International Women's Sailing Network

Summer/Fall Seminars planned in Port Townsend

2008-05-13T15:15:07Z

As Pax gets her sails, her engine and her wiring completed the next few months, Kaci is planning a series of small group seminars using the boat and facilities in Point Hudson marina. Topics will include: Your winches, your engines, your friends; Wind & Tides; Words on the Wind: a day of boating and writing; Women Aweigh: on captains and confidence; and suggestios are welcome!

First 100 IWSN Members

2007-09-11T14:32:29Z

The public "launching" of the International Women Sailing Network was a great success. More than 100 women joined the network. 41 are boat owners. Thanks to Captain Sue Hoover (Quantum Leap) and Captain Kim Bushnell (Puna) for staffing the booth all weekend while I ducked in and out managing the event. In the coming weeks, I'll email everyone who signed in. This network thrives by the connections made, by the generosity of women who want to teach matched with the determination and daring of the women who want to learn. My hope is that it will be fun, inspiring, empowering and that it helps those of you who own boats, those who want to be on the ocean and those who have businesses that serve women boaters grow. Sailing around the world with women wasn't my dream, initially. It was the one passage, then the next passage, and a daily routine that evolved to a circumnavigation. Now, as owner of a boat, I am starting another voyage, one step at a time. I look forward to working with women shipwrights, riggers, sailmakers, engineers, mechanics and educators. I'll share the stories with you and invite your stories and membership with your boats and your sailing dreams. Our emails will be confidential. Enjoy September!

Own-Her-Ship

2007-08-26T11:57:34Z

It's one thing to be a Captain. It's another to be a Captain/Owner. I've poured hours and years into boats since 1992 and I've even loved a few. But there's nothing like buying a boat, feeling the transfer of responsibility from the previous owner to you. It's a commitment I'd never made before, not fully. When I wrote the check for Pax, I felt the stirring of something new, something primal. It was like the first draft of a breeze, when the sun comes up. A new day is ahead. Night is ending. Warmth, weather, color and all the energy of the waking world starts its crescendo. As I drove the former owner, a young man who'd spent 8 years with Pax and was now off on a voyage in art, an MFA, to the Port Angeles to Victoria ferry, we talked as if we'd known each other for decades. There's a history in boats and a solemnity between owners connected through the heart. I now own a boat and her name is Pax. A 1936 Danish Spidsgatter. Latin for Peace.

The immediate effects of ownership have been responsibility, freedom & peace. Check the gallery for the latest news on Pax.

Ginny Gerlach: Experienced Teacher on Great Barrier Reef

2007-06-10T17:41:14Z

I first met Ginny Gerlach in 1997. A native Australian, she had cruised the Pacific, done thousands of miles and had settled as much as sailors can. She was managing Keppel Bay Marina and dreamed of building a business teaching women sailing. Nancy and I invited her aboard Tethys for some serious discussion and a great sail from Rosslyn Bay north to Cairns.

This past winter, I visited Ginny again. A decade had passed and both our dreams had become reality. I'd completed a circumnavigation, started a book and she'd bought a new boat and built her business. Her brand new Catalina 34 MKII arrived May 2007. She'd also gained excellent credentials:
    •     Yachting Australia Yachtmaster Offshore
    •     Yachting Australia Yachtmaster Instructor (Sail)
    •     International Sail and Power Association Instructor
    •     Marine Board of Queensland Master Class V – Sail and Coxswain

A new boat; an excellent teacher with tons of shorthanded, charter and cruising experience and a spectacular location at the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef (Tropic of Capricorn)... a great combination. Check out her website, Cruisability and definitely write. She's booking classes now and they're sure to fill up. Couples who want to charter and women who want to skipper their own, smaller boat are her specialty.

