Five years ago Olympic silver medallist Nina Curtis was serving champagne to A-listers in Bermuda ahead of an America’s Cup event.
The then 29-year-old, however, got whisked away from her duties not long after.
“I don’t think I was tidy enough,” Curtis quips.
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It proved to be a sliding doors moment as she found herself on the docks catching lines.
Then it hit the organisers.
“Oh, you actually know how to sail,” Curtis recalls how organisers responded when they saw her at home on the water.
From there she was asked to commentate on the event and provide on-water security for Princess Anne to ensure “they didn’t get in the way of the racing”.
It was all because she got “booted out of the fancy lounge”.
For Curtis, it was “the best day” and it continued the Australian’s rise through the choppy waters of professional sailing.
Curtis, as well as compatriot Haylee Outteridge, the brother of world class sailor Nathan, had taken a punt by heading to Bermuda to put themselves front and centre of the sailing world.
The move paid off for Curtis, but she was keen not to be viewed as just a commentator.
“I’ve always been worried about taking these roles because it pigeonholes you not as a sailor,” she said.
“But at the same time for me, I got to watch it, I was close to it. You’re kind of putting yourself front of mind for the sailors and you’re really showing your passion and interest.
“I have to say, like, at the time, I was worried that I would pigeonhole myself as a commentator or whatever, but all you want to do is go sailing.”
Curtis grew up in a sailing-loving family on Sydney’s northern beaches.
While her friends would drop off the sport one by one throughout their high school years, the Avalon local just wanted to sail.
She took silver at the 2012 London Games, where Australia’s sailing team including Tom Slingsby and Outteridge won gold.
But for Curtis, professionalism represented something different to many of her male colleagues.
The Olympic programs would help fund her way around the world, but it wouldn’t provide her with an income.
“I ended up pulling out of Olympic sailing (in 2017) because I wanted to move out of home,” she said. “I was (almost) 30 years old.
“I was travelling a lot but I was still having to live with my mum because I couldn’t pay rent because you don’t have any time to work because you put in all your energy and time into sailing.”
Up until then, she would take anything to help her get some money on the side.
“I scrubbed the bottom of boats in shipyards for $6.50 an hour,” she chuckled. “I was working two bar jobs and whoever would pay me at that stage. I was a receptionist, I did a bit of everything.”
Eventually she bit the bullet and she moved to Washington DC, where she had some friends who could put her to work and allow her the freedom to chase her sailing dream.
It wasn’t long before she found a breakthrough, as an injury paved the way for her to complete a “dream” and join Team Brunel in the Volvo Ocean Race.
“I just jumped at that and joined the team halfway,” she said.
“I did my first leg, which was the Southern Ocean leg, where we sailed around Cape Horn.
“It was terrifying.
“I hadn’t done much ocean racing before then but just loved it.
“That’s when you really know you love sailing when it’s snowing on board the boat, you don’t get any sleep, the food’s absolute rubbish and you’re still just waking up after every shift just stoked.”
She had a history in match and fleet racing – on 49ers and Nacra 17s – which gave Curtis a broad experience.
She continued to race some of Australia’s best sailors such as Jason Waterhouse, Kyle Langford, Sam Newton and Kinley Fowler on the water.
Her success in the sport saw her reach out to Slingsby when word filtered through that a new competition called SailGP, with regular events and offering prize money, was on the cusp of being announced.
Unfortunately for Curtis, she was not heavy enough to be considered as viable crew member.
It was a tough pill to swallow for Curtis.
“I was gutted,” she said.
The women’s pathway program implemented by SailGP soon after however changed that, allowing Curtis to compete for an opening on board.
“(Team) Australia had so much interest,” she said. “I mean, obviously, these guys are at the top of their game and some on our team are the best of the best in terms of sailors.
“So I put my hand up for that.
“I had a connection with every single one of the team members. I was on the same team as Tom at the London Olympics.
“Kyle (Langford) and I grew up match racing together. We raced against each other in the youth match racing competitions.
“Jason (Waterhouse), I’d been competing against in the Nacra butting heads for four years.
“And Sam and Kinley and I grew up match racing against them in all the youth competition.
“I guess those guys kind of knew what I was capable of, but probably knew how passionate I was. I probably wouldn’t stop harassing (them) if they didn’t give me a look in, so I got selected for the trial … Lisa Darmanin and I got selected to go to Bermuda.
“From there they selected me for the rest of the season.”
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Curtis hasn’t looked back, nor has the women’s program, with every F50 catamaran requiring a woman on-board.
Curtis doesn’t dance around the gender gap. She recognises it is “complicated” and says “they’re making space for us”.
Although, she adds: “They’ve literally added a position on the boat for us and I’ve got to understand that I’m also joining a highly functional team – these guys are the best and probably don’t have that many gaps to fill, don’t need much more information.
“Especially on this team, every single athlete has done an America’s Cup campaign, which is what this whole program has been modelled on, and Kyle helped design this whole wing and how it operates and the control system for it and everything.
“You could not think of any better athlete to put in any position there. They’ve been doing it from the very beginning and they’ve won the whole time. And so it was quite daunting coming in, but we’re finding our way.”
Curtis has been at the forefront of the integration of women in sailing. There are few other sports where women compete alongside their male colleagues in the premier competitions within it.
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She says attitudes have shifted over time, but admits she has taken a “softly-softly” approach to integrating with men rather than coming in all guns blazing.
“Depending on the person (attitudes can change in) a few minutes to a few hours to a few days, but all of a sudden you can see the penny drops and they’re like, ‘Oh, you actually are the same, you want to win and you’re doing your best to try to win,’ and then it’s fine,” she said.
What the end goal is with women’s sailing, particularly at SailGP, remains to be seen.
But Curtis believes there is no reason why women can’t have their own team in time and race against their male colleagues.
Given the limited numbers of women sailing on the specialised foiling F50s though, she says any team would need some men to help train them.
“I definitely want to see female athletes in those race positions like helm, wing trim, fly control, the grinding, I don’t think it is physically impossible to have female athletes as well,” she said.
