I’m kicking myself because I’m late for the first start—there’s a lot of current for 5 knots of breeze, and my timing to the line is way off. I’m last across the starting line. I’m “Deep 6.”

But this is three-versus-three team racing, so I’m not alone. Ahead, my teammates are scheming how to advance me to the front. They round the first windward mark in second and third. They’ve done their job well, and my crewmates and I claw our way forward. Having practiced how to convert this losing combination, they immediately slow the pace of the race and consolidate against our opponents’ 4-5 positions as we round mark two of the box-shaped racecourse and turn downwind.

If you’re unfamiliar with “3v3” team racing, pay attention because there’s a lot going on as this plays out: Because I am in sixth—and last—place, I’m in better proximity to cover my opponents, but the real gain will be made at mark three. My teammate Ashley Love and her crew are in second place, known as “the 2” in team racing. Meanwhile, once inside the two-boatlength zone (two is standard for team racing), our teammate Janel Zarkowskey and her crew obstruct the opposing team’s 4-5 combination without losing control of either boat. The inside opponent is forced to slow and honor Zarkowskey’s mark-room. The other boat must avoid Zarkowskey and sail extra distance around the outside. The extra maneuvers slow my opponents while I sail past the mark with speed. We are now in a stable winning 2-3-4 combination and notch our first race win—and impressive “double passback”—in the 12-minute race.

After the race, I apologize to Zarkowskey for the hiccup in our start. “This is why we race as a team,” she replies.

With us on this drizzly and still morning in Marblehead Harbor are seven other teams, all in Sonars. We are all here for the National Team Race Invitational for the Thayer Trophy, hosted by Corinthian YC. We have 42 races to finish to complete the double round robin over the next two days. My team, a crew of Chesapeake Bay sailors, is sailing for the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Racing Association. For the third year in a row, Love, our team captain, has secured a grant through CBYRA to cover having 12 of us here, representing the entire Chesapeake Bay community. We’ve competed in this event ever since Corinthian first hosted it three years ago, and we’ve been practicing for it for the past three months. The Gibson Island Yacht Squadron and member Tom Price have been providing generous access to their club-owned Sonars every Monday night; Price ensures the boats are race-ready and even sets marks for our self-organized practices.

Before each Monday practice, Love sends out a call to around 65 sailors from Annapolis, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. Over 12 weeks, men and women with a range of team-racing, keelboat and dinghy experience come to help us build a team and train for the event. This is an intricate and dedicated community effort, and this Thayer Cup is what brings us all together. “The Thayer brings sailing back to a sport with actual teams that people can root for,” Love once told me. “Teams, as opposed to individuals, who are spending time practicing and proving themselves to their clubs or associations. Ultimately, building a team that represents something.”

In our case, we are working to build a women’s team of competent team racers and keelboat sailors. We practice boathandling in the Sonars, try out different crew positions, run passback drills, and orchestrate textbook team-­racing combinations. For some, this is an introduction to team racing. Others enjoy the chance to try new positions for the first time. I’m here to improve my team-race and keelboat skills, and this year, I’m here to win the Thayer Trophy. Having placed second and third in the previous editions, this time I think we might actually be able to win this thing.

But we’re not the only team that’s been training hard. No one is at the Thayer to give team racing a try—it’s an invitational, after all. Through a careful selection process, the Thayer Trophy pulls in the top women’s team-race talent, and in his opening remarks, Corinthian’s commodore, Jim Raisides, gives me chills with his on-point message. “We wanted to create the most competitive three-versus-three with spinnaker women’s team-racing regatta in the country,” he says. “We really felt the opportunity to get incredible talent in the room, intense competition, with something everyone would want to circle on their calendar for the regatta that can’t be missed.

“The first thing was, let’s make this the one that everyone will support, let’s make this the one that everyone spends some time actually practicing for, let’s make this the one that you make that phone call to that bow person you can’t live without and say, ‘Can’t you just miss that wedding to go to the Thayer?’ And hopefully, it’s the one that, by preparing all this time in your local harbor, you strengthened team racing in your area just by the fact that you ­prepared, practiced and introduced new people to it or brought ­people back to the sport.”

This is exactly the case for all of us. We are surrounded by All-Americans, Olympians and national champions. As Raisides speaks, top female sailors from around the country nod heads in agreement. One thing is certain: The excitement for team racing has attracted many talented sailors to this harbor, and we’re all prepared to win.

It’s no surprise then that the racing is tight. After the first day, we are in a four-way tie for second, and Rhode Island’s Bristol YC is in the lead with one extra win. Over wine with my team on Saturday night, we all agree that this is the most competitive Thayer Trophy field yet. This is no coincidence. Miranda Bakos, the regatta chair, says that over the last two years, the event “has been in a growth phase as teams built out their programs, most of which started women’s keelboat team-racing programs from scratch. Now the bar has been raised, and everyone is competitive. It’s less about ­learning and more about perfecting and executing.”

It is difficult to understate the nature of participating in a team-race regatta with more than 80 competitors, an all-female team of umpires, and countless race-committee volunteers and event support. We enjoy dinner together, socializing with women of like minds and enjoying the view of Marblehead Harbor. The band has us dancing on the deck until they stop taking our requests. Whether it’s the music, the exhilaration of team racing, or the crisp glass of rosé, the camaraderie is strong. We are celebrating more than the day’s racing. We are celebrating the work we put in to get here, the support from our communities and clubs, and that together we are part of something greater.

Day two brings Champagne team-racing conditions. My team finishes the second round robin with a score of 6-6. Having lost to a few teams we bested in the first round robin, I’m unsure whether we’ll qualify for the gold round. The top four of seven teams advance, and we know two of those spots are taken by Bristol YC and California’s Newport Harbor YC, which are tied for first with eight wins apiece. That leaves two more teams to advance.

