Women Skippers

Well thank you I must admit to being absent from the forum as I am now a yacht owner although I am now embroiled in buying a car.
I concur absolutely with little sister on this. Good posting W.
And the sport is retracting in numbers.
Anything to encourage more women to hop behind the helm has to be a healthy thing..

Heck, somewheres unbeknown to us there may well exist a “women boat owners forum “ with its own line of jokes too 🫣
How would we know?
 
I concur absolutely with little sister on this. Good posting W.
And the sport is retracting in numbers.
Anything to encourage more women to hop behind the helm has to be a healthy thing..

Heck, somewheres unbeknown to us there may well exist a “women boat owners forum “ with its own line of jokes too 🫣
How would we know?
Well there is actually…….the woman behind the skipper.From personel experience my father although the capitain was emotionally dependant on my mother and I freely admit although the wife still cannot tie a bloody bowline she sort of is the mainspring of the whole enterprise 🙂
 
Well there is actually…….the woman behind the skipper.From personel experience my father although the capitain was emotionally dependant on my mother and I freely admit although the wife still cannot tie a bloody bowline she sort of is the mainspring of the whole enterprise 🙂
I like your thinking.
After all these years she must know you need one foot in the water ( not literally).. and made it happen again.
 
I suspect that when the chips are down and a serious emergency arises the man may well take charge again
Depends. Ms Winch is the coolest person I have ever known under pressure. A razor sharp mind with the ability to prioritise in an instant. If I went overboard, and even if she lost sight, I just know she'd be yanking on all the right bits and making all the right noises in the right places.
 
I freely admit although the wife still cannot tie a bloody bowline she sort of is the mainspring of the whole enterprise 🙂
👍👍👍👍
Same - on both counts.

I've done the RTI a couple of times with a lady Skipper and a lady helm, both times in "interesting" conditions. I'd sail anywhere with either of them,

AFAIAC, the only difference between having a lady skipper and a boat full of blokes is that I probably wouldn't pee over the side with a lady on board.
 
Depends. Ms Winch is the coolest person I have ever known under pressure. A razor sharp mind with the ability to prioritise in an instant. If I went overboard, and even if she lost sight, I just know she'd be yanking on all the right bits and making all the right noises in the right places.
She would have to would't she
There is no bloke to take overall command :unsure: :unsure:
 
Odd comment. The tone here is that women cant do it, in which case I'd be dead.
I did not suggest women could not cope.(you would probably still die anyway; as suggested by some reports on unsuccesseful recoveries). I made the point that when the chips were really down it would not surprise me if the male would not assume command. (I was waiting for a response)You said that if you went overboard your wife would still be in charge. I did not say that she could not deal with the problem. I only suggested that the case of a man thus taking control could not possibly happen anyway because he was in the water. So the hypothetical situation of the husband taking charge does not apply. You seem to have missed that point. I was not denegrating the role of the female
 
Both my sailing clubs at the moment have female Commodores, I believe the next nearest club commodore is also female.
The club sailing school has about 50% female learners , those that have come through to normal club racing are very good..
For many years the top club sailor was female, the only reason she isn't now, is she's drifted off into coaching and instruction..
 
Over the years, I've met quite a few solo liveaboard females who don't have any problems undertaking long passages, one of whom with quite a large steel boat has her two children on board, one has Downs syndrome. Another has recently given up due to ill health, she's in her 80's.

My wife wouldn't sail solo but she has no problem standing watch day or night while I catch up on sleep.
 
I am quite interested to see ladies skippering boats. It is a good thing because it is important that both boat parties can handle the boat.
However, at club level & coastal sailing, where many ladies are running the show I suspect that when the chips are down and a serious emergency arises the man may well take charge again.
I may be wrong but it would be interesting to hear the view of those who, in normal circumstances, are happy to be lead by the lady.
Wow. I think you need to get out and meet more of this generation's women sailors. If you are looking for British role models, look no further than Pip Hare and Sam Davies in the Vendee fleet. I doubt many here could have matched Pip's response in the Southern Ocean when her mast came down last year - definitely a serious emergency. And Ellie Driver's recent performance as rookie, amongst an inspirational group of young French women sailors, in this year's particularly punchy Solitaire du Figaro was very impressive. There is no shortage of women who can, maybe we just need consign some of the attitudes expressed in this thread to the history books so more want to enjoy our sport / pastime.
 
Wow. I think you need to get out and meet more of this generation's women sailors. If you are looking for British role models, look no further than Pip Hare and Sam Davies in the Vendee fleet. I doubt many here could have matched Pip's response in the Southern Ocean when her mast came down last year - definitely a serious emergency. And Ellie Driver's recent performance as rookie, amongst an inspirational group of young French women sailors, in this year's particularly punchy Solitaire du Figaro was very impressive. There is no shortage of women who can, maybe we just need consign some of the attitudes expressed in this thread to the history books so more want to enjoy our sport / pastime.
I am not talking about professional sailors. The ones that you are talking about are a relative few on the grand scheme of things
I am talking about husband wife teams.--weekend sailors-- Read what I said in #79
 
I am not talking about professional sailors. The ones that you are talking about are a relative few on the grand scheme of things
I am talking about husband wife teams.--weekend sailors-- Read what I said in #79
I often race our yacht double handed offshore with either my wife or my daughter. Both perfectly capable co-skippers and when things go wrong, we work as a team to sort them out. And if I were in trouble, I'd be happy that they would know what do. In the club fleet I sail with, there are plenty of other examples like that too. The mixed double handed team is now very common. And if you want a counter example, I listened to a Mayday call this summer where the man who started the call was clearly in a state of distress and panic. He was quickly replaced on the radio by a woman who was cool, calm, clear and decisive. My worry is more about the way many women still get treated when they go sailing - whether that is by their husbands or other male sailors - and as a result decide to stay at home.
 
The other societal change that has happened over the last 40 years is that there many more women trained as part of their jobs to deal with crises - doctors, paramedics, police officers, military etc. All readily transferrable skills to the stressful bits of sailing.
 
Don’t forget the multitasking brain bit too:

I suppose.. steering the boat, fixing stuff, home educating the kids, rigging the trisail and drogue, keeping the male crew moral up,phnarr phnarr and not overcooking a baked Alaska in the oven,meh..

Whereas I -focus-on-one-thing-at-time
( I wish)

Possibly a grain or two of truth in both statements ?
 
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😂
You havent met my wife!
 
I am not talking about professional sailors. The ones that you are talking about are a relative few on the grand scheme of things
I am talking about husband wife teams.--weekend sailors-- Read what I said in #79
Yeah... And you're still coming across as distinctly out of touch...

I know a number of sailing couples where the wife is the one who grew up sailing, and the husband is the one who's come to it later in life. Zero arguments there who's in charge. When I think of my own crew, the list of those who I truly trust with the boat, that I'm happy to say "sure, take the boat and do that race" or deliver it hundreds of miles offshore... There's more women on that list than men.
 
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