Jump to content

Womens Sailing - Equality


Recommended Posts

It's time we updated those responsible for our fantastic sport.
This report below is a travesty in this day and age, and is also likely illegal! ISAF, get with the century!

 

The Coady family were members of Sandringham Yacht Club (SYC) in Melbourne, Australia. Atanosios Papantonio was the Boating Manager of SYC. He had previously made comments that Stephanie Coady should not be sailing a 49er. One week prior to the Sailing World Cup - Sail Melbourne 2014, he verbally abused Stephanie's father Paul Coady, while preparing Stephanie's boat and ordered her boat removed from SYC permanently. Atanosios was also the Professional Race Officer (PRO) for SWC Sail Melbourne 2014. Stephanie had previously completed an SYC form for boat storage and had been notified of approval for storage that year. She was training along with other Sail Melbourne competitors and, no other competitor was told to remove their boat.

 

Stephanie entered the SWC Sail Melbourne 2014 in the Olympic Class 49er. She completed all required paperwork and presented at registration and measuring as helm of the boat. Stephanie was known well by the PRO, the 49er IRO and 49er race officials. It was known that Stephanie had been training in the 49er for the SWC 2014. World Sailing also published on their website, sailing.org, an article on the event highlighting Stephanie competing against the men as an example of the diversity of the competitors.

 

Stephanie sailed the first day of racing and retired early due to a damaged spinnaker pole. Before the second day racing she and Paul were approached by the PRO (Atanosios) and told they were in violation of the gender rules in the Notice of Race (NOR). Paul explained that this was in violation of discrimination law. The PRO subsequently verbally abused Paul and Stephanie. The PRO was later joined by a member of the International Jury (IJ). Paul requested that a protest be lodged in accordance with the Racing Rules of Sailing (RRS) before any action was taken. This was agreed by the PRO. Paul also explained they would not sail if a protest was lodged. An email was immediately sent to the event organisers asserting Stephanie's rights under discrimination law.

 

After waiting for 2 hours, no protest was lodged, so Stephanie sailed to the race area. She was followed by members of the IJ in a boat. Stephanie was verbally abused by other competitors with foul language and yelled at to get of the course. The IJ were laughing at the abuse directed at Stephanie. Stephanie was 16 years old at the time. Upon returning from the days racing Paul was informed by race officials that Stephanie had been disqualified from the regatta.

 

Paul met with the Director of Sail Melbourne, Mark Turnbull, who suggested Stephanie continue to sail but without earning ISAF/World Sailing points. Paul agreed on the condition that results be recorded to ensure points could be earned in the event the decision to disqualify was unlawful. Mark agreed and stated he would just need to get approval from the IJ and Yachting Victoria.

 

The PRO and IJ organised a meeting that night with representatives from Yachting Victoria and Sandringham Yacht Club and race officials. Stephanie and Paul were not invited. Mark Turnbull was also not invited.

 

Paul was contacted that night and told that a meeting had been convened with the PRO, IJ, YV and SYC and, that all parties were in agreement and confident the matter would be resolved. Paul was also informed that a protest had been lodged as he had requested and that he was required to attend a meeting that night. Paul was subsequently ambushed, on his own, in a blatant kangaroo court. The IJ decided that by competing in a men's event with a female helm, he committed gross misconduct and brought the sport into disrepute. They also decided that the assertion of legal rights was a violation of rule 3 ("not to resort to any court of law or tribunal") of the RRS. Stephanie's boat was disqualified from the entire event.

 

Paul requested of SYC that Stephanie be allowed to sail her 49er free of discrimination in club sailing and be allowed to keep her boat at the club, as agreed. At the time approximately 100 boats were kept at the yard. All requests were denied and the Coady family were forced to cancel their membership.

 

Stephanie and Paul started federal legal action early 2014. World Sailing threatened that if Stephanie's case were to proceed they would cease Olympic class sailing in Australia. The Coadys stated their intention, if the threat was executed, to pursue World Sailing for the exclusion of women from the 49er class at SWC Sail Weymouth and Portland UK under similar provisions in UK legislation for discrimination in the supply of services. World Sailing stated by email that Stephanie was excluded from the 49er class at SWC Weymouth and Portland 2015 on the basis of her gender.

 

The case of discrimination is currently with the Federal Circuit Court of Australia.