Crackling over the radio, the race committee announces the standings. We lean in to listen, the anticipation hanging heavy in the building breeze. It’s a three-way tie for third: my team, Marblehead’s Eastern YC, and the team from Boston’s MIT Nautical Association. Due to the tiebreaker, one of us will not advance. The race committee then announces that it’s not a clean tiebreaker because we each have a win and a loss to each other across the two round robins. This means the tiebreaker comes down to the places we scored in each race—a nerve-racking cliffhanger. Hanging on to every word coming from the radio while searching my memory for how we placed in each race, we finally hear that we’re fourth. We’re the last team to advance to the gold round. Relief quickly morphs to motivation. We have nothing to lose now.

With scores carrying over from the double round robin, we sit two points behind Newport Harbor and Bristol. Each win in the gold round is worth two points, which means we need to win all three of our races. In our first race against Bristol, we’re outmaneuvered and handedly beaten. Winning is out of the cards for us. Nonetheless, we rally in a close one against Newport Harbor right after and add two points to our score.  Finally, it’s our last race of the regatta. We round mark one with a 2-3-4 against MITNA but lose “the 4” on the downwind through a double cover. I manage to sail straight and fast, barely entering the mark zone ahead to get “the 1.”

Now my job is to pass my teammate ahead. Boosted by a series of boathandling issues from our opponent in “the 2,” we gain a solid hold on the race. It is super close racing, but we beat MITNA to earn ourselves two more points. We have at least clinched third overall, with the final standings determined by the last race.

Our future now depends on what transpires between Bristol and Newport Harbor. Bristol is over early at the pin and red-flagged by the umpires, meaning they must restart and exonerate themselves with a two-turn penalty. This puts them in the Deep 6 right off the bat. Newport rounds mark one with a 2-4-5 combination to Bristol’s 1-3-6. This race will come down to which team is able to execute its passback more effectively as they attempt to convert to more stable winning combinations. On the short leg between marks one and two, Newport converts to a close 2-3-4, but the race has now slowed enough that Bristol’s Deep 6 is back within striking distance. 

Newport holds the 2-3-4 on the downwind, but things get interesting from mark four to the finish. Newport finishes in “the 1,” and while only 50 yards from the line, a Bristol teammate turns her attention behind and begins to aggressively slow her opponent, allowing her teammate to move forward. Meanwhile, on the right side of the course, the third Bristol team manages to pin their opponent, preventing them from tacking until they’re on layline to the finish, beating them to the finish by mere inches for a 2-3-4 race win.

Newport Harbor’s loss in the final race means we tie them for second overall. But because we beat them in our gold-round head-to-head race, we win the tiebreaker and claim second overall. While I had high hopes of winning this year, I am smiling. This is a fantastic outcome for us. Bristol YC demonstrated their deserving position atop the podium, having won all their gold-round races. After a weekend of hard-fought team racing, they are the clear winner.

“This was the most competitive year we’ve seen,” Bristol’s Dani Neri says afterward. “There were no giveaways. Our three losses in the double round robin actually went to the three teams who didn’t end up qualifying for the gold division.”

The Thayer Trophy was created to honor Joan Thayer and her mother, Ellie, for their “decades of breaking ground for women’s sailing,” Raisides says. And Joan is still plenty active in Marblehead’s sailing scene. “If it’s got a sail in it, Joan is going to race it, and she’s going to be fast,” Raisides adds.

Enjoying a bowl of clam chowder and a beer before the awards ceremony, I find myself standing next to Joan and ask her what makes women’s sailing different these days. Without skipping a beat, she says: “Women are stepping up and not shying away. They’re saying yeah, and the clubs are giving them their support. This is what it’s about for me.”

With more women’s events popping up in the last three years, we are seeing this trend expand across the sport. After all, women are the largest untapped pool of sailors. “The fact that this event requires clubs to pull together 12 to 15 women is incredible because a lot of clubs don’t have or didn’t have that many available,” Bakos says. “Creating that excess of opportunity for women is the driving force that sailing needs. A lot of times, women get pigeonholed into certain roles on the boat. This event gives women the opportunity to try new roles, to get repetition and build confidence.”

Invitations for the Thayer are issued to teams provided that at least 70 percent are from the invited yacht club or sailing organization. “This fosters community-based enthusiasm,” Bakos says. “It may mean introducing more seasoned keelboat sailors to the sport of team racing, or allowing recent college graduates with team-race experience the opportunity to step onto a keelboat. Either way, yacht clubs are asked to place a focus on cultivating their ­women’s talent.”

Only three years ago, Corinthian barely had three drivers, but today it has tripled its roster. At Newport Harbor, I’m told, more women are stepping up to participate in team-race practices. By creating the need for more skilled positions, women are enthusiastically filling those roles. The objective of the Thayer is certainly taking effect and serves as an example to all sailing groups to the benefits of supporting and prioritizing their women sailors financially, providing boats, running club practices and hosting events. 

In three years, the Thayer Trophy has raised the level of women’s team-racing tenfold. The excitement for me is being on the helm for high-energy, fast-paced racing. I’m motivated to put in the time and enjoy the process of learning team-racing moves, improving my plays, and reinforcing my understanding of the rules. I am inspired by the thought of winning this high-caliber event someday, and I’m confident our team will return even stronger next year. And when that happens, I won’t be late for the start.

The post The Hot Combination appeared first on Sailing World.

At a recent coed Grandmasters Team Race Regatta, a teammate told me he didn’t understand why there were women-only sailboat races—as if to say, what’s the point? His comment was a brave one in today’s “woke” world, but it’s something that men and women alike probably think about a lot more than they talk about. Yet it raises a valid conundrum as our predominantly male sport pushes toward wider female inclusion: Why isolate women to their own sideshows when the long-term goal is organic integration across the sport?

