What don't women like about sailing....

I think women are generally more sensible. "Let's face it, sailing is bad enough if you like it." - Libby Purves

My wife is very tolerant though and seeing me and my son grinning gives her pleasure.

A bigger boat with a few concessions to comfort has helped her enjoy it more - bigger galley, dining table, pressurized water, private heads, separate cabins from the nippers, more than enough stowage, etc, etc. It also helps that the boat is quite quick - she gets no buzz at all from looking at the speed on the log, but she likes spending less time sailing and more time arrived.

Keeping passages short helps, too. If it's longer than that, leaving mid afternoon, dinner afloat, kids to bed, and sit chatting as we sail through the evening helps. At night she goes to bed, and I'm happy to sail singlehanded.

'As for myself, the wonderful sea charmed me from the first.'
 
" standing around on a vibrating smelly platform shrouded in fumes - yes, a mobo - while it corkscrews its' way to the destination is a skill-less, soul-less exercise best suited to posing bimbo's, male or female."


The only thing you will smell on my boat Daarlling....will be the scent of freshly baked bread and the paprika dressing going onto the smoked salmon nibbles.Chilled champagne is I can assure you odourless.
Ps.The actual postion taken on a MoBo when holding a quiet conversation with your friends and watching the world go by is....... sitting.
PPs.We tend also do not feel the urgent need to SHOUT LOUDLY at anybody on the boat at every oppotunity in order to prove our Alpha maleness.
Tootle Pip. :)
 
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Speaking as a male, OK I am seen in a kilt at every opportunity, I've found several ex-girlfriends were shocked at the basic lavatorium facilities, i.e. a bucket.

Many years ago my daughter, then six, was in fits of the giggles early one morning as a chap was having a pee over the transom, we were in Brittany.
 
Camelia said:
Speaking as a male, OK I am seen in a kilt at every opportunity, I've found several ex-girlfriends were shocked at the basic lavatorium facilities, i.e. a bucket.

Many years ago my daughter, then six, was in fits of the giggles early one morning as a chap was having a pee over the transom, we were in Brittany.
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Personally I think most women do draw the line at bucket and chuckit. Decent heads is a must in my opinion.
 
I think you'll find the most placid of men often get the equivalent of 'road rage' when behind the helm. The skipper can make or break a sailing experiece as far as I'm concerned. I've been on some trips where I've loved it because I've had a calm, respectful skipper who mucks in. Other trips I've hated because the skipper's abusive, shouts, and is down right orrible.

All that happens when you get one of the latter is a nervous unhappy crew. If you happened to be married to the guy as well it seems it gives them more right to be bossy.

I know someone has to be in charge but it doesn't mean the crew are fair game. I'm not being sexist here, It's not just male skippers, I've heard female skippers can also be obnoxious, and bully crew.
 
I have to preface this with the remark that a number of the posts on this thread have raised my hackles; I'm no placard waving feminist, but there is blatant misogyny being expressed by a number of the folk here. <and breathe>

I know more than a few very competent female sailors, who can strip engines and other oily things (and rebuild them before some clever-wotsit jumps on that one), fix the heads, helm in nasty seas and F7+, do the nav, trim kites and white sails for that extra bit of speed, fix sails and do it all with a smile on their face. Oh, and whip up supper too. I also have sailed with some duffers of the XY chromosome variety who were best placed below decks, nowhere near the helm and in fact nowhere near the kettle either, as they were such a liability to themselves and others - despite their "I've sailed dinghies since I was a nipper" credentials.

Different people suit different kinds of sailing; some people suit no sailing at all.

I'm a woman who happens to love to sail; preferably offshore, preferably on something bigger than 24 foot. That's because I like grinding, I like being on the foredeck, I like the challenge of lumpy seas and unexpected gusts. A nice sail change where I get drenched? Bring it on. And I know I'm not alone.

So please - don't put an entire gender in a box. We don't all prefer to sit on a mobo with a G&T in hand, or watch as hubbie does it all whilst we put the kettle on. But hit me with a winch handle and I probably will drop a C-bomb, which might surprise some of those of you on these boards, who seem to have crewed for Noah.
 
WestWittering said:
Following on from another thread, one of the interesting things came up was women are MORE LIKELY to not enjoy sailing... Just a deduction from a year or so observing and I have no scientific basis for making this statement, but it seems to me that women are MORE LIKELY to not enjoy sailing. So I wondered what particular aspects put some ladies off? Is it weather, size of boat, the Skipper (or the First Mate if the women is the Skipper)?

My mother was put off by my fathers attitude to sailing - gung ho, rude & bossy, so I haven't been able to get her onto my boat :( mind you she is now 72 and can do what she ruddy well pleases. I have a friend (female) who is about 60 who loves sailing, adores it and she is a fantastic helm.

Most of the posters here are male, yet it is not that much of a masculine sport - not compared to rugby or wrestling, so why is the number of women so small? Or do we generally have better things to do than ponk about on t'internet?

Dianne
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SWMBO has come to sailing relatively recently and has had a few uncomfortable experiences with sea-sickness before discovering scopoderm patches.

However she loves fishing. Therefore we don't go sailing, we go fishing... with the sails up to steady the boat.
 
Very well said - I have yet to see anything on board that cant be done equally as well if not better by women.

By the way, are you married ? :cool:
 
Well I prefer the comfort of some nice heads anyway, although I have roughed it in the past. On our last boat we didn't have heads or even a bucket, too much information lol.
 
There's a patronising attitude onboard sometimes too, from the men. As a woman who sails, I've often been the only woman on the boat, on sailing school courses, as well as other trips. And sometimes you have to be really pushy just to be allowed to do things - how many times have the men tried to take over grinding or pulling up halyards or pulling down sails or anything really, because they think you won't be able to do it. And it can be too easy to let them, with the result that you sit there, being a bit bored, probably getting cold, and thinking these blokes are rude and this isn't much fun.

And so you don't go back. And another girl is lost to sailing.

I don't know if this is the same in other "team" sports? I guess men & women don't often play sports together?
 
Paddingtonbear said:
Most yotties are arrogant sexist pigs and mobo owners are even worse. Dylan excepted of course. When I was much better off around 1980 I used to own a Moody 41 moored in Chi but quickly gave it all up and sold the boat due to the horrible people that were involved. Almost exclusively men. It is not just women it is anyone whom is easy going, non facist, non sexist, non Daily Wail reading. That is why Dylan gets so much stick
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Indeed. Just look in 'the Lounge' :)
 
Mrs Ripster loves sailing (not in F7 beating against a lumpy sea!) but overall she loves it. She has no intention of doing anything that requires too much physical effort - that is my job. She will purely choose the trip and leave me to put some details on it. She can helm and trim sails. She can drop anchors and moor up. She is a far better lassooer than me and puts the fenders on more neatly. So all is rosy whilst we are just cruising along. Then the touble starts as I spot another sail in the distance going the same way. That is when we start to fall out, because for me the race is on to either stay ahead or catch up and pass. She doesn't get this at all or why it matters - but it just does. So if you asked her what bits of sailing she does not like, she'd say the pointless ego driven racing bit that ruins a nice gentle cruise.
 
My wife is an Ocean Yachtmaster, Shorebased Instructor, VHF Assessor and doesnt get seasick.

Its my flippin engine when it needs anything other than switching on though and guess who says 'we need to put a reef in now'.

Its bril actually!!
 
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