No Sailing on Mother’s Day — Does That Still Make Sense?
Make no mistake about it: We loved our mother and think all mothers need to be celebrated on Mother’s Day. However, the world has changed, and we thought we’d check in on a Mother’s Day tradition to see if it still makes sense. Celebrating Mother’s Day, as such, still makes sense, but the day has always stood out in the YRA annual racing calendar because there are never any events scheduled for Mother’s Day. Is that too hot to touch? Should we carry on with that tradition without taking a periodic pregnant pause to give it some thought? We’re nervously reaching out to readers (and mostly sailing mothers) to see how they feel about having no sailing events scheduled on their special day.
One really lucky aspect of not having events on the sailing calendar was looking at what was coming up for this weekend’s sailing — Mother’s Day sure stood out. We assume that’s saved a few other sailors besides us. That little gem might easily get missed if it was surrounded by a bunch of races.
Given all the racing on the annual calendar, it is nice to take a break now and again, but is Mother’s Day the day? Since our February 1979 Women’s Issue, which celebrated many of the pioneering sailing women of the time, the world of sailing women has expanded dramatically, so there may be more than a few women wondering why they’re at a Mother’s Day brunch rather than out sailing.
Our mother had never sailed until she met Dad, but there was lots of sailing after that. Their honeymoon was a bareboat charter around Cape Cod in the early ’50s before they started a family and sailing became a family activity.
Maybe the Mother of All Mother’s Days hasn’t been invented yet, but ideas like this take a while to gestate before such an idea can be carried to term. Maybe the “no-sailing-events” is a tradition that will carry far into the future, but we thought it was a good time to check in and see if moms would rather be sailing on their special day.
The weather forecast for Sunday looks good, so it should be a pretty nice day for a … Mother’s Day. Regardless of how you decide to celebrate, we salute all mothers on Mother’s Day.
Ha! I can barely get committed crew (some of whom are mothers) to race on the Saturday of Mother’s Day weekend. Sunday would cause a mutiny!
What about women sailors who aren’t mothers? In my 70’s and still a boat owner, Mama and my mother-in-law, have sailed onto heavenly waters. Taking the boat out with my beloved sailing hubby any day feels special. Maybe we can create a new thing, water brought each of us into this world, so it should be honored as the great mother as well!