Hannah Diamond

High impact

From being on board for that crash at the Sydney SailGP to opening doors for female pro sailors, HANNAH DIAMOND chats to Georgie Corlett-Pitt

It was a jaw-dropping impact that saw fans around the world recoil from their screens, as the bow of Team Great Britain sliced dramatically down through the starboard hull of Team Japan. As the Japanese boat abruptly stopped in its tracks, crew members that had been flung across the boat recovered to their feet – thankfully uninjured - to question what had just happened.

The incident, just seconds before the start of race three, was quickly dubbed by the media as the ‘craziest crash’ in SailGP’s history; almost as quickly, GBR’s skipper Ben

Ainslie put his hand up and offered his boat to rival skipper Nathan

Outteridge so the Japanese team could compete on day two of the event. For the Brits that was them out of the event and out of the running for the overall season title.

For those on board with Ainslie, it was a surreal moment; while anticipation of what was about to unfold only served to heighten the drama for those watching, the crew were, by admission, oblivious to the impending collision as they focused their attention forwards and on the American boat to leeward. Only afterwards, a realisation of what had happened brought the magnitude of the impact home.

“It happened in a split second,” says Team Great Britain’s Hannah Diamond, who was racing for the first time in SailGP during the Sydney event as part of the series’ Women’s Performance Programme, introduced last summer to fast track elite female sailors.

“We’ve replayed it in our minds thousands of times to think what we could have done and at what point could we have avoided it,” she explains. “It didn’t feel that scary until afterwards because the moment that we realised that there was an issue was the same moment that the impact happened.

“Things just change so quickly on those boats. In the pre-start when you’re jostling for position, there are certain areas in the boat which are really hard to see through; you always try to have someone checking that. When you’re racing it’s easier because everyone’s got a direction they’re heading towards, even if you are on different tacks or gybes; but in the pre-start, it’s a lot more difficult because boats are trying to accelerate and decelerate, avoid other boats, and they can be moving in any direction. We just weren’t able to see the Japanese boat until it was too late.”

You can see Hannah is still processing the incident when we speak, even if a return flight from down under and the Christmas break mean a fair bit of time has passed. It’s left her with an overwhelming realisation of just what it takes to handle these boats, as she describes being on board as “a big responsibility” and expresses her amazement and relief that no-one was injured.

“At the time, it didn’t seem like a

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Competing for the first time with Ainslie and the British team as part of the SailGP Women's Pathway Programme

PHOTOS BOB MARTIN, SALTY DINGO/SAILGP; RICHARD LANGDON/RYA;

particularly risky manoeuvre to be doing,” she says. “It’s really difficult when so many people have invested so much into a campaign like that. The risks are high, the rewards are high, and unfortunately this time we sailed the wrong side of that.”

Smashing 53 knots

The team will take time to re-group before the season Final in San Francisco, USA at the end of March, and Hannah says there is plenty of resolve. It’s still to be confirmed who the female sailor will be for that - and future events (the British team has a rotation system in place with several top female sailors they can call on) but Hannah is hopeful for more opportunities.

“I do love this high performance, fast boat-fast decision making, high risk-high reward type of sailing. It’s so unique; you don’t get that kind of buzz from doing anything else,” she says. “The F50s are really different. You’ve got speed and close quarters racing but with high loads, hydraulics and electronics. For me that’s been the challenge, also the appeal; it’s a combination of those things coming together - on steroids! It is the top level racing, the top sailors, the newest technology, all in one place, and definitely as a female sailor there’s not that many times when we get to be involved in that.”

She describes the first time she stepped on board an F50 for a practice session in Plymouth last summer - when the Women’s Pathway Programme was first trialled - as a “baptism of fire”.

“At the time it felt really fast. I was sat at the back with Goody (Paul Goodison) driving. We were entering the start zone on port tack a little late, and all the other boats were approaching on starboard. I was looking for a gap and realising we were doing 30 knots this way, the other boats are doing 30 knots that way, and just wondering where we were going to go? The start box felt absolutely tiny!”

Not long after, she joined the team for further training at the Aarhus event, and was on board when the British boat set a new F50 speed record of 53.1 knots Of that experience she says: “53 knots in flat water in sight of land feels about comparable to 30 knots surfing down a wave in the Southern Ocean a few thousand miles from land in terms of fear, adrenaline and sheer amazement.”

But it meant that 30 knots had quickly become the norm. Even with

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Caught on camera: the moment Ainslie's F50 sliced Team Japan's hull in half during the Sydney SailGP

BELOW

Hannah's career as a pro sailor has included an Olympic campaign in the mixed Nacra 17 very little training time (just two days practice is permitted for each event) and a near-vertical learning curve, Hannah feels she has been able to acclimatise relatively quickly to these boats thanks to her determination to study as much as possible about techniques and tactics in advance, and a tailored fitness programme.

