Design

One Sunday in August 2006 I stumbled onto a dock at HYC to find 3 women rigging for a race across the lake at another club. Quick to fill their 4^th spot I was off with them to race the Inaugural Regatte Des Femmes. We won and wore our medals back to the club where a number of people commented on our achievement and told me stories about a women’s program that was once successful but for one reason or another had fallen apart. As a racer on an otherwise male crew I could count the women who raced on one hand most nights.

That got me to thinking. Ten years ago I spent a year in college planning an all-women’s recreation adventure company and know how important it is for women to support each other in sports. I knew HYC had an incredible group of members that would be fully supportive. I was new there and had been accepted and embraced by this group more fully than I could’ve ever hoped for - taught and encouraged genuinely by a very talented group of sailors.

So in 2007 I set out to (re) form a grass-roots women’s sailing group to foster participation by women in the club’s strong racing program. Whether on all female or mixed crews, I wanted more women to feel competent and confident and have skills by which to participate (somewhat) equally. At the Regatte Des Femmes that year we repeated our victory and brought 2 other teams from the club. We had come from 4 nervous women winning the race the previous season to 11 sailors ready to kick ass.

This year crawling websites I found the Canadian National Women’s Keelboat Regatta in Toronto calling for registrants. A quick phone call rounded up a crew to race with me and our excitement spurned another crew to join us. Over the next few weeks I’ve decided to chronicle our training efforts, thoughts and feelings headed into this undertaking and write a bit about what got me here.