Aye, aye, Captain! RACHEL'S HOME AT SEA

Since conquering her fear of boats, she'll never be a landlubber again

- Elisabet Easther

It might be 2025, but it's still relatively rare to see women working on commercial marine vessels in New Zealand.

Which makes Rachel McGregor, 44, something of an outlier because she skippers her own custom-built tourist boat on the waters of Otago Harbour.

“People are often fascinated to know how I got into this male-dominated industry,” says Rachel. “And I tell them it all started after I took a tourism course, then landed a job as a wildlife guide at Taiaroa Head. I was 22 at the time and from there, I volunteered on some Port Otago work vessels, from tugs to pilot boats - even the dredger.”

A career on the ocean wasn't the obvious choice for the British Columbia-born Rachel.

“When I was about three, we took a ferry to Vancouver Island and I remember the strange feeling of the 'ground' moving under my feet, and having trouble keeping my balance,” she recalls. “So I was actually quite frightened of boats until I started working on them.”

Since then, it has been a continuous process of learning and upskilling, with Rachel earning her skipper's ticket at the age of 23 and her marine engineer's certificate at 33.