As I listened to his comments, many of which I’ve heard before, I thought about the fact that several signature women’s events, like the International Women’s Keelboat Regatta and the Santa Maria Cup, are either dead or not as popular as they once were. And later, as I reflected on our discussion, I took stock of our competitors at the Newport Harbor YC Palmer Trophy. Eight of the 54 sailors—15 percent—were women.

“It’s important to have this dialogue,” says Nicole Breault, the first woman to earn St. Francis YC’s Yachtsman of the Year. Breault is a one-design champion and currently competing in the revived Women’s World Match Racing Tour. “Segregation,” she says, “is part of the process of developing a deeper talent pool among women.”

And in a coed environment, she adds, women may defer to men to take leadership roles or are simply pushed aside. “When you remove men from a group, women assert themselves more, show more initiative, and don’t step back to allow the role to be filled by a man.”

Women’s racing also offers opportunities that don’t always happen on coed teams, says Kim Ganley, rear commodore at New York’s Rochester YC and a veteran of the club’s women’s racing program. “When all women are on a boat, every position is open to a woman,” she says. “And when a women’s regatta encourages female race officials, the opportunities expand even further.”

Such opportunities, or the lack thereof, are the common sentiment I hear when having this discussion with other women sailors. Cory Sertl, World Sailing vice president, experienced this firsthand as a youth sailor. “My brother would get invited as a 14-15-year-old, and I never got an invite,” she says. “I was more excited about it than he was, and he was two years younger, but I was never invited. They never thought of me.”

Opportunity is also the driver behind one of the most popular events on San Diego YC’s regatta calendar. The annual Women’s Winter Invitational Regatta was first held in 2018 with a simple goal of encouraging women to participate in keelboat racing, and it was a hit. The 2023 edition hosted 24 yacht-club teams from across the country, with crews spanning from college sailors to septuagenarians. 

The regatta’s co-chair, Jessica Sweeney, says she thought long and hard about the role of women-only events before she agreed to chair it. “Women-only events have a place in the overall sport of racing to do a couple of really important things,” she says. “They create an on-ramp for women that counteracts the prevailing societal narrative—women have messages telling them this isn’t for them. These events create an environment where women can gain mastery in a way that isn’t influenced by the gender dynamic. Many women need a safer place, and this is it for them to gain mastery in competitive sailing and regatta management.”

Sweeney speaks from experience and says she has been “pushed” plenty of times. “To this day, there is one sailor who will still take a line out of my hand while I am hoisting the halyard and physically move me out of the space.”

There’s also something to be said of the camaraderie undoubtedly unique to such events. “The all-women environment is nurturing and fun in a way that men have had for years and years and years,” Sertl says. Breault also appreciates the all-female dynamic. “There is something special that happens, a lot of smiles that happen at the end of a collective experience, among not just teammates but everyone involved.”

The visibility of these events is paramount to bringing awareness to a wide and underappreciated talent pool. As Sweeney notes: “When we create women-only events or crews, we are making it impossible to ignore that women can do this. It becomes impossible to say we don’t get full credit for our contributions.”

Different-size and -shaped people sail boats differently, regardless of gender. As Breault puts it: “There are lots of ways to objectify a sailor for what you need.” Sailors can leverage their physical forms differently. When women sail with other women, it encourages them to sail the boat in a way that works for them. 

Renee Mehl, director of the US Naval Academy Offshore Sail Training Squadron, says: “On Heineken (the all-women’s entry in the Whitbread Around the World Race), the loads were huge, and things weighed a
ton. We just threw more
people at it.”

“When we rigged the J/22, it was all about how to set up things for four people so we could have women and people who could be smaller, like our kids at the time,” Sertl says. “It’s all about figuring out the maneuver and how to make things efficient with the people you have. Brute strength is helpful, and if you don’t have it, double up, work purchases, make things easier.”

Younger women, like Sarah Alexander, a skipper from Annapolis in the Snipe and J/80 classes, have been a source of new growth in the sport. The J/105 class, for example, with the leadership of Breault and others, recognizes the potential for growth in women and has been funding women’s events throughout North America.

The class sees women as both future boat owners and crew, increasing the long-term value of the boats and the class. The same is true in the J/70 class, which has supported a movement called Mixed-Plus, aimed in its early days to get top female professional sailors into properly paid roles on J/70 teams. The movement has furthered momentum already afoot in other classes. 

The IC37, J/105 and Melges 15, for example, now require or incentivize having female crews. At the 2023 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta Series in St. Petersburg, Florida, with several Mixed-Plus classes, women made up 15 percent of the registered skippers. In the J/70 class, women were 20 percent of skippers; in the Melges 15, they were 30 percent. It’s a fast trend going in the right direction.

With her experience at US Sailing and World Sailing, Sertl takes a higher view of sailing and says the goal for the good of the sport is to build and attract sailors. “The future of the sport is kids who are 15 to 25 and have the earning power to get involved. Hopefully, as many women and girls as possible,” she says.

“Sponsors today,” she adds, “increasingly want to support events that embrace diversity, inclusivity, fun and sustainability.” 

Dawn Riley, a pioneer in women’s sailing, also shares a holistic view of the sport. “All parts of sailing need more people and more sincere efforts to create diversity,” she says, and women are a key part of those numbers and that diversity.

All-women’s events have led to additional efforts to get more women into sailing in integrated ways. Breault and Ganley, for example, have both skippered all-women’s teams in coed events. “That is the frosting on the cake,” Breault says. “Isn’t it great if I can actually sail in open events and also have an all-women’s team without it being an agenda? It’s just what works the best.”

“We won a race last year and were very encouraged and celebrated by male counterparts,” Ganley says. “There are a ton of all-male crews, so what’s the big deal with a boat having an all-­female crew?”

