Women on the Water North & South

There’s something for women sailors north and south this coming weekend, September 23-24. Down south, several yacht clubs and the Women’s Sailing Association run WOW and WAH, the largest women’s regatta in Marina del Rey. The event has a 39-year history of empowering women to take the helm. Women at the Helm (WAH) is coed with a woman at the helm; Women on the Water (WOW) is all women on the crew. There are performance boats and cruising boats, spinnaker and non-spinnaker divisions.

"Many boats feature the crews in ‘uniform’: unique T-shirts," comments Andy Kopetzky of Del Rey YC. "One of the more memorable T-shirt messages was ‘You ease the sheet and I’ll blow the guy.’ Banter that runs through the post-race party consists of, ‘WOW! We did great, won a trophy, played all the wind shifts, etc.; or ‘WAH! The spinnaker wrapped around the forestay, we came in DFL, lost the turtle, etc." Entries will be accepted until noon on Friday. See www.regattanetwork.com/event/15425.

Up north, Island Yacht Club in Alameda will host the Women’s Sailing Seminar, complete with workshops on and off the water for newbies through advanced levels. Tracks include Beginner, Crew, Sailor, Divas, Spinnaker and Racing. Keynote speakers on Saturday morning will be Gail Hine and Linda Newland. Featured on Sunday will be the choice of a race on the Estuary or a cruise out to San Francisco Bay. Copious door prizes will include some goodies from Latitude 38. See www.iyc.org/wss.