Gemma Jones has grown up in the America’s Cup.
As a one-year-old, she was in San Diego when her father, Murray Jones, became famous as the ‘Man up the Mast’ in Team New Zealand’s historic triumph at the 1995 America’s Cup.
She has been to every Cup regatta since – travelling the globe with the world’s oldest sporting trophy, and going to school with other Cup kids wherever the event landed.
But now, at 30 – back in the sport after a few years on land – Gemma Jones finally has the chance to sail in an America’s Cup, as a member of the first Emirates Team New Zealand women’s crew.
“It’s a familiar environment, that’s for sure,” Jones laughs. “It’s quite natural to aspire to do something you’ve grown up around, and as I sailed as a kid, it’s sort of what I looked up to.
“But it definitely feels like a long time coming for a women’s event like this, so it’s very welcome.”
The venue for the first Women’s America’s Cup holds special significance to Jones, too. Barcelona is where her mum, Jan Shearer, won Olympic silver in 1992 in the women’s 470 class with Leslie Egnot (who incidentally helmed the first all-women’s America’s Cup crew, on the US defence contender Mighty Mary, in 1995).
So has she hit up her knowledgeable parents for any Cup advice? Especially her dad, a six-time America’s Cup winner who helped coach Team NZ to victory in Bermuda in 2017?
“I try not to, but Dad seems to give me unwanted advice all the time,” Jones says.
“But it’s very good to have a little ‘Sailing Dictionary’ at home who I can ask any question. I found that growing up to be quite an advantage.
“Mum and Dad were pretty excited when I got selected – they booked their accommodation in Barcelona that day.”
The opportunity to sail in an America’s Cup has come just when Jones wasn’t looking for it.
A sailor at the 2016 Rio Olympics, she took a break from the sport three years ago, to turn her attention to a very different profession. She’s now a senior business consultant with multinational professional services firm EY in Auckland.
“Now that I’m working, it’s come when I least expected it, but I’m really happy to have the opportunity to step back in,” Jones says.
She admits it wasn’t a simple decision to throw her hat into the ring for the AC40 women’s crew.
“Yeah, it was tricky because I wasn’t at my peak,” she says. “I’d been sailing full-time for pretty much my whole life until three years ago. So I was worried I might be lagging behind a bit after being out of the game for a while. I wasn’t sure how sharp I’d be getting back into it.”
But the two-time Youth Worlds sailor surprised herself with how quickly she came to grips with things again – even if the sailing so far has been on a simulator inside the Team NZ base on Auckland’s Waterfront, rather than out on the water in the AC40 (still making its way home from last December’s AC Preliminary Regatta in Jeddah).
And Jones was also surprised to see how her corporate job off the water has translated to her sailing expertise.
“Having done something different, I’ve learnt new skills. I actually found I was a lot better in areas I didn’t think I would be, from working in a bigger team, to being a lot more organised and just seeing a different style of operating,” she says.
“The work I do is also performance driven, but in a business capacity, so it’s surprisingly similar to sailing. But what I like more about sailing is that there’s a simple goal of winning on a certain date. You’re given the tools and a timeline, and you can measure how you’re going. That’s something I’ve really missed.”
She also feels the playing field has been levelled with the AC40 – all the sailors having to learn to “push buttons and move dials” instead of pulling on ropes or grinding handlebars.
The game has certainly changed since Jones was there the first time New Zealand lifted the Cup three decades ago, sailed in traditional International America’s Cup Class yachts that were 25m long with 17 crew. (Today’s AC40 is just over 11m long and sailed by four crew).
“But that’s the good thing about the America’s Cup – it’s always changing. Always developing, and pushing the rest of sailing,” Jones says.
“Things have changed in terms of technology for sure. But it’s still the fastest boat wins and it’s still all about working well as a team.”
Jones is the most versatile member of the Team NZ women’s crew. She’s the only one of five sailors who’s learning the nuances of both driving and trimming the foiling monohull.
“I think you become better by knowing how to do both,” she says.
But Jones admits she still has work to do on sharpening her decision-making skills.
“Sailing is quite intuitive in terms of trimming a sail or steering a boat. But when it comes to racing around the course, where you come up to a boundary with other boats, you don’t have much time to think,” she says. “I’m having to remember the tactics of it – which is maybe why I’m so tired in the afternoon when we’re training!
“But that sharpness will come back to me the more I do it.”
Jones gets the chance to fully focus on sailing when she and her crewmates join Team NZ full-time in May, working closely with the team through to the Women’s America’s Cup in October.
Her employers have fully supported her taking a break to chase sailing’s latest prize.
“EY have been really good to me,” Jones says. “This is my third year there and they supported me to do a couple of legs in the Ocean Race last year, but this year’s a lot more time off.
“They’re all excited as well – our office is in Britomart overlooking the harbour, so they’ll be able to watch us out training.”
Jones and her Nacra 17 partner, Jason Saunders, finished an agonising fourth, narrowly missing the medal dais at the Rio Olympics. She then stepped away from sailing after an unsuccessful campaign to sail at the Tokyo Olympics, ready to take a break.
In 2020 she went to the University of Auckland to finish her degree – a Bachelor of Commerce, in economics and management – before joining EY. But spending every day behind a desk was not an easy transition.
“The hardest part was being really good at something and then having to start fresh again, right at the bottom,” she says.
“It’s a bit of a hit to the ego, but then you have a steep learning curve again which is also really fun because can see your progress. It’s been the perfect environment for me – the office is really fun, with lots of people my age all working together.
“I don’t have any pull to go back to Olympic sailing. I feel I’ve satisfied that part of my life. I’m enjoying other types of sailing with different people now.”
Last year, she was called up to sail in the round-the-world Ocean Race, on board Polish entry, WindWhisper Racing (skippered by Kiwi Daryl Wislang) for two European sprint legs. It was her first experience of offshore racing – part of a record 39 female sailors who took part in the race.
“I was a bit nervous about how I’d go – I love my sleep and sometimes I get seasick. So I was surprised how much I loved it,” she says. “I loved the navigation side. And the sights we saw as we were going around were like nothing else.
“I’m addicted now to do more. Whether it’s in a racing capacity or cruising capacity, I don’t mind.”
It also spurred Jones to try out for a place in the first Team NZ women’s crew.
“Being part of the first Women’s America’s Cup is pretty important, and that’s going to feel really great come the event,” says Jones, who commentated on the last Cup. “Knowing the journey a lot of women in history have taken so we can reach this goal is really cool.”
She also feels fortunate to be reunited with her old sailing friends – Erica Dawson, Jo Aleh, Molly Meech and Liv Mackay.
“We used to race against each other since we were really young; we’re all so close and we’ve been through all sorts together. It’s so nice hanging out with them again,” she says.
“The excitement in Barcelona is going to be very high. But we’re a pretty tight crew, so there won’t be any surprises.”
- Read Part One: Peacemaker to Am Cup sailor here