In other words, champions will be champions, regardless of gender.  Still, Riley says: “Women’s events are relevant conditionally, as long as your goal is to get to the point where they are no longer needed. It might be an indefinite time before we get there, and we might need to circle back and reboot with each new generation.”

In the meantime, she adds, “Mixed teams are the right way to go.”

There were a lot of laughs on the docks at San Diego’s Women’s Winter Invitational and a vibe that makes it special enough that teams hustle for coveted invitations every year. “I didn’t expect that it would be so much fun,” Sweeney says. “I was so gratified to hear from women about the positive experience that we had.”

Having fun is what sailing is all about. If we can all agree on that much, my dear teammate, all-women’s events are more than relevant. I’d say they’re essential.

The post Women’s Racing Brings Strength in Numbers appeared first on Sailing World.

As the high-noon sun blazes the waters of the Long Island Sound, there’s no wind or even a ripple in sight. Dozens of college sailing teams shelter in tents erected on the US Merchant Marine Academy pier. It’s the fourth and final day of the 2023 ICSA Open Dinghy National Championship as racers, PROs and spectators alike wait patiently for the breeze to fill. With a 5 o’clock cutoff time, the postponement flag hangs limp. A palpable tension and anticipation are building. Something incredible is about to happen.

A gentle sea breeze finally emerges a few hours later, and the race committee scurries into action to run three races in each division. The winning sailors find a rhythm with the wind and the current, in tune with what is above and below them. As the sun sinks closer to the horizon, racing is called to a halt, and the news spreads from boat to boat: The women of Stanford Sailing have won the Open Dinghy National Championship.

Hand in hand, the Stanford team leaps into the water as the monumental splash echoes the historical moment, for never before has an all-women squad won the most coveted college sailing title. The Open Dinghy National Championship featured female pairs as low-point winners in both the A and B divisions. Stanford senior Michelle Lahrkamp and junior Ellie Harned have earned the low-point score in the A division, while Yale’s Carmen Cowles and Anisha Arcot claimed the B division honors. The championship saw eight women skippers out of 44. In another historic first, Stanford fielded six women sailors for the Open Team Race Championship, and of the 25 skippers at the Open Team Race, four were women.

Conceived in 1937, the ICSA College Championship series began with the Henry A. Morss Memorial Trophy. First formed in the 1890s, ICSA racing was originally informal, featuring women and men sailors, until organized racing was introduced in 1928 with the George May Trophy. In 1961, after women were no longer permitted to race in varsity regattas, the New England Women’s Intercollegiate Sailing Association was formed, five years before the implementation of Title IX. Today, Title IX encourages universities to recognize women’s sailing as a varsity sport, whereas many open programs are considered a club.

As proof that their Open Championship win was no fluke, Stanford Sailing claimed both the Women’s Dinghy Championship and the Open Dinghy Championship for the first time in its program history, and finished second at both the Women’s Team Race Championship and Open Team Race Championship. Their undeniable skill and tenacity led the team to earn the Leonard M. Fowle Trophy for the first time in the university’s history.

Stanford’s program is unique in that it sits on the opposite coast of the East Coast powerhouses, and it rosters only 18 members, an unusually small team in varsity collegiate sailing. The small team enables a strong coaching ratio of 6-to-1, or rather three doublehanded boats to one coach. Of the 16 racers, 13 are women. Perhaps, their secret lies in not only the size of their roster but also the chemistry among their sailors.

Trusting her training, Lahrkamp stepped into Nationals with one goal in mind: to win. After a disappointing performance at Kings Point at the 2022 Atlantic Coast Championship, the Stanford team came together to push themselves beyond what they previously thought possible. Their head coach, Chris Klevan, impresses the importance of dynamism within the team. “To foster all the qualities we want to cultivate, a coach must encourage the team to create its own momentum,” he says.

The team came together in almost unimaginable ways, Klevan adds. Captains Patricia Gerli and Hannah Freeman led the team, alongside seniors Lahrkamp, Justin Lim, AnaClare Sol and Abigail Tindall. Their practices were rigorous, repeating blender drill after blender drill; working intensely alongside their trainer, Tim Messina, to target specific muscle groups used for trimming and hiking; and studying tide and depth charts to determine exactly where and how the current would flow across the racecourse. Their dual practice venues—the light air Redwood Creek arena coupled with the chop and current of San Francisco Bay—enforced that the team be prepared for all conditions. Klevan credits the team’s success to improving every day they sailed and the mental toughness required to “not be beaten down by the fact that [they] had to sail a small group for 11 straight 12-hour days. [They] improved where others have faltered.”

Lahrkamp had come close to tasting victory at past championships, winning the B division as the low-point score at the Women’s Dinghy Championships in 2021 and earning Stanford a program-­best second-place finish overall. Lahrkamp has been making her own history as well. In 2020, she earned the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year Award, making her the first freshman to win such an award and the first Stanford athlete to take home the trophy. Klevan expresses that the team’s second-place finish at the Women’s Team Race Championship on their home waters back in April “taught our team that the score sheet captures so little of what actually goes into being a champion.”

In addition to their disciplined teamwork, Lahrkamp credits the team’s success to their meritocracy. “It’s a team-first mentality,” she says. “We’re all incredibly positive and supportive of one another while asking, ‘What does the team need right now?’” Lahrkamp also emphasizes that the Open Team was composed of “the best sailor[s], period. No matter their gender.”

The team’s strong coaching ratio created the opportunity for sailors to rise up and sail faster. Klevan’s cardinal transparency with the team enables the sailors to know exactly where they stand and the strengths they bring to the team. Freshman Vanessa Lahrkamp’s outstanding performance at the Women’s Dinghy Nationals, winning the B division by a 30-point margin, led her to skipper the B division for the Open Dinghy Championship, making it the first open regatta helmed by both sisters. With trust and equality woven into the team fabric, the Stanford team fleet was motivated to sail its best.

