doug748
Well-known member
I let my wife/girlfriend/ significant other helm the boat twice, she put it aground both times.
Now, I said nothing, and am just saying now.
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Now, I said nothing, and am just saying now.
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Women Skippers
- Thread starter Wansworth
- Start date
Dulcinea East
New member
"Their" craft? Perhaps it' possible that the wife bought the boat with her money? Please check your assumptions. It's truly disappointing the amount of last century thinking that pervade these fora.
Dulcinea East
New member
And the skippers of the Titanic and the Luna Rossa were, erm, men?
Wansworth
Well-known member
Marsali_1
New member
Don't forget who was responsible for the Costa Concordia debacle
Chiara’s slave
Well-known member
My wife doesn’t helm when racing, not because she can’t make the boat go fast. It’s because she’s too kind to tack and cover someone, too polite to sail over their wind and too seamanlike to shout at people rather than avoid the situation altogether even when it’s tactically advantageous to do so. Not to say all women are like that, our toughest rival in our home XOD fleet is a highly tenacious woman. We don’t attempt to go near her unless we have all the rights.
flaming
Well-known member
My wife no. Whilst she's an extremely capable member of the race crew, she didn't sail before we met and hasn't done very much cruising at all, so just doesn't have all round sailing knowledge, or any particular desire to be in charge. Now that we're starting to use the boat to take the kids cruising as well I have talked her into doing day skipper so she feels more capable. Quite when we're going to fit this in is another matter!
However, I'm lucky enough to have on our crew several very competent women. So frequently over the last couple of years the boat has been out without me, either racing or being delivered to regattas, with the nominated skipper very definitely female. Couple of times with no men on board at all.
But then maybe I'm of a generation that doesn't see that as odd. When I'm not on board I just nominate the person most experienced and capable for the role as skipper. That the most experienced and capable is female is to me completely unremarkable.
Wansworth
Well-known member
My original observation if you read it was an observation about something that happened well over thirty years ago with reference to a macwester 26 as the classic family boat with the husband in charge which was quite normal from that I have somehow been labeled a mysogonist and racist……..from now on obviously I will have to choose my words carefully ……
flaming
Well-known member
Maybe if you want to comment about the habits of today an incident from before I was even born is not the best to use as an example.
doris
Well-known member
Sort yourself man. Always LADY skippers!!!Standing on the quay at Exmouth as a coaster was outward bound and for some reason I was mildly surprised as a woman stepped out of the wheelhouse and bellowed an order in a strange language,that was in the 70snow women are everywhere taking charge…..except on the British cruising yacht
lustyd
Well-known member
If you weren't, then you probably wouldn't have started the thread as there seems to be no other value to it at all.
Wansworth
Well-known member
Ohde
aryoursuch a grumpy person in future I will confín my threads to Flower Arrangeing,model railways and cats and Dogs for boubas benifit
Blue Seas
Member
Now you're talking Doris! Beautiful LADY's Kippers lovingly prepared by the smokehouse fishwives.
Wansworth
Well-known member
Fishpersons!
Serin
Well-known member
Having spent a (long) lifetime around boats, I suspect the reason that few women contribute to this forum is the "laddish" behaviour that still sometimes prevails here. It's very tedious. Incidentally, in my forty year happy marriage, I would never have thought of "letting" my husband do anything and he would never have thought of "letting" me do anything. We respected each other as autonomous, competent adults and equal partners in the building and sailing of the seagoing boat we built together and which I still sail, often singlehanded. Oh, and yes, I do have a sense of humour, but passive aggressive "banter" and mockery just doesn't trigger it. Having been an independent sailor for 60 years or more, and taught sailing professionally, I could write a book about sexism and misogyny in the boat world. However, it's heartening to see that more and more men have abandoned or grown out of it, so there's encouragement in this thread.
lustyd
Well-known member
This implies a certain youthfulness and a purpose behind the behaviour. This thread feels more like a senile old man jabbering in the corner to nobody in particular and not realising his views are archaic.
Biggles Wader
Well-known member
Right, that's you cancelled! Consider yourself unemployable and a social pariah to boot. And that's just for the grammar and spelling.Ohde
aryoursuch a grumpy person in future I will confín my threads to Flower Arrangeing,model railways and cats and Dogs for boubas benifit
Buck Turgidson
Well-known member
Have you any evidence to back the claim or is it just your lack of recent experience that makes you think there is a lack of female skippers?Standing on the quay at Exmouth as a coaster was outward bound and for some reason I was mildly surprised as a woman stepped out of the wheelhouse and bellowed an order in a strange language,that was in the 70snow women are everywhere taking charge…..except on the British cruising yacht
Wansworth
Well-known member
My initial post was based on visual experience back in the 1970s when it seemed men were captains of their ships even if it was a macwester 26…….I was just contrasting the two with levity,which seems to have got completely misunderstood either on purpose or notbutvarious formites endevoured to take the misunderstanding on and include racism at which point I gave up obviously houmour needs explaining more……indeed I have been away from yachting in the UK for good while and understand attitudes have changed although here in Galicia is almost always men at the helm giving the orders
Serin
Well-known member
Because she is a woman, or because she lacks experience?