Season of Women Sailors
The past few weeks have seen a flurry of women’s regattas in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Southland. Here we check in on a few of them.
Linda Elias Women’s One-Design (LEMWOD) Regatta
Team Newport Harbor Yacht Club won the 27th annual Linda Elias Memorial One Design regatta, organized and sponsored by the Long Beach/Los Angeles Women’s Sailing Association and hosted by Long Beach Yacht Club on October 14.
Winning skipper Casey Hogan said, “Many of us met when we were 8 years old sailing Sabots; we have history together.” Last year, Liz Baylis helped LBYC win by serving as tactician. This year she placed second with her San Francisco YC home club. “Five decades of women sailors were represented on board,” she said.
California YC’s Marilyn Cassedy, taking third, has been sailing in the regatta for 27 years. The fourth-place team, skippered by Annie Gardner, seemed to be having the most fun. Representing Hawaii YC, they all wore grass skirts to the trophy presentation and did a hula dance.
In addition to Long Beach Sailing Foundation’s Catalina 37 fleet, organizers added Shoreline YC’s Cal 20 fleet this year. The one-design class offered opportunities for sailors of all ages and abilities to start racing. In the Cal 20 fleet, LBYC’s youth sailor Christina Van Dyke took first, with second going to LBYC’s Renee Buffington. Cal 20 skipper Madison Mansour, age 10, was named ‘Most Popular’.
Betsy Crowfoot, Linda Elias’s fellow Transpac racer, gave a heartfelt presentation on how Linda advanced the sport by helping her opponents improve as competitors.
Women on Water/Woman at the Helm
The 18 boats signed up in the Women’s Sailing Association’s WOW/WAH on November 3-4 experienced light air (4-6 knots) on Saturday, and light air changing to pea-soup fog on Sunday. “I had 400-ft visibility during the worst of it,” writes Del Rey YC’s race chair, Andy Kopetzky, of the conditions on Santa Monica Bay. We’ll have his race report in Racing Sheet in the December issue of Latitude 38.
Grace Cheney Memorial Regatta
Like the LEMWOD, Richmond YC’s Grace Cheney Regatta honors a club member who was an avid sailor, racer and volunteer. Enjoying moderate breeze, 18 female-driven boats frolicked about Central San Francisco Bay in spinnaker and non-spinnaker divisions on November 4.
Jill & Jack + 1
As far as we know, Island YC’s Jill & Jack + 1 is the only female-skippered triplehanded regatta for PHRF boats in existence. Seven spinnaker boats and four non-spinns raced on the Oakland-Alameda Estuary on November 4. We’ll have results and more from the Jill & Jack + 1 and Grace Cheney in December’s Racing Sheet.
Women skippers have enjoyed an action-packed fall season. See Racing Sheet in the November issue of Latitude 38 for a report/photos Tiburon YC’s Joan Storer on October 13 and South Beach YC’s Red Bra Regatta on October 20.