Lahrkamp takes comfort in knowing her coaches’ support for women skippers in the Open Division. Klevan previously trained top women sailors during his time with the US Coast Guard Academy, including Dana Rohde, who won the Quantum Women’s Sailor of the Year Award in 2019, and Nikki Barnes, who went on to the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in the 470. Klevan, however, stresses the importance of not making life easier for his athletes, but rather creating a hard day of work and “help[ing] them learn to enjoy what was once seen as challenging. You’ll be amazed how strong people can be when you allow them to realize their own preconceived limitations are far from their potential,” he says.

With the recent implementation of The Inclusivity, Diversity and Equity Task Force (TIDE), of which Lahrkamp is a member, as well as the Sexual Violence and Sexual Assault Task Force, college sailing is building a more fair and open ­community. The addition of the Women’s Team Race Championship provides three national championships restricted to women only, on top of the Match Race Championship that demands mixed-gender or all-women teams. The ICSA women’s circuit uplifted women drivers, so they now compete in open regattas on a more regular basis. As for Lahrkamp, she hopes to compete in all-women squadrons, with the goal of yacht-club and brand sponsorships.

Upon returning to Palo Alto, peers and community members welcomed Stanford Sailing home with universal celebrations, with other athletic ventures seeing sailing as an equalizer sport for the first time. If anything, the Open Championship win confirmed that extraordinary potential lives within every sailor and individual. Provided the right tools and support, along with their own determination, history was indeed made on the Long Island Sound. It was a great day for sailing, and an even better day for college sailing.

The post College Sailing’s Cardinal Chemistry appeared first on Sailing World.

On the first day of the 2023 J/24 National Championship on Lake George, New York, whitecaps cover the racecourse frothed by gusting winds tumbling down steep green mountainsides. My mates and I are sailing upwind before the start of the morning’s first race, and the mainsail flogs with each angry gust, the boat heeling and sliding sideways despite our crew being right at maximum weight. We’re at the blurry crossover between using the genoa or the jib, and obviously we’re struggling with the big sail.

After we turn downwind and return to the starting area, we agree that we’re big boys and we’ve been sailing the boat for the better part of three decades, so we should be able to handle the genoa. Yet as we reach back and forth across the starting line, waiting for signals and looking up the course for any sign of the wind abating, we take stock of the rest of the fleet. Who here is confident or skilled enough to go with the genoa? Who already has the blade on deck?

The fleet appears split 50-50, so that doesn’t help sway us either way.

We soon rationalize that this is our first regatta of the season, we have not sailed together in nine months, and the genoa is brand-new and not worth destroying on the first day—all valid reasons to hank on the blade. After I hastily flake the genoa, shove it below, and shuffle forward with our cute little jib, I note aloud to the rest of the team: “For what it’s worth, the ladies on Sea Bags are going with the genoa—are you sure you want this?”

“Go with it,” is the call. “We change downwind if it’s the wrong sail.”

Shortly thereafter, after a great front-row start, I’m hiking my cheeks off the starboard rail, torso pressed against the upper lifeline, admiring the view. Not far above us is Sea Bags, the white boat of skipper Erica Spencer and her all-female team from Portland, Maine. They are crushing us, and I confess with absolute shame today that the following words passed through my lips: “#$%@. The girls are caning us. How can they be beating us with a genoa right now?”

Yes, I’m a misogynistic fool for even thinking that—worse for uttering it. And I admit that this moment is not the first time I’ve had such thoughts. The same was true last winter when a new female joined the frostbite fleet and proceeded to school me week after week. For the first few weeks, I’d go home and lament to my wife about how bummed I was that the new girl beat me in a race or two. It bothered me until I simply accepted that her beating me had nothing to do with her gender. She was a better sailor.

That I could think and say such things nags at me every day because I don’t know where, how or when in my life I got the idea that my masculinity predisposes me to be faster and smarter than a woman when it comes to getting around the racecourse—so ludicrous. How is it that we male sailors think we’re more capable of muscling a boat through the waves, handling a bigger sail, or being tactically sharper? Why are we so incredulous and resentful when women do beat us?

I know I’m not alone in this space because I hear about it and I see it on a regular basis, from the ranks of youth sailors to the old men of the sport, some of whom still refuse to race with a woman on the boat for fear of bad luck and the intrusion upon their bromances. Despite greater awareness and efforts to provide more opportunities for women in the sport, the prevailing masculine attitude in our sport is as real as ever. Guilty as charged.

Back to Lake George. Over the course of the regatta, Spencer and the talented Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team drilled into my psyche that gender should not matter whatsoever in sailing. They were far better than us as a team, each individually skilled, and they trained hard for the regatta. They schooled us in the big breeze and zephyrs that followed. When the sails go up, they’re equals. And when the sails go down, they’re peers, friends and champion sailors who deserve equal respect.

When the sails go up, they’re equals. And when the sails go down, they’re peers, friends and champion sailors who deserve equal respect.

Such respect is essential if we’re going to realize long-term and positive change in our sport. We men have the responsibility and the obligation to ensure that the principles of sportsmanship apply across all genders and orientations. I was reminded of this when accusations of sexual harassment and mistreatment of female sailors and staff at the 2023 Etchells World Championship in Miami exposed what we’ve ignored for far too long. A few unnamed sailors and their inexcusable actions reminded us of a real issue in our dude-­dominated sport. The class has since responded with a Code of Conduct that “outlines expected standards of behavior by all participants,” which is all fine and good so long as the code is observed and enforced for real. But as the saying goes, manners begin at home, and for the code to have lasting impact, we must first get to the place where the code is unnecessary.