Women & Leadership

2007-05-20T12:27:25Z

Have you met your governor, your senators, your representatives? May 18 and 19, I was fortunate to talk with Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire and State Representative Lynn Kessler. They were in town for a tour of the Northwest Maritime Center & Wooden Boat Foundation facilities and programs. While here, I talked with them about how for three decades, the Wooden Boat Festival has influenced good things in our community, good relationships between us and seaport towns worldwide. The list is long and women have played a part at every step along the way,

Zoe Ann Dudley, PT Yacht Club Commodore

2007-05-13T17:48:10Z

The first weekend in May is Opening Day in Seattle. The second weekend is Opening Day on Port Townsend Bay. Zoe Ann Dudley, Commodore of the PTYC made special efforts this year to invite all sailing and boating organizations to participate. "This is not just a PTYC event," said Commodore Dudley. "This is everyone's day to get out on the water." Here, here! As a special guest at the PTYC Opening Day Breakfast, I was grateful

Never Too Young to Dream

2007-04-23T18:33:38Z

Today, I got to talk to 100 7th graders at Blue Heron Middle School in Port Townsend. My presentation, Woman of the Wind was part of the Maritime Discovery Program, an exciting new experiential program of Northwest Maritime Center. I knew from pre-program surveys administed by our Puget Sound Explorer staff, that more than one-third of the audience had never been in a boat.

Woman Captains Down Under

2007-04-09T15:25:43Z

Kay Cottee was the first woman to solo circumnavigate non-stop. She's Australian. While on a recent trip to Tasmania for the Australian Wooden Boat Festival, I discovered another woman captain of note. Sarah Parry. She wasn't onboard the morning I stopped by the boat, but according to her woman crew, she not only Captains this Brigantine, but she built and owns it too. At 80 feet, this is no small achievement.

One of the primary challenges I've heard from women organizers and instructors of women's sailing conferences and events, is that they have trouble finding enough boats to teach aboard. Nearly all the boats are owned by men, and besides the challenge of having to ask, they have to negotiate the participation of the owner - or not. Some men are quite comfortable turning over their boat to a known, experienced woman captain. But wouldn't it be nice to skip this step and instead... find more woman boat owners? If you own your boat, send an email and tell us about it.

Women in Video

2007-03-25T18:18:18Z

Try it. Type women and sailing, and see what google gives up. In 1992, when I started my doctoral research on women of the wind, there were only two women's names that popped up on the internet search for "women + sailing". Two books. Two entries. Period.

Those two were Naomi James and Clare Francis. Quite notable women, for sure, but far from the whole of women sailing worldwide. Today, a similar thing is happening, or not happening, on Google's You Tube. Type in "women sailing" and today, you'll only find a handful of bonafide women's sailing videos. The Portugal Women's Sailing Team is pretty cool. As is Dee Caffari's inspiring single-hander achievement, or the amazing Ellen MacArthur. Video is the cutting edge for communication these days, so let's all start uploading!

Buy a Boat or Charter?

2007-03-20T18:39:43Z

There's no doubt about it, owning a boat can be the ultimate way to take command of your life on the water. Before you spend the five or six figures though, invest in some sensible research.

If you want to cruise bluewater, try spending a month or two living aboard, or invest in a long offshore passage. Nancy Erley's passages between Seattle and Hawaii are a good, relatively inexpensive option for west coast North American women. With two circumnavigations in her wake, there is likely no better resource than Nancy, among women captains today.

Depending on your income, moorage options near your home and your realistic assessment of retirement, chartering is another smart pre-purchase option. Kim Kavin's website, CharterWave.com, is loaded with options that can shock your checkbook, until you weigh the real costs of ownership and take the necessary good hard look at your priorities.

Own or rent? Fly to exotic port or enjoy the journey to get there? Spend a full 5 years travelling, or mix your own recipe of Tahiti, Bonaire and Galapagos vacations with a blend to include months with your grandkids on land, or serving on a non-profit board in your home town? CharterWave certainly presents a smorgasboard of good alternatives.

While deciding, explore all the options close to home... or fly to Australia and learn to charter a boat with Captain Ginny Gerlach off the beautiful Great Barrier Reef. Send us photos, your stories, ideas and links!