 

World Sailing recently announced SWC events will no longer be held in Australia. Sail Melbourne has conducted Olympic class sailing under the Olympic sailing format for over a decade. World Sailing also announced a similar decision for Sail Weymouth and Portland UK. Australia is the #1 ranked country in the SWC for 2015/16 with 28 medals and Great Britain is the #2 ranked country with 22 medals.

 

At all times the Coady family have ensured that the best of legal advice and representation has been sought. Very thorough legal analysis has been undertaken before any claims have been made. The Coady family have been advised and represented by specialist discrimination lawyers including Peter Hull, James McDougall and Chris Ronalds. Paul Coady also holds a master's degree in commercial law.

 

Yachting Victoria sought no legal advice before disqualifying Stephanie in response to the formal complaint of discrimination.

 

The 49er Skiff

 

49er_skiff.jpg

 

The 49er skiff is a high performance two-handed (two person) sailing boat designed for crews weighing around 150 kgs. The 49er was selected as the men’s high performance two-handed boat for the 2000 Olympics. As a result of Olympic selection, the 49er also became a World Sailing (formerly International Sailing Federation) class with a World Championship regatta held every year. A series of Sailing World Cup regattas are also held in a number of Countries. The Sail Melbourne regatta is one of the Sailing World Cup regattas.
The two roles of the competitors on the boat are called the helm (skipper) and the crew. The crew is responsible for hoisting and lowering the spinnaker, controlling the spinnaker sheets (ropes), and balancing the boat. Due to the large sail area and spinnaker size, strength and stamina of the crew is important. The helm is responsible for steering of the boat. Strength and stamina of the helm is not a particular advantage. This has been established in other sports that involve steering for example harness racing, horse racing, monster truck racing, rally car driving etc where women compete with the men.
Stephanie Coady is the helm of a 49er. She sails with male crew due to no female crews being available. They entered into the Sail Melbourne regatta in December 2014 and were disqualified after the second day of sailing due to breach of the Olympic gender requirements for the men’s 49er class.
Mixed (male and female) crews have in the past competed in the Sailing World Cup regattas and the World Championship. One mixed crew was ranked 19 on the World rankings. Mixed crews have always been female helm and male crew.
The FX is a variation of the 49er designed for female crews around 120kgs. It is the same boat with a shorter mast and smaller sail area.

 

In 2012 a replacement was sought for the Olympic Women's Elliott 6m Match Racing class. The FX was selected as the women’s two-handed skiff for the 2016 Olympic Games replacing women’s match racing (http://www.sailing.o...lider_footer_01). The FX World Sailing class was included in the World Championships and the Sailing World Cup regattas.
No formal announcement or press release has ever been made by World Sailing detailing the exclusion of mixed crews from competing in the men’s 49er class. The World Sailing 49er class rules (http://www.sailing.o...pment/20102.php) do not exclude mixed crews: “The crew shall consist of two persons.”

 

Discrimination

 

The Sex Discrimination Act 1984 gives effect to Australia's obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (UNCEDAW) and certain aspects of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 156.

 

This case although made under provisions in the same legislation, has two separate components: a civil complaint of sex discrimination and, a criminal complaint of victimisation after the assertion of human rights.

 

 

 

Section 22(1) of the SDA provides:

 

  • (1) It is unlawful for a person who, whether for payment or not, provides goods or services, or makes facilities available, to discriminate against another person on the ground of the other person's sex, …:
  • (a) by refusing to provide the other person with those goods or services or to make those facilities available to the other person;
  • B) in the terms or conditions on which the first-mentioned person provides the other person with those goods or services or makes those facilities available to the other person; or
  • © in the manner in which the first-mentioned person provides the other person with those goods or services or makes those facilities available to the other person.

 

 

Yachting Victoria (YV) was the organising authority for SWC Sail Melbourne and responsible for the race officers and the International Jury. YV entered into contract with Stephanie to provide services for her to participate in the Sailing World Cup – Sail Melbourne in the 49er Men’s class. YV subsequently on the advice of the International Jury repudiated the contract without grounds, based on her gender.

 

Section 5(2) of the SDA details indirect discrimination where:

the discriminator imposes, or proposes to impose, a condition, requirement or practice that has, or is likely to have, the effect of disadvantaging persons of the same sex as the aggrieved person.

 

The gender based condition for eligibility to compete in the 49er class was impossible for Stephanie to comply with and, served no reasonable purpose for ensuring competition or served any other reasonable purpose. Stephanie had sought assistance from YV and the International 49er Association and was still unable to find a female crew. In contrast male crews are in abundance.

