’ve sort of become the team meteorologist and asked to interpret the forecast,” quipped Dewey.
“We have cockpit data screens and simulators like F1 … it’s like a video game.”
But sailing still takes place in nature.
“It’s all about handling the conditions,” noted Dewey, who isn’t ruling out a run to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics in the Laser class.
Those nautical skills were learned, said Dewey, “during those thousands of hours sailing around Cadboro Bay since I was 12 years old.”
She will turn 32 in the midst of the America’s Cup competition next Wednesday: “It will be the best birthday I’ve ever had.”
Canada has not contested the cost-prohibitive America’s Cup in any fashion since the 1980s and Dewey is the first Island sailor to race in the America’s Cup since Olympic-medallist Eric Jespersen of Sidney with challenger semifinalist Canada I in 1983 at Newport, Rhode Island, and with Canada II in 1987 at Freemantle, West Australia.
“The 1980s crewmembers have reached out and offered congratulations to our team,” said Dewey.
“We want to build a legacy and continue the momentum going for women’s sailing. We hope this is a pathway to bigger things. This can’t be the end of it.”
