THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 3, 1994 TAG: 9407050226
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DEBRA GORDON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 164 lines
ON LAND, IT WAS HAZY and a sticky 92 degrees. But on the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, with a swift wind out of the east, it was cool, the air clean and fresh.
We were sailing - skimming over the choppy waves, our white sails billowing out over the 34-foot Catalina like a pregnant woman's belly.
The eight women aboard the Pacific Mirage let out a rebel yell at the sheer joy of it, the freedom of the sea, of being away from husbands, children, bosses, telephones.
There was just one problem.
``Who's going to call crab pots?'' shouted the captain, Peggy Storey, a deeply tanned, tall, thin woman who co-owns Chesapeake Sailing Association, which pulled together the night's cruise.
They were bobbing everywhere in the Bay, the bane of every summer sailor. To catch one on your keel and motor prop meant a dive under to cut it off - not something we wanted to do on our sunset cruise.
``Crab pot off starboard,'' called one of the women. ``Heads up, heads up and hard shift to port.''
Almost effortless, Storey flicked her wrist a bit and the boat shifted smoothly left, missing the crab pot by inches.
``We're going to jibe the mainsail,'' she called to her eager crew as she brought the stern around into the wind.
``Heave ho,'' yelled Cathy Switzer, as she and three other women pulled on the ropes, the muscles in their trim arms bulging, their legs braced against the deck.
They moved as a single unit, even though these women never sailed together before, absorbing Peggy's commands almost before she'd finished speaking, switching automatically to the next task, to pull in a rope, let out a line, untangle a sail.
The women, mostly in their late 30s and early 40s, represented a range of sailing experience, from Lesa Yawn of Virginia Beach, with just one month under her belt, to Lucia Woodlan, of Norfolk, who's been sailing for 33 years.
They all have one thing in common, though - they're hooked, addicted to the wind and the sea.
``Its just you and the boat and Mother Nature and you make it or break it,'' said Nancy Williams, a naval officer from Hampton who started sailing in April. ``All your pretensions are blown away by the wind.''
There are no statistics on the number of women in sailing - yet. A new computer system at US Sailing, the Rhode Island-based governing body for the sport, goes on-line this month, and it will, for the first time, track members by gender.
It is only in the past decade that women have begun smashing into the traditionally male bastion of sailing.
Even today, you can still find yacht clubs that won't admit women as members, and races that restrict captains and crew to men only.
But probably nothing speaks louder about the change in attitude - and gender - the sport has undergone in recent years, than the appointment of a women as chief editor of sailing's largest consumer magazine, ``Sail,'' which has a circulation of 183,000.
``Twenty years ago, no matter how well-qualified I was, I couldn't have been editor,'' said Patience Wales in a phone interview from her office in Newton, Mass.
``The male sailing and yachting establishment just wouldn't have taken me seriously, no matter how qualified.''
Yet another female-led landmark comes this spring, when the first all-women America's Cup team, called America3, sails in the race.
Twenty-three women were chosen last month from the 700 who applied for the team. They include four Olympic medalists, rowers and weightlifters, and were selected based on attitude, teamwork, physical fitness and talent.
``It's an excellent thing for women to do because it allows them to use their strength as much as they want to, but they don't have to be really strong or macho to be excellent sailors,'' Wales said.
Although it can be competitive as racing, sailing can also be enormously peaceful and fulfilling, which is one reason Wales takes exception to calling it a ``sport.''
``It's much more than that,'' she said. ``It's a way of life.''
These days, sailing is easier for women to master physically because technology has made the equipment - the heavy canvas sails, awkward winches and thick ropes - more user friendly.
Additionally, the traits that make a good sailor are the very things most women shine in: ``they're quick, they're intuitive and good decision makers, they're light on their feet and nimble and they pay attention.''
They also work well as a team, noted Yawn. ``Women work better together, more cooperatively. We're not macho and challenging each other for position.''
Women also have more money these days, said Wales, and they're more inclined to enter the ``hallowed halls of men's activities.''
``When I was a girl, it was an odd thing for a bunch of women to go off and do something by themselves; now it isn't at all.'' Twice a year, Wales, who describes herself as happily married, charters a boat with a group of women friends for a sail in the Virgin Islands.
``That's not weird anymore.''
There is even a sailing school especially for women. Womanship, based in Annapolis, Md., has as its premise and motto: ``Nobody yells.''
``My first time sailing I liked it immediately, even though the person I sailed with really shrieked at me,'' said owner and president Suzanne Pogell, explaining the school's slogan.
After that first sailing experience in 1979, she wondered how many women had no idea how great sailing could be. Her previous careers had been directed toward involving people in decisions that affect their lives, like social work, ``so it was quite natural to reach out and see if anyone else was interested in becoming a sailor.''
She thought her students would primarily be single women on their own, like her. Instead, she says, many are women who sailed with their husbands for years, but who never had a chance to take charge and feel comfortable as a sailor without someone else telling them what to do.
This year, says Pogell, the school, which has nine locations in Florida, New England, Long Island Sound, the Pacific Northwest's San Juan and Gulf Islands and the British Virgin Islands, expects to teach 1,500 women to sail.
``We're going absolutely beserk.''
Closer to home, the Chesapeake Sailing Association, based at Willoughby Harbor Marina in Norfolk, has seen a definite increase in its women sailors.
``Most of our new members are women,'' says Woodlan, CSA's office manager.
The organization offers weekend sailing courses ranging from introduction to sailing to advanced coastal cruising and celestial navigation and offshore passagemaking. CSA also operates a charter fleet and night races on Thursdays.
Margaret Earls, a Virginia Beach lawyer with two young children, took the beginner's course in April, fulfilling a lifelong dream to sail.
Before taking CSA's course, which provides a heavy dose of hands-on instruction, Earls had taken a classroom sailing course, so she had some technical knowledge.
But she'd never set foot on a sailboat.
``There was a question in my head, `Are you going off on a tangent, pursuing something you won't like?' '' she said. `` `Are you making more out of this than you really think?' I had no idea of what to expect other than this intellectual knowledge.''
She was apprehensive before that first weekend, not out of fear, but because ``the dream and the reality were going to have to meet and I had no idea of what was going to happen when these two actually met.''
What happened was that she fell in love.
``Once we left the dock and lifted those sails, I realized then that I had not made a mistake. The only mistake I had made was waiting too long, putting it off.'' ILLUSTRATION: D. KEVIN ELLIOTT/Staff color photos
Julie Zwinak, left, checks the sails as Lucia Woodlan sits on the
rail. The group represents a range of sailing experience, but the
women work as a team - pulling in a rope, letting out a line,
untangling a sail.
Peggy Storey, co-owner of the Chesapeake Sailing Association, is the
captain.
Nancy Williams, right, and Cathy Switzer, left, trim the sails as
Storey steers the 34-foot Pacific Mirage.
Graphic
IF YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW
You don't have to own a boat to learn or enjoy sailing. Most
marinas and sailing clubs offer some instruction, and most offer
racing and cruising at least one night a week. Boat captains are
always looking for experienced crew members, male or female.
Chesapeake Sailing Association can be reached at 588-2022.
Womanship can be reached at 1-800-342-9295.
by CNB