11:00am first gun
winds WNW 5-15 knots
overcast skies

Lindsay Cohen & Kellie Phipps reporting

Crew:
bow team – Kellie Phipps & Cheryl Lincoln (aka BOB – babes on bow)
mast – Krista Hill (aka Big Guns – man, she could get those headsails set!)
pit – Ellen Hoke (aka Goddess)
primary trim – Kaersten Hill (aka Flashdancer)
secondary trim – Ingrid Liebald (aka Fraulein)
main – Amy Guarneri (aka the Main Main)
helm – Kris Olszewski (aka Miss Prada)
tactician – Lindsay Cohen (aka Helms’ Alee)

The idea came about over drinks, as common with many sailors; an all-women crew on a One-Design 35. There were skeptics. However, due to one very generous and trustworthy boat owner, Mark Witty with Alpha Puppy, we were able to race!

As I’m sure the gals would agree, we are always happy to sail with any ratio of men and women. It can be intimidating and challenging for a woman in the sport of sailing as it is male-dominated, so there is something to be said about a kick-ass all-women crew, especially one so well-skilled.

We were competing against a number of boats from different classes, but all under either spinnaker or non-spinnaker, so the PHRF ratings made it interesting. We noticed a few other all-women crew and cheered them on; we were proud that our crew was by far the largest female team. One could not help notice the lack of many other well-known boats notorious for having multiple women crewing or as owners.

Not withstanding long delays in race starts, and the two days that it took for the race committee to determine the regatta's results; all in all, our crew agreed that it was one of the best races that we've raced in. While putting the boat to bed at the end of the day, we were satisfied that our crew had a fun day, worked hard, all were safe, not a speck of gel coat flew at any point, and better yet, we performed well against some very seasoned local sailors. Our team was amazing. There were no egos, no shouting (except for one ‘STARBOARD’), no broaching, but there sure was a lot of laughter. It was truly an honor to sail with such a talented, strong, and beautiful group of women.

Race 1:

Since we had never sailed together as a team, as tactician, I thought to play our moves somewhat conservatively, especially at the start. As I said to the crew in our morning muster, I had the utmost of confidence in our skill, so I planned to focus on making out maneuvers as tight as possible and try to gain any potential local knowledge of observing conditions.

We had a great start to the first race. As a great coach once told me, ‘you win the start, and then you just win everything else.’ So we did just that. We took advantage of the ebb when we could, though stayed well inside the playing field. The winds can get quite fluky in Sausalito because of the hills, so there were random oscillations, leading us to deal with puffs of about 15 knots and lulls of 0-5 knots within seconds of each other. We played it all well and after two laps, we got our line honor gun. A great feeling!

Race 2:

On the second race, we placed third which definitely can’t be scoffed at, but our start left some room for improvement. The winds seemed to increase slightly over the course of the day so the flukiness kept increasing. Perhaps it was due to the great turkey wraps that Kris made, or the cookies that the Hill sisters brought, but I really don’t know why we didn’t perform better on the second run (tryptophan and sugar – a deadly combination). The random wind patterns could have something to do with it, sometimes, it comes down to just plain luck with regard to that. No matter what though, we were having a blast the entire time with two laps, and still got line honors!

Race 3:

Race three consisted of one lap as it was getting cold. The day definitely alerted us that we weren't in summer anymore; a low pressure system kept skies grey, temperatures down, and substantial breeze away. Trying to keep our angles hot, we seemed to fly on the final race, again, receiving line honors and coming in second place.

Not much was mentioned in the above regarding our maneuvers because we had them down-pat. After our 1D35 National Championship and Big Boat Series this past September, we were all still in tiptop shape and well-oiled.

Unfortunately, the race committee’s posted results do not reflect our announced standings. We were given awards for the mentioned placings (1st, 3rd, 2nd, with 2nd overall), but the committee posted combined scores grouping us with IOD’s which rate 156 as compared with our 36.

To wrap-up, I want to make mention of the gals again, because it was such a thrill to make this all possible and felt good to prove the skeptics wrong. Our bow team was spot on, we were so light on weight, we could afford to have nine crew and made it nice to have an extra set of hands. With only one practice set that morning, Kellie and Cheryl had the bow on fire. The Hill sisters not only provided lots of entertainment but wow, are they talented! Krista got the jib and spinnakers set faster than I’ve ever seen anyone do it and Kaersten trims like it’s a piece of cake. Ellen knows the pit like the back of her hand and had full command of her position. Ingrid seemed well at ease to work the guy and help with tacks and gybes, Amy controls that main like it’s a part of her, and Kris was driving like a dream. I provided ‘ole-timey’ tall ship terminology for all the gals to laugh at – and to make us feel salty.

There is talk, and not just from us, of really promoting women sailors and holding more regattas – we are all looking forward to helping with that and getting our team together again really soon. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment and empowerment at the closing of the regatta and it felt good to perform well, especially against our main competition (a J105), which had decades of local experience on us.

Thanks y’all for a fantastic day!