We males must get over ourselves and heed the wisdom of the Great Dane Paul Elvstrom: To earn the respect of our competitors, we must respect them in return. To that end, dear reader, you will note a not-so-subtle theme in the pages that follow, a theme prompted by the Etchells incident and my own shame in Lake George. I can sit here and tell you that women are achieving incredible milestones in sailing, and the movement to provide better opportunities for them is bearing results. But why don’t I just show you?

From the top of the sport on down, women are excelling, and only by learning about these champions can we truly appreciate their talents and contributions, and respect them for their accomplishments. For example, organizers of The Ocean Race vouch that all of its female crews were fan favorites, more so than the men, with the likes of Team Malizia’s Rosaline Kuiper attracting throngs of autograph-­seeking followers at every stopover. The 11th Hour Racing trimmer Justine Mettraux is praised by her teammates as an invaluable asset during the race’s most grueling legs. They call her “Justine the Machine” for good reason. She’s the real deal of ocean racing, but you’ll never hear her say it.

Turn the pages to learn from Daniela Moroz, the six-time Formula Kite world champion and four-time Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. Moroz is positioned as US Sailing’s best—and likely only—gold medal hopeful. Moroz has been riding the tip of the spear of competitive kiteboarding since she was 15. Despite having no traditional sailboat racing background, she jumped in as strategist for Jimmy Spithill’s US SailGP team last year. I’m pretty sure it was the last time the US team won a race. [Eds note: United States SailGP’s Jimmy Spithill states that Moroz did not serve as a strategist and was not on board the F50 during any of the 2022 season races.]

And how about that Stanford Sailing Open National Championship title? Historic. And even more incredible is Kirsten Neuschäfer’s equally historic win of the Golden Globe Race, leaving behind a trail of broken male competitors. In this solo nonstop race of attrition in vintage yachts with celestial navigation, Neuschäfer’s feat and her subsequent rise to stardom is exactly what sailing needed to capture the attention of the world’s media and put the sport front and center.

The list could go on, but while writing this column, I happened upon an Instagram post from Olympian and offshore racing star Sanni Beucke of Germany. I found it right on point. “Female sailors don’t want to be treated differently because of their gender,” she wrote. “They do the same job on the same boats. And they do it really well. Especially offshore, they can show what they’ve got. Because the long distances are all about willpower, willingness to take risks, the spirit of adventure and a strong mindset.”

I have no doubt the sailors aboard Sea Bags would agree. Respect.

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The competition for places onboard the Challenger and Defender yachts is extreme, and, in the past, the pathway has been varied. But for 2024, the game has changed, supported magnificently by the confirmed teams, it is aimed at encouraging the next generation of superstars into the white-hot auditorium of America’s Cup sailing.

In what is expected to be one of the highlights of the 37th America’s Cup, both the Women’s and Youth America’s Cups will be sailed on the America’s Cup racecourse off the Barcelona waterfront during the final stages of the Challenger Selection Series and the opening of America’s Cup Match itself.

Coming into the fold will be the very best female and youth athletes from around the world thrust into prime exposure at the venue and aired to a global broadcast across multiple platforms. The chance to shine, to create a buzz and light the pathway to the future of the America’s Cup itself, has simply never been brighter.

Speaking about the new formats, America’s Cup Event CEO, Grant Dalton enthused, “As we have always intended, the Women’s and Youth America’s Cup events are going to be major draw cards of the 37th America’s Cup, and we want to give them the exposure these athletes and teams deserve. It won’t just be the fans and audience who are watching these events, the teams themselves will be keeping a laser-focus on the emerging talent with an eye towards the make-up of their teams for the 38th America’s Cup.”

And indeed, the initial scheduling shows the Women’s America’s Cup Final Match Race being held on a Race day of the America’s Cup Match itself, guaranteeing prime-time exposure before the expected large crowds along the Barcelona waterfront and across the media platforms and broadcast.

More details of the format are now available with both Women’s and Youth America’s Cup regattas being contested between 12 teams split into two pools of six for an initial fleet race series. The first pool will be comprised of the teams entered and competing in the America’s Cup, the second pool will then be formed by the independent yacht club entries that qualify to enter under the nationality clause of the 37th America’s Cup Protocol.

Both pools will race a series of 6-9 fleet races with the top three teams from each pool progressing to the final series of 3-4 fleet races to decide the top two teams to compete in a single match-race final to determine the overall winners of each event. The variation between fleet and match racing will be a fascinating formula to play out with the very best emerging from the fleet racing to contest the winner-takes-all match race. Legends will be born for sure.

Racing will be in a fleet of six one design AC40s supplied by the America’s Cup teams. Off the water, a shared shore and technical support team will be provided by the organizers to facilitate cost savings and to ensure consistency across the fleet.

For the Youth America’s Cup, the crews can be made up of male, female or mixed crews all of whom are required to be aged 25 and under on the first race of the Match. There shall be no age restriction for the Women’s America’s Cup regatta.

The crew nationality requirements of the 37th America’s Cup Protocol shall apply for both regattas: 100-percdnt of the crew sailing each yacht in each race shall be nationals of the country of the yacht club that the team represents.

However, with a view to growing the sport globally and furthering its appeal to independent yacht club entries, a team may be considered to be from an ‘Emerging Nation’ or be eligible to receive a dispensation from the crew nationality requirements to allow a specific number of approved non-nationals to compete as crew onboard the AC40.

Entry criteria and expressions of interest will open to prospective teams on October 1, 2022, with significant global interest already registered. Teams are beginning to form over the northern hemisphere summer with foiling and high-performance talent being courted and much in demand.