 

Victimisation

 

It is a strategy for discriminators to indirectly attack the victim by targeting others with a relationship with the victim. By doing this the discriminator is able to inflict damage on the victim while at the same time deny discriminating against the victim. Both the SDA and the UNCEDAW have provisions, for both the aggrieved person and third parties, for victimisation after asserting human rights.

 

Section 94(2) of the SDA sets out the criminal victimisation provisions which include if the Respondent/s subjects or threatens to subject another person to any detriment on the ground that the other person:

 

has reasonably asserted, or proposes to assert, any rights of the person or the rights of any other person under this Act or the Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986.”

 

The assertion of rights under discrimination law was made both verbally and in writing before disqualification action was taken. So that the allegation could not be levelled against them in the future of discriminating against Stephanie directly, a meeting convened with the PRO, the IJ, SYC and YV, decided to target Paul Coady with a kangaroo court and disciplinary action based upon the gender of Stephanie. Subsequent victimisation consisted of a further 4 blatant kangaroo courts and a 12 month ban recently executed. The kangaroo courts were conducted without any remote consideration for natural justice and were based upon fabricated evidence, lies and exaggerations. More information is detailed in "the facts" section of this site.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the gender test should not be a question of actual anatomy but one of whether the person has the balls to sail those boats in all conditions.

 

In which case I'd be disallowed even though I pee standing up.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mark, it is an interesting discussion point as gender bias is illegal. To me it is unclear how you can in fact run a gender specific event - although it is done all the time.

However, what is much more of an issue (to me) in this case, is the appalling way that this has been handled. Very un-PC, and totally unprofessionally. This girl has effectively been kicked out of their sailing club in the most reprehensible way possible. IMO.

Link to post
Share on other sites

The summary of this story is that Sail Melbourne, and then ISAF (now World Sailing, our governing body) absolutely shafted a 16 year old girl who was competing in a regatta. She had trained for it and had her entry formally accepted.

 

She was not offered any natural justice, and was not given a fair go. She requested a protest be lodge against her, so they could address the issues in a proper manager. She was just shafted mid-regatta.

 

Shafted to the point of being verbally abused by club officials, race officers and other competitors, and then instructed to remove her boat from the Club storage, while 100 other boats remained, even though she had paid for, and the Club accepted to store it for that full season.

 

As I fund this World Body, via compulsory levies paid to YNZ, I have a problem with this, more so that I'm a father of a young girl who loves boats....

 

I would ask for comment from YNZ, but they are probably too busy building a white elephant Takapuna.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Opens a can of worms. If events can not be gender specific the that effectively ends the olympics for women in almost all sports, changes all school sport with a dramatic fall off in participation mainly among girls. 

Agree with IT though to treat anybody this way regardless of their age, gender, religion or race is disgusting. 

Hasn't Atanosios Papantonio brought the sport into disrepute and shouldn't he be banned.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree that it has been handled badly, though that may be true of the Coady's as well as SYC and WS. The NOR is extremely clear:

 

 

3.5. Olympic gender requirements will apply for each Olympic class event. 

 

So whether that is reasonable or not, you have to wonder what exactly they thought was going to happen.

 

And if it's not reasonable and/or legal for an Olympic class to hold gender-specific events then presumably the same logic applies to every other sporting event you can think of. Seems like a can of worms to me, but it is the crux of the issue. Not that it's not worth debating, but it seems like it might be worth a more measured discussion than setting up a whole website to advocate for one side of the argument while also launching federal legal proceedings.

 

As far as I can tell, their objective is nothing less than the elimination of any and all gender-specific sporting events:

 

This case has serious ramifications for all Olympic sports, not just sailing and, for countries bidding as host Nation of the Olympic Games. It is unacceptable that a sport's governing body should give preference to Countries with a legal regime that is favourable to discrimination. It is also unacceptable that a sport's governing body should deliberately and maliciously disrespect the human rights laws of the Country in which they are a guest. If Stephanie's case is upheld, it will establish the obligation for all sports to respect the human rights laws under which participants have legal protection.

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Seems like the fundamentals of this are pretty interesting, but this particular situation appears to have been really badly handled.

 

It's common to allow divisions for gender/weight/ability or other things across many sports. But generally (as in this case) as long as the person entering isn't at an unfair advantage then what does it hurt to allow them to compete?

