Why ‘Women’s Day’ still matters – we get onboard at Cowes Week

There are moments in life when a possibility comes your approach and you’ve got roughly two minutes to decide that may change the course of your day. Yesterday was a type of days for me.

An early morning name while out strolling the canine in a quiet subject on the Isle of Wight: was I out there to leap on a ship with Sunsail for Cowes Week Girls’s Day as a part of an all-female crew? Sure. Sure I used to be.

And so half-hour later I used to be on the Island Crusing Membership in Cowes, being greeted warmly by the Sunsail crew and assembly Jen and Hattie – Sunsail’s skipper and mate – and the remainder of the crew for the day’s racing.

Had I had any time to mull this choice over, these are the ideas that will little doubt have been working by way of my head… Regardless of having sailed numerous hundreds of sea miles I’m very a lot a cruiser – I’m definitely no racer. I’ve additionally not sailed in any respect this yr. If I’d thought of it, I’d in all probability have fearful whether or not I’d be a hindrance or a assist?

However any doubts or fears I’ll have harboured have been dispelled inside minutes of assembly the remainder of the crew. The environment was immediately welcoming and supportive – a tone set and maintained all through the day by skipper Jennifer Ramsdale.

It solely took a couple of minutes chatting to the opposite girls to understand that, while I definitely wasn’t becoming a member of a ready-made crew (the truth is nobody had truly sailed collectively earlier than) there was some unbelievable and broad ranging expertise onboard. Our crew ranged from younger dinghy sailors to seasoned professionals, this was going to be enjoyable!

There was definitely no sense of tokenism – nobody was there just by advantage of being feminine.

Native boat Nightjar and Libby Finch’s all-female crew gained the Mermaid Trophy for the most effective feminine crew on Cowes Week’s Girls’s Day. Picture CWL/Paul Wyeth.

‘Women Day’, because it was beforehand identified, is now Girls’s Day at Cowes Week, and issues have moved on because it was first launched almost 20 years in the past – fortunately. The main focus is much less on themed outfits and cocktail events, extra on celebrating the numerous girls taking key roles within the regatta.

Round 30% of opponents at Cowes Week are feminine, however for the Tuesday races that proportion will increase, with extra girls taking up distinguished roles. Look round at any level throughout the day and also you’d see girls helming, trimming, navigating, or working the bow on all sizes and varieties of yacht and keelboat.

Racing in Cowes Week Girls’s Day

After a fast security briefing we headed out into the busy Solent with the remainder of the fleet. We had a little bit of time to get a couple of observe tacks in earlier than the beginning. Then, with the firing of the Royal Yacht Squadron cannon, we have been off! There actually is one thing fairly particular a few Cowes Week begin line.

Philippa (proper) joins the Sunsail crew at Girls’s Day throughout Cowes Week 2025. Picture: Sunsail/RYA

The professional crew onboard have been excellent. Their professionalism and ability have been an important reflection of the ever-growing feminine expertise and depth of expertise ranges within the business. At a number of factors throughout the day I believed what an inspiration these girls would have been to a youthful me, had I had the prospect to sail with them in my late teenagers and early 20s.

As we tacked west up the Solent in a gusty breeze I discovered myself sharing the rail with Susie Moore, the RYA South Regional Supervisor,  whose job it’s to make crusing extra accessible to everybody.

“It’s about creating these environments at membership degree the place everybody feels welcome and a giant a part of that’s completed by girls serving to different girls.” The irony of her explaining this to me simply as we went by way of a very gusty tack and he or she bodily hauls me again up onto the excessive aspect after I’d misplaced my footing wasn’t misplaced on both of us.

Trying aft I might see Kitty,  a scholar nurse from the north west and eager GP14 sailor, grinning from ear to ear as she floor on the working headsail winch because the boat accomplished one other more and more clean tack. “You probably did that so shortly that point,” I hear somebody say encouragingly. The communication and environment onboard all through the day is phenomenal, calm and optimistic, making for an optimum supportive studying atmosphere for many who wished to enhance and nil stress for many who merely wished to benefit from the journey.

There was some tussling as we rounded the windward mark adopted by an excellent spinnaker run dwelling throughout the end line in a really respectable third within the Prometheus 41s class.

However Katrina Lawson, Head of Model and Acquisitions at Sunsail summed it up when she stated, “This wasn’t about profitable – it was about teamwork, confidence, journey and connection.”

Simply get on the boat

At Cowes Week usually this yr it looks as if there was a aware shift from being all concerning the manufacturers, bands and bucketfulls of booze. (In addition to the crusing in fact!)

While these parts are all very a lot nonetheless a part of the annual pageant that’s Cowes Week, being onboard with Sunsail and the RYA yesterday felt like an opportunity to make a real and genuine connection between their ethos and values and a various vary of sailors. It was a possibility to fulfill and have a good time the feminine crusing neighborhood the place it’s now, and assist and champion it into the long run. An enormous thanks to Sunsail for the hospitality.

And my large takeaway from the day for feminine sailors? Don’t doubt your self, simply get on the boat!