women sailing

[capta]

My gal and I were sitting in the cockpit today here in Prickly Bay, Grenada wondering why we had not seen any women sailing together.
I find it a bit mystifying that in this age of the liberated woman that a couple of possibly retired or widowed women had not gotten together, bought a boat and gone voyaging?
We see a great number of older guys singlehanding, numerous couples and even a some retired guys (not gay, I think) sailing together. But no women other than the very rare singlehanders.
Have any of you encountered any?

 

[higgs]

Women and men are different and that is why our species has survived. This difference lies behind the reason you don't normally (exceptions abound) see a women crew out cruising.

 

[Anonymous 121765]

Capta,

They have all women regattas in Clearwater & Tampa bay (not many), but I agree that you hardly see all women sailors. What I do find to be true is that alot of women seem to be better helmsman (helmswoman) than alot of guys at the wheel.

I can give 5 minutes of instruction to a newbie woman and within 10 minutes she's steering steady. I believe woman have more patience and a softer touch than alot of guys on the wheel. And, they're much cuter.

I wish more women crewed on their own boats pal. I always wanted to see how they would do against me in a match race. I dated a nice girl named Connie for awhile & she liked to crew in women only regattas.........

CR

 

[zeehag]

i crew on mine own boat--just on other side of world from ye--many females here.

 

[Igetit]

I was heading down the dock to my boat after leaving the office early one afternoon this Summer, when a gal captaining an older Catalina was coming into the slip. She had about four or five other women onboard, all bathing suit clad, and from the looks and sound of things they had been out on the lake most of the day enjoying the sun and some adult beverages. I gotta say, it was one of the hottest things I had seen in awhile...

 

[Cayennita]

Do you know your sister ship 7 Sisters? usually they spend hurricane season there. The couple live full time aboard and can be found either in St. John or St. Croix.

 

[txjim]

I've seen seen plenty of woman crews in J22s and IC24s. Don't want to try to take them to windward, no sir!

 

[anchorclanker]

I can give 5 minutes of instruction to a newbie woman and within 10 minutes she's steering steady. I believe woman have more patience and a softer touch than alot of guys on the wheel. And, they're much cuter.

I have read much the same about flight instruction in Helicopters. Most men initially over control the Heli in hover, and it takes time for them to learn to flow with it. Women often seem to be naturally intuitive to it.

There is nothing so strenuous on a sailboat that a women should have any more difficulty than a man.

 

[Stu Jackson]

There's a beautiful Pearson 28 on our dock owned/crewed by two nice young ladies, if I may use that phrase. Nice folks, who took a bedraggled boat and brought it back to life. More "men" should do what they've done to and for their boat and "neighborhood." There's also an older Islander 30 owned by two "gals" who have done the same. Not so rare, although they are not out cruising - yet. But the Pearson is out all the time, the Islander not so much.

 

[Charlie Jones s/v Tehani]

I personally know four women who own, and single hand, their own boats, quite capably too.

 

[Tim R.]

Plenty of women sailors here including live-aboards.

 

[Gail R]

We have a woman in our club who skippers an annual "Estrocruise" from Casco Bay to Northeast Harbor. She and her husband jointly own their Alberg 35, but she does the delivery to NEH with an all-female crew.

I know of a young lady who owns a J/24 and races in the local one-design fleet with an all-female crew.

And there's at least one female owner/liveaboarder (one of TimR's neighbors) and surely others.

They're out there, just not as plentiful as the guys.

 

[Winkfish]

We have a LOT of woman sailors at our yacht club, Southern Yacht Club. The current and the previous sailing directors are women. A lot of our club's young competitors are women, and our kids' sailing programs have as many girls as boys.

 

[SoSound]

The owner of the sailboat next to us is a woman, she sails and cruises the Puget Sound more often than not with an all female crew. She has been organizing a very successful women's sailing workshop for the last several years and got us interested in joining our yacht club when we were neighbors in the local boat yard working on our respective projects one year. We also saw quite an impressive all woman crew and boat at our first Northwest Beneteau Rendezvous in August...

 

[Me and Boo]

There are a couple other women sailors at the marina I am at. Mostly M&F couples though. I am usually alone with Boo the cat. Hope to find other women to sail with next year.

 

[wflowe2]

Watch out, next they will want to vote!!

 

[Wanderer138]

Plenty of real women sailors here. IMHO the scarcity of female sailors in some areas is more the result of limited opportunities for women to sail often enough to improve their skills and confidence level than it is about women being fundamentally "different".

 

[WayneH]

OK, so we're a couple but my wife sails while I sleep. That counts, doesn't it? Also, she has her own interests on the 'net and doesn't post here. (Thank goodness!)

 

[McZube]

It seems that for the most part sailing agrees with women. Skippering, not so much. That said, I remember one Wednesday evening in Annapolis some years ago when the race was cut short because the wind died. There was a race boat (no engine) called Pink Cadillac with an all-female crew. We towed them back to the dock.