Driving change

Hannah's ability to adapt is a strength she attributes to a broad mix of sailing experiences. She started sailing in Optimists as a youngster on the river Hamble, and remembers being inspired by Shirley Robertson’s gold medal win at the 2000 Olympics, citing her as the only visible female role model at the time. For a long time, the Olympics were her sole ambition as she moved into 29ers, Laser Radials and then the Nacra 17. But narrowly missing out on a spot for the 2016 Olympics sent her sailing career on an altogether different trajectory, which saw her join Vestas 11th Hour Racing in the 2017-18 Volvo Ocean Race, and more recently, various offshore crewed and double-handed campaigns, as well as coaching keelboats.

Alongside that, she is studying for a degree in Physio (adding to an MSc in Sports Medicine) a qualification she hopes will extend her knowledge and complement her capabilities as a professional sailor. But there’s no doubt that her main focus is on developing her sailing career. With the introduction of SailGP’s Women’s Pathway and the recent announcement that there will be a Women’s America’s Cup raced in the new AC40 class – more opportunities for female sailors to compete at

the highest levels are slowly taking shape. Hannah is excited to be a part of that. “The junior sailors of today are looking up to opportunities that didn’t exist when anyone who was sailing at this level now was that age. We are just kick-starting that, but it’s about getting some momentum and keeping it moving forwards.”

But for Hannah and other women like her who are determined to forge their careers as pro sailors, there is the obvious - if awkward - question I just have to ask...

To what extent are these new opportunities truly changing things?

In the few months since it was introduced, SailGP’s Female Pathway Programme has rapidly evolved from merely allowing female sailors on board for training to stipulating a new crew configuration of six sailors (four in light winds) in order to include female sailors for racing. It’s this ‘sixth sailor spot’ that Hannah and her peers are currently filling.

So, what are they gaining from it? When Hannah initially describes the role as “passive”, I’m prepared for disappointment. But as she quickly makes it clear, there are positives in that this provides a low risk way for newcomers to learn the boat, which makes sense when you consider that the majority of female sailors, while they have the capability to develop the necessary skillset, have not really ever had exposure to this sort of sailing before.

And already, progress is being felt. She says: “If we had been having this conversation a couple of months ago my answer would have been different, but it’s encouraging to see the way that the concept is already evolving, and has potential to evolve even further.

“The racing is so quick that while the boat can be sailed by five, I think ultimately you will end up giving more responsibility to that sixth person. Importantly, that will unload some of the other crew. The intensity in the racing as it is is insane, things change so quickly and you do miss things. I think the level of racing will increase if you regularly have a sixth person, who can add real value because the five people in front of them are already completely overloaded with information from other boats, the screens showing all of the settings and so on. And the more sailing the female sailors can do, the more value they can add to the team.”

Hannah credits the current SailGP sailors for helping drive this change, and says that, where previously as the sole female sailor in an all-male team she has felt the need to have an “elbows out” approach to be seen or heard, with SailGP and the British team in particular, that has not been the case. “The British team has been so welcoming,” she says. They’ll give you any time they can to pass on their knowledge; some of them have been sailing these boats for nearly 10 years now.”

Numbers game

For female sailors to feel completely comfortable operating at this level, however, there’s still a long way to go. Hannah sees it as a numbers game and says it’s crucial to keep pushing for opportunities. That the Women’s America’s Cup will now provide a pinnacle high performance event for female sailors should have a radical impact; each Cup team

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SailGP's sixth sailor spot may literally be the 'back seat' but it is providing Hannah and others with a much-needed opportunity to learn

BELOW

Hannah in the 201718 Volvo Ocean Race, which had incentives for teams to include female sailors is required by the rules to enter the all-women’s event, which is also open to non-Cup teams.

“The Women’s America’s Cup Trophy should really accelerate things; you’re going to need not just one sailor per team, but a whole team of female sailors,” says Hannah.

No doubt there are plenty of female sailors who can’t wait to get involved, but teams will need to be ready and willing to fast track their development.

“I know from my Olympic campaign that the best way to accelerate your learning is to surround yourself with people who are more experienced than you. If female sailors can shortcut their learning in a really high performance environment, they can be competitive at the top of the sport - and that’s how the male sailors do it. They join a team and their learning is accelerated because they’re surrounded by people who are more experienced than them. It’s a question of how do we continue that pathway for female sailors?

“It’s not something that can change overnight; it’s going to take years rather than months for the opportunities to become equal, but I think slowly but surely we’re making steps in the right direction.”

The Women’s America’s Cup means Hannah now has another goal to pursue. Ultimately, she says, her ambition is to push herself at “the forefront of the sport” and compete with the best in the world, whether male or female. “I want to see how far I can get,” she says with a determined smile. As a next step, the Women’s America's Cup fits the bill nicely.