Hey You’re Pretty Good…for a Girl!

Here I go again offending people: I don’t know if I agree with the philosophy behind women’s only events.

What’s that? Crickets in the background?  I know I know, I am a Salty Sister.  I believe in supporting women in sailing. I support women’s only programming, I cringe every time I see some geezer lecturing his wife on how to sail…so why the about face?

Well, I just spent the last weekend at the CYA Women’s Keelboat Nationals in Sylvan Lake, Alberta.   What was a tiny pond in my mind turned out to be a gloriously beautiful lake that’s roughly ten miles long, seventy feet deep, and packs a whopping 25 knots.  This was a very pleasant surprise given that I actually thought that the biggest lake in Alberta was roughly the size of a kiddy pool in the discount section of Canadian Tire.

But here’s the thing.  While race management was fantastic and the club was a model of hospitality, I couldn’t help but shake this strange undercurrent of old school feminism.

By old school feminism, I mean that type of segregation that allows women to ‘shine.’  Okay, we’ve got some great racers here, but why is it so special that we can shred around a course in 25 knots?  Why is it that it’s that much more special when a team of light weight lady sailors can actually fly their kite, trim their main properly, or execute a flawless gybe set?  It should be expected that at a national event, this would be the norm for sailors…both men and women.

We shouldn’t need a MAM to fix our broken cleats, we shouldn’t need a MAM to justify why we can’t keep our boat flat when what we really need to do is trim the sails accurately.  In fact, at another recent women’s keelboat event, the newer lady sailors were assigned coaches.  The coaches without exception all happened to be dudes.  What the hell!?! If you’re going to run a women’s event, get a bloody female coach!  Either that, or tell the ladies on the boats to man up and learn their sport.

And if I hear one more lady whine about being scared when there’s any more than five knots, I’m going to blow a gasket.  Being a female sailor doesn’t mean that you are allowed or encouraged to perform at a lower level, and it doesn’t justify your fears or feelings of intimidation.  Being a lady sailor means you can go out there and sail your boat as hard and as well as anyone else.  Any One Else.  So the next time I sign up for a ladies event, and I will, because at the end of the day, the more lady power on the water the better, I will definitely be leaving my male coach on the dock, be fixing my own boat, and be sailing every bit as hard as would in a co-ed fleet.

(note…to all those who helped make the CYA Women’s Keelboat Nationals the success that it was, I humbly thank you…regardless of gender…for your outstanding service to our sport.)