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With a potent combination of boatspeed, tactical acumen and team racing skills, the New York Yacht Club team strung together 13 straight victories en route to a win in the inaugural Women’s 2v2 Team Race, hosted by the New York Yacht Club Harbour Court this weekend. The team’s lone loss—to the eventual runner-up from the College of Charleston in the final flight of races—came with overall victory already in hand. The New York Yacht Club team, led by skipper/captain Emily Maxwell and skipper Erika Reineke, finished with 13 points. Charleston was second with 11, while Southern Yacht Club took third with 8 points.

“We sailed well, we almost went undefeated,” said Maxwell. “In my boat it was the teamwork, the boat handling. My crew was amazing. There were times we were behind, but we did a lot of boat handling around other teams. Erika and I worked well to pin people. The teamwork within our team, the boat handling, really helped us around the course.

“Our two boats sailed very well together. Sometimes when you have a lot of great sailors, they don’t always mix well. But we happened to mesh very well.”

Maxwell (at right, holding tiller) didn’t just sail in the regatta, she was also the driving force behind it. For the past decade, the New York Yacht Club has hosted each August a trio of team races that draw top competitors from around the country and abroad. Each event is coed and, due to the age restrictions for two of the three regattas, caters to a different demographic. But this regatta was the first women’s-only team race the Club has hosted.

The response was significantly better than expected, with twice as many requests for invitation as there were spots available, and an incredible array of talented women sailors, including world champions, Olympic medalists and America’s Cup sailors.

“I’ve been trying to get more women’s team racing in general post-college because there’s not a lot of opportunities for women to do team racing,” says Maxwell. “So I and a few others at the Club came up with this proposal in the fall and put it forth to the Sailing Committee. It was approved, and we started creating the event in the winter.”

Just getting the event off the ground, especially after such a challenging year for any sporting event, was a victory. The smiles on the face of all the competitors and the easy camaraderie in the parking lot after racing were unassailable proof that the event was a success for each team, regardless of the final standings.

Winning the title as well was icing on the cake for Maxwell, who earned All-American honors at Boston College. But she’s already looking ahead.

“I think this event will continue to further women’s sailing and give more opportunities for women to continue team racing and to sail every position on the boat,” she says. “Often, when you’re sailing a coed team race, you’re not driving or trimming main, you’re more in the front of the boat. You might also see more additional clubs popping up with events, and hopefully there will be a women’s team racing circuit eventually.”

For more details on the Women’s 2v2 Team Race, please click here.

Winning New York Yacht Club Team (top photo, left to right): Allison Ferraris, Bianca Rom, Cory Sertl, Emily Maxwell (Team Captain), PRO Clare Harrington, Abby Preston, Laura Ann Keller, Erika Reineke and Lyndsey Gibbons-Neff

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Valle De Bravo, Mexico (August 16, 2017) – The first day of the International Women’s Keelboat Championship kicked off with opening ceremony which included the official start of the event declared by the Mayor of Valle De Bravo, Mauricio Osorio Domínguez. Event Chair, Roberto Escalante had to say of the ceremony, “[There were] over 50 smiling faces gathered together across borders and language barriers to share their passion for the wind, a dream that finally came true.”

The opening ceremony included an address by US Sailing’s organizing authority Betsy Alison and five-time winner of the storied championship, a welcome by chairman Escalante and proud address by the Mayor. The Mexican flag and the championship flag was raised over the crowd gather on the lawn.

Like clockwork, the breeze filled into the valley and down the mountains shortly after one p.m. Ali Blumenthal of Team BAAM! had to say of the conditions, “The breeze, once it filled in, clicked on. The races started off pretty breezy, we had full controls and full-on hiking, and then as the races progressed it got lighter. When the rain finally came in, it made for shifty and funky conditions.”

The steady conditions allowed the race committee to complete seven races in the rotation. Later in the day, thunder storms, typical to the rainy season in this area, caused light breeze and finally postponed racing for the day. The variety of conditions allowed competitors to showcase all facets of their abilities before heading in to the dock.

The PRO commended the sailors for fair and clean sailing with no altercations or collisions on the water and their cooperation in getting a number of races completed on the first day.

Despite a full day of racing, competitors enjoyed dinner and dancing at the club into the evening. For US Sailing’s first event outside of the United States, the Club de Vela La Peña A.C. has been an excellent host, providing competitors with a fantastic venue for racing and great cultural experiences.

Blumenthal re-iterates that the event is a true international contest, “The J/70 is a really fun boat because it’s got equal parts physical and mental game. There is a very high level of competition on the course.” The breeze is beginning to fill in Mexico this morning and competitors look forward to another day of competitive sailing on the water and comradery at the club.

After the first day, San Diego Yacht club leads the fleet, followed by Chiquitas pero Picosas. Team Eliane Fierro, Team’Mer and Team Seattle in a three-way tie for third place.

Follow along with the action on Instagram @sailingworldmag and @womenskeelboat or at #womenskeelboat on twitter and Instagram

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VALLE DE BRAVO, Estado de Mexico, Mexico (August 14, 2017) – Women’s teams from around the world have arrived at the Club de Vela La Peña A.C. for the International Women’s Keelboat Championship presented by US Sailing. The event will conclude the 18th of August.

Teams took to the water Monday morning for practice sessions in J/70s, which are provided by the club. The lake, surrounded by mountains provides challenging and unique conditions for competitors. Racing will begin Tuesday morning in a round robin format, with quick rotations and on-the-water umpiring.

Betsy Alison, organizing authority for US Sailing and five-time winner of the Bengt Julin Trophy, says of the racing format, “Using the Champions League format is a really exciting innovation to this event. I think we will see super close racing and the winners will not be determined until towards the very end. I think it’s great movement forward for this regatta.”

In effort to revitalize the championship regatta, this is the first time in history that the storied event will be contested outside of the United States. The last championship took place in 2016, the first championship since 2011 in Rochester, New York.

