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Meet the 2025 NSGCYR women skippers

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  • 22 Jul, 2025 09:23:00 AM
Meet the 2025 NSGCYR women skippers

Meet the 2025 NSGCYR women skippers

Among the competitors on the 62-yachts competing in the upcoming Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race (NSGCYR) are seven women owners/skippers.

They are on Currawong (Katherine Veel and Beth Higgs), First Light (Elizabeth Tucker), Min River (Jiang Lin), Mako (Emily Sellens), Mondo (Lisa Callaghan), and Supernova (Felicity Nelson).

NSGCYR Media caught up with Lin, Sellens and Veel before the first race of the 2025/26 Audi Centre Blue Water Pointscore.

 

Photo 1: Mondo powering along in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart.  Image: ROLEX/Andrea Francolini

Photo 2: Elizabeth Tucker (left) and Cole Brauer (right) on board First Light.  Image: Elizabeth Tucker

Min River

There’s nothing worse than going offshore feeling under the weather. 

That’s what Jiang Lin, owner and co-skipper of the Double Handed JPK 10.30 Min River is concerned about when the 384 nautical mile NSGCYR starts on 26 July.  

Jiang Lin in Norway.  Image: Jiang Lin

Lin recently returned from a three-month overseas trip and is suffering from a heavy cold. She puts it down to the changes in temperature experienced during her travels. She went from Arctic conditions in Norway to 40-plus degrees in France. 

“Hopefully, I’ll be 100 per cent by the weekend,” Lin said.  

For one month, Lin and three other women lived on board an aluminum sailing yacht while they cruised around Svalbard, a Norwegian archipelago between Norway and the North Pole. 

“It was very different from Min River,” Lin said of the aluminum yacht. “It was nice to see all the glaciers and sail between the icebergs. Facing them was a unique experience.” 

But now Lin’s focus has switched from cruising to race mode. 

Jiang Lin and Francois Guiffant competing in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart.  Image: Salty Dingo

Her co-skipper for the NSGCYR is Jan “Clogs” Scholten, who has had plenty of success on board the J/99 Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth with co-skipper/owner Jules Hall’s. Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth is not in this year’s race as Hall is racing on Whisper in the Rolex Fastnet Race. 

Lin and Scholten know each other well, having sailed together on board Min River in last year’s NSGCYR, where they experienced terrific results. They placed second on Double Handed IRC to Mistral (Rupert Henry and Greg O’Shea). With Mistral not entered this year, there’s an opening for Min River to take the top spot in the Double Handed Division, and potentially even Overall.

Disko Trooper_Contender Sailcloth leaving Sydney Heads in the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart.  Image: CYCA | Ashley Dart

“We get on really well,” Lin said of her partnership with Scholten. “You’ve got to have fun; it’s not just about the result. Especially with double handed, if you can’t talk to the person, it’s not very fun.”    

Lin’s first and foremost priority is to reach the destination without any drama or mishaps.  

“I never say to myself, ‘I need to get to the top of the podium’. I just always want to arrive safely; that’s my main objective,” she said.  

In the 2024 Rolex Sydney Hobart Yacht Race (RSHYR) she placed fourth on Double Handed IRC and in 2023 – third. 

Lin said her impressive results came from surrounding herself with successful sailors. She competed in the 2024 RSHYR with Francois Guiffant, a professional solo sailor and navigator. And on her recent trip to Europe, she sailed with a handful of professional French sailors like Jean-Pierre Kelbert, the designer of the JPK yacht. 

“I think I’ve always been lucky. Actually, luck is not the right word,” Lin said. “I try to sail with people who are better than me, if possible, that way I can learn from them.” 

Currawong

The mighty Currawong is back for its second NSGCYR.  

Co-skippers of the Currawong 30 Katherine Veel and Beth Higgs plan to defend their 2024 NSGCYR win on Double Handed PHS. They were one of two yachts in the division last year. The other double handed competitor Intiy retired due to mainsail damage. 

“It was a bit of a Steven Bradbury, but you know, a win’s still a win,” Veel said with a chuckle. 

The duo is the only all-women crew in the fleet. Veel and Higgs first met in 1989 in another all-women sailing campaign. They were members of Christine Evans’ Belles Long Ranger crew for the 1989 Sydney Hobart, the second ever all-women crew to compete in the race. Higgs was the navigator. 

Katherine Veel and Beth Higgs ahead of the 2024 NSGCYR.  Image: CYCA / Ashley Dart

“We’re both on the same page when it comes to running a boat and what our priorities are. We get on very well,” Veel said. 

Most would remember Veel and former Currawong co-skipper Bridget Canham’s picture perfect 2022 RSHYR finish, when they crossed the Hobart finish line just before the midnight fireworks.  

As to whether Veel will attempt another RSHYR in the Double Handed Division, the veteran sailor said that time will tell. 

“Everyone is saying, ‘Are you going to do another Hobart?’ Well, let’s see how the NSGCYR goes and how we feel after that,” Veel said.  

“I’m not getting any younger. I’m sort of very much under the thought process that if I can still do it, I should, and ‘why not?’ sort of thing.” 

Currawong motors to the dock after it crosses the 2022 RSHYR finish line.  IMage: CYCA

As for women representation in the fleet, Veel couldn’t be prouder. 

“I just love that there are more women sailing now because when I started there were very few of us, and I feel like I have all these playmates now,” Veel said. “It’s great.” 

Mako

The saying too many cooks in the kitchen does not apply to the syndicate of nine who own the Sydney 40 Mako. 

One of the owners and helmsperson Emily Sellens says the set-up works “really well” for the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club (NCYC) boat. 

“We just have the right people in the syndicate. We all complement each other with our skillsets and there’s not usually too many cooks around,” Sellens said with a laugh. “And we have lots of fun on and off the water.”

Designed and built for the 1999 Admiral’s Cup, Mako (formerly Trust Computer Products) was on the winning Dutch team. After that, the yacht raced as Questionable Logic and Pride before a syndicate from NCYC bought her in 2018 to compete in races and regattas on the east coast. 

Sellens joined the syndicate a little over a year ago but crewed on board Mako before making the commitment. 

“I’d only just joined the syndicate before last year’s NSGCYR. So, I’m feeling a bit more comfortable this year in the skipper role,” Sellens said. 

 

Emily Sellens at the helm of Mako.  Image: Mako

She has experienced success on Mako, which placed first on PHS in the 2023 NSGCYR, and second on Division 1 PHS in the 2024 RSHYR. In February, Mako placed first on PHS in the Adelaide to Port Lincoln Yacht Race. 

“We’ve been doing alright lately,” Sellens said. 

Sellens hopes to keep up the good work, starting with the 2025 NSGCYR. The crew aim to replicate their 2023 win on PHS Overall.  

“We’d like to win it back from two years previous. But we’ll see, you never know.”

Mako making its way to the 2024 RSHYR finish line.  Image: Salty Dingo

As for women representation on the water, Sellens, a SheSails Committee Member at NCYC, is proud to be a yacht owner and hopes more women follow in her path. 

“Owning the boat and having these opportunities to skipper and to be on the SheSail Committee is making me aware that other women in sailing look to people like me for guidance,” Sellens said. “And you start to notice people coming up for advice. It’s really nice to be a bit of a role model in the sailing community in Newcastle.” 

HOW TO FOLLOW the Noakes Sydney Gold Coast Yacht Race

Featured image: CYCA / Ashley Dart

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