This September marked the completion of the sixth year of Sloop Tavern Yacht Club’s (STYC) successful Women at the Helm (WATH) series.
The primary principle of these races is about increasing opportunities for women and is in the name: only women are allowed to touch the helm from one minute before your boat’s start sequence through to the finish of the race.
This was my third WATH regatta, all on the J/111 Flash, and last year I got to realize the dream of taking the helm for a race, as did two other female crew members. To say I was hooked is an understatement, and it also laid the groundwork for me to help helm Flash in bigger races like Van Isle 360.
Conditions were inviting and perfect—sunny, warm, and windy, with true wind speeds predominantly between 7-17 knots. There were 37 boats registered, which is a record for the series, and it felt great to be out with so many other familiar and competitive boats and awesome women sailors.
A last minute addition to Flash’s WATH team was a newer crew member, Carolyn. Talking about crew positions, we needed to figure out how Carolyn and I wanted to split responsibilities. It was my first time meeting and sailing with her, but we all encouraged her to take a turn on the helm.
To our surprise, she declined. “I want the team to do well,” she explained. But what Carolyn didn’t know was that I wanted to share the helm with her. One year earlier I had never helmed during a race, and WATH had given me my first taste of something I now loved. “The point of this regatta is to give women who don’t normally drive a race boat a chance on the wheel.” I offered.
“Maybe during the second race,” she suggested.
The first race got off to a smooth upwind start, with two planned laps of the course. I felt the nerves kick in, breathed through them, and let the butterflies power my focus. We crossed the line with speed and clean air. Go team Flash! We finished the race first over the line for our class, and corrected to second.
Entering race two with Carolyn still apprehensive, we agreed it was a good compromise to have her drive the legs between the marks, and I would helm for the start and mark roundings. In that second start, I learned how it feels to be the windward boat at a crowded, pin favored start, and to get pushed out—lesson learned. We spun Flash around, crossed the line, got focused, and made up good time on that first upwind leg, and rounded the mark beautifully.
Carolyn was ready to take over. We had two downwind legs and two upwind legs left to finish the race. She sat next to me and I checked in to see if she was ready. After a few moments of hesitation, “Yes.”
We swapped places and our mainsail trimmer was ready to help coach her through the drive. The downwind leg went so smoothly that by the time we were approaching the leeward mark I had forgotten that I was going to drive the roundings. We got the jib up, dropped the spinnaker, and rounded the mark for the upwind leg.
I jumped back to the helm to check with Carolyn. Her eyes were glued to the telltales as we quickly debriefed. The rounding had gone well and she wanted to do the rest of the roundings, too. “You’re doing great,” I told her. And she was! We finished second over the line, but close enough behind our competition that we corrected to first in class. When she handed the wheel off after the race, her eyes were wide, but her smile was wider. She let out a long slow exhale. “That was such a rush!” I smiled back at her. I knew exactly what she meant.
I helmed for the third and final race—a downwind start—-and as the seconds ticked down I got the boat into position and we hoisted the kite. Two smooth laps later, we crossed first over the line for our second bullet of the day.
A big thank you goes out to STYC on behalf of the collective helmswomen for putting on WATH, and to all the boat owners and crew who attend and support these events. Congratulations to the fleet for many great performances; and notably to Farr 30 Nefarious with Regan Edwards helming, who took home the regatta’s top performance overall.
Last year’s WATH got me started helming during races, and this year we got to give another woman her first taste of driving a fast boat during a race. The “rush” is an absolute gift of an experience.
Full results at styc.org