Alison says of the event, “The championship truly celebrates excellence in women’s sailing. I think we can expect great racing from the competitors that are here and I think we will have wonderful hospitality and a great event.”

The winner will be the recipient of the Bengt Julin Trophy and the top American boat will be the US representative at the 2018 Sailing Championship League World qualifier. The Bengt Julin Trophy is named for an international judge and strong supporter of women’s sailing.

The International Women’s Keelboat Championship is a spectator friendly event and can be observed from the shore or private watercraft. Race start times are dependent on wind and weather, but racing is schedule to begin at 11 a.m. each day.

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Skipper Sam Davies and her Team SCA crew struck a resounding blow for women’s offshore sailing in the early hours of Thursday morning when they gloriously clinched Leg 8 of the Volvo Ocean Race.

The comfortable victory was the first leg win by a female crew in offshore sailing’s toughest challenge since Tracy Edwards’ Maiden clinched two stage wins in Class D of the 1989-90 race, won overall by Sir Peter Blake’s famous Steinlager 2.

At least as satisfying for the first all-women’s crew to enter the race in 12 years will be the opportunity to silence those who suggested that they were looking outclassed in the current 12th edition by their experienced male rivals.

Courtesy of volvooceanrace.com

Click here to read more form the Volvo Ocean Race.

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Sydney Bolger

Georgetown senior and four-time All-American Sydney Bolger won every women’s event that she competed in this season, including back-to-back A-division championships at the 2011 and 2012 Women’s Nationals. Although her record may appear flawless, Bolger faced her own challenges this year, such as breaking into the game of team racing. In the end, it was determination and the levelheaded attitude that she brought to the racecourse that allowed her to lock down the Quantum Women’s College Sailor of the Year award while still having a blast on the water.

What changed in your approach that gave you the consistency to win A-division at every event this year?

In college sailing where the courses are very short, a good start is critical. I’ve gotten a lot better at starting and that was a huge part of why our results became more consistent. Also, Rebecca [Evans] and I have sailed together now for about 3 years, and having that amount of time on the water together greatly improved our coordination and boathandling. We were in sync around the racecourse and knew what was going on in each other’s heads, which allowed me to focus on sailing the boat a lot faster and smarter.

Any specific starting tips?

Knowing how much time you need to accelerate, gauging your distance from the line, and knowing how much space you need to start in any given condition are critical. It’s important to be aggressive on the line and make sure that you’re not allowing anyone else to control your start, while also being flexible. If we knew at 20 seconds that our start was not going to be ideal, we were quick to bail from our position and find a new spot on the line. Sometimes that meant closely ducking every boat on port in order to be the rightmost boat, just to get clean air with options off the line**.
**

How did sailing outside of college help you prepare?

Once I started sailing internationally, I recognized that attention to detail is really what makes the difference between those who succeed at the highest level and those who do not. Also, I’ve learned that if I want to perform at my highest potential, I have to be extraordinarily driven and go into each practice with intensity—it’s the people that practice a lot, that are focused and driven to be the best, that rise to the top.

What would you say was the highlight of your 2011-2012 season?

I would say the Graham Hall team race at Navy. It was the first team race event of my college sailing career, and we won. I remember when we won our first race out there and it was such a good feeling. It’s a different feeling from fleet racing, where you hold sole responsibility for your performance on the water—it’s very different racing as a three-boat team. It’s a win-lose situation as opposed to, ‘I did well’ or ‘I did poorly,’ and that concept of straight-up losing is tough. It was really exciting to win that event.

Was team racing a challenge for you?

Developing team racing skills on the fast track was one of the more stressful and frustrating aspects of sailing that I’ve ever experienced. I definitely hit a wall at one point, but I got past it and improved throughout the season. Team racing was a totally new thing for me, and unlike the racing that I’d done previously and was used to, I wasn’t building off of previous skills sets. I was basically starting at zero, which I hadn’t experienced yet in my college career. But team racing also really improved my fleet racing in terms of boathandling and the fact that it requires a lot of anticipation.

**

Did you try to bring a certain mindset to all of your regattas this year?**

I knew that I needed to go into regattas relaxed and with confidence, because if I started to stress everything was going to go down the tubes. Rebecca and I just had a lot of fun this last year sailing. There was this one race at St. Mary’s [Intersectional] where I tacked too close rounding the windward mark and had to do a 720 around the offset. In doing the 720, I nicked the back of another boat, and had to do another 720…Instead of doing anything rash or getting upset, we did our circles, focused on catching boats, and came back in that race to around seventh. I think that can be fully attributed to our calm mentality. We tried to keep an even keel in the boat, which allowed us to keep our heads in the game, to pass boats when it was necessary, and to maintain consistent scores throughout regattas.

What was it like to sail with two other All-Americans on your team, including Chris Barnard, who was also named College Sailor of the Year?

It was great. Georgetown has had some really phenomenal sailors while I’ve been there, including Chris Barnard and Charlie Buckingham, who was named College Sailor the Year twice. It’s fantastic to have these really talented sailors on the team because it raises the level of competition, but equally important are all the other members of the sailing team. At Georgetown we have the “as one” philosophy, which basically means that it’s the responsibility of everyone on the team to push themselves so everyone gets better. Every single person on the team is critical to our overall success.

You graduated from Georgetown this spring. What lies in store for you next?

In terms of sailing, my plan is to begin a full-time Olympic campaign in the 470. I’m going to move to Miami in the fall, find a crew, and begin training full-time with the U.S. Sailing Team Development Team. I intend to compete in the full world circuit for the next three years, with hopes of competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. Beyond that I’d also like to continue team racing, as much as it frustrated me a lot of the time. **–A.Q. **

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