 

If a 60kg kid wants to play rugby in the 80kg division, or a Paralympic swimmer wants to compete against able bodied swimmers, most reasonable people would be ok with it as long as it's safe for everyone. The justification for having a separate class in 49ers for women seems to be that they're on average smaller/not as strong, so what are the organisers worried about?

 

Can only assume they've decided it's not fair as women will have 2 chances to enter while men wouldn't be able to enter the fx, but that seems like a weak argument to me.

 

On a similar note, have people here seen the new crewing options for the volvo boats?

Link to post
Share on other sites

1. If it was "male only" why was she allowed to enter in the first place?

2. As she was permitted to enter, then it should have been honoured to the end, regardless of what people say?

3. If women are at a disadvantage, then surely that is their choice to enter or not, so long as they dont try pull some handicap thing. 

4. I would say (because men and women are different) that in certain circumstances, there will need to be gender bias, however this should be clearly highlighted (i.e. Mens 100m) if not then it should be open to all, and not have some rule. 

5. in events such as this, what difference does it make to where you finish if competing against men or women, apart from (I guess) losing to a girl. As a competitor, you should be focused on winning, and to win you need to be the best, do these people think that there are some women better than them? 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree Willow, which is why these things need to be clearly defined, i.e. mens 49ers or womens 49ers or 49ers, dont leave it up to some small print, hidden away somewhere, and if you do ensure that whoever is accepting entries knows the small print so when applying to enter, they can reject an application on the grounds of ....

 

do not allow a person to enter with a known breach, and then stop them from racing. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Swartie, The limitation of gender was in the Notice of Race, which is precisely where it should be. 

It isn't the responsibility of an organising authority to ensure anyone putting in an entry  is going to comply with restrictions of a notice of race and reject an entry based on that.  This ignores such things as assuming a persons gender based on their name.

It is the responsibility of participants to read the notice of race and ensure that they can comply with it before they enter.

This is very basic, so basic at the level of the World Sailing Cup that I can only conclude that this person was fully cognisant of the restrictions and elected to enter because of a personal agenda.  The odds of entering a world cup without reading a notice of race are for all practical purposes zero.

 

They indirectly admit they knew this in part of their blurble.

 

You should also note that scoring from such an event is often relevant for such things as Olympic qualification so for this event, yes, her participation could directly affect others in an adverse way, it isn't exactly a rum race.

Link to post
Share on other sites

I think it's good to be aware of what constitutes misogyny.

 

Just as it's good to be aware of what constitutes racism.

 

Inadvertent unconscious misogyny (and racism) is alive and well in our and many other societies. Being more aware that some of the phrases we speak habitually every day are derogatory, can only be a good thing. None of us are too old to learn and make ourselves better people.

 

Even things such as the manner in which you refer to your wife when she's not around, can tell others a lot about who you are. Eg. the following sentences:

  1. The Wife won't like that.
  2. My Wife won't like that.
  3. The Missus won't like that.
  4. SWHMBO won't like that.
  5. The Old Lady won't like that.
  6. My Parnter won't like that.
  7. "Real name" won't like that.
  8. Nickname-you'd-use-to-her-face won't like that.

Goes the other way too.

 

The thing is, I think it's important that we learn to tell the difference between a pet name and a derogatory handle. Just as it's important to learn the difference between talking dirty and glorifying sexual assault...

 

Between a compliment and harassment.

 

How does this fit into the current discussion? Sailing is a strongly male dominated area, and many of those in positions of power in this area exhibit the traits I've called out above (including women). Unconscious sexism. We're not always directly or individually to blame for it, it's often part of how we've been brought up, the societal vernacular, and is even deeply rooted in the very language we speak, but we are to blame if we don't learn to recognise it. We are to blame if we are shown it and refuse its existence.

 

Sure, it's not a comfortable feeling to discover that something you've said or done is actually sexist or racist - to be confronted with one's weaknesses or errors - but the bigger man, acknowledges it and learns from it.

 

“A father and son were involved in a car accident and both were taken to hospital. The father died immediately on arrival, but the son survived, so he was taken to the operating theatre for an emergency operation. The surgeon said: “I can’t operate on this boy because he’s my son”. ”...

  • Upvote 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

One father is the sort that rounds around in dresses and has an elevated risk of being a kiddy fiddler.

 

The rest of the post is a bit PC for me sorry Doc. I think it's more for the delicate people whose day isn't complete unless they feel offended about something. How sad it must be to be that selfish and intolerant of your fellow man.

 

One father is dead. One mother is a surgeon...

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...