Saturday 9.30am - Presenter: Stacey Jackson
Lessons from the Pressure Cooker - Women Who Ocean Race: Stacey Jackson shares with us racing tactics and tips that may give you that extra benefit to your sailing, and stories designed to empower you as a woman sailor.
Stacey Jackson
Growing up in Mooloolaba, QLD, Stacey started sailing at the age of 7. Whilst not a champion junior sailor, her passion was always sailing. She sailed dinghies until she moved to Sydney to start a sailmaking apprenticeship aged 18. This move opened doors to racing on famous offshore yachts, such as Ichi Ban, Alfa Romeo 100, Hooligan, Black Jack and Wild Oats XI.
Today Stacey is recognised as one of the world’s leading female professional offshore sailors. She is one of very few women to have competed in two editions of the Volvo Ocean Race, the pinnacle of offshore yacht racing, where she has competed in both an all womens’ crew (2014-2015) and a mixed crew (2017-2018). She has also completed 13 Sydney Hobart races, including winning Line Honours in 2010, as well as creating and skippering a history making first all female professional crew in 2018, who placed second overall.
As an offshore sailor, Stacey is a master of resilience and high performance in incredibly stressful situations. Top level offshore racing involves small crews being at sea in small boats for weeks at a time, often with no real ability receive outside help if things go wrong. The pressure to push the team hard to win a race is always balanced against the increased risk of crew burn out and boat equipment breakage, where one error can cause the yacht to retire from the race. Teamwork, trust and sustainable high performance are critical to success.
Stacey has experienced the highs of race wins, and the lows of mid race disaster, including a dismasting near Cape Horn 12 days into a month long race. She can speak to lessons from her yachting career in:
- Sustained high performance over long periods;
- Performing in lockdown – what COVID and offshore yachting have in common;
- Resilience, crisis management, finding courage and motivation to continue after setbacks;
- Creating and maintaining a growth mindset; and
- Creating strong trust within teams.