Spain’s first female America’s Cup sailor on Victory Challenge

She is Spain’s first female America’s Cup sailor. Her name is Alicia Ageno, she is 38 years old and is navigator for Victory Challenge. She has been recruited ahead of the two-boat training that will take place after the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12, but also to support Johan Barne on land, with data analysis and systems development. “It is great for me to be here, it has been one of my dreams for a long time,” she says.

Before arriving on Victory Challenge she was with the Spanish IMS boat, Azur de Puig. Behind that is Princess Cristina de Borbón, daughter of the Spanish king, Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia. As navigator on Azur de Puig, last year Alicia Ageno won World Championship gold. It was also on that boat that she sailed with Santiago Lange, the Argentinean Olympic medallist who has been Victory Challenge’s traveller since last year and is part of the afterguard, the decision-makers on board an America’s Cup boat.

“Nobody doubts her talent, especially after she had been training with us last autumn. Now that we are a bigger team we can offer her a position. But aside from her specific expertise she is very positive, works hard and is a good team player," says Santiago Lange. Even if Victory Challenge’s two-boat training doesn’t begin until after the Valencia Louis Vuitton Act 12 finishes on 3 July, she is already on site at the base most days of the week.

Two days a week – until this week – she lectures in IT at the technical university in Barcelona, Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña. “I make use of my technical skills when I work with Victory Challenge.” The work that she and Johan Barne, Victory Challenge’s navigator and data analyst since the America’s Cup in Auckland in 2002, also do on land is of vital importance for the team’s progress. “We analyse all the measurements on the boat, analyses that are then used by the sailing team and by those who design boats, masts and sails," says Alicia Ageno.

She also works on developing the software and the system that is the basis for these analyses. “I have sailed since I was 12. I started with dinghies, continued with Mistral and larger boats. After the age of twenty it was large boats. I have sailed with men for the last seven years. It just turned out that way when I wanted to sail larger boats and at the top level,” she says.

Alicia Ageno reached the tough Spanish IMS class, with many top sailors, such as Thierry Pepponet, Dee Smith and Santiago Lange. There she acquired a broader experience and came to be respected in an environment that is dominated by men.

That dominance can also be found in the America’s Cup, even if, in 1995, there was an all-female team among the American boats that then battled to defend the sailing world’s most prestigious trophy. The team was called Mighty Mary and was led by Dawn Riley, who now manages the French Areva Challenge, which is Victory Challenge’s neighbour in the America’s Cup harbour in Valencia. But you have to look long and hard to find more female names among the sailors in an America’s Cup team.