In the good old days when more husbands and wives used to sail together, sometimes the situation was exactly the opposite of what you describe. Sometimes the skipper/husband did not want his wife/crew to know much about how to sail because "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing," and he did not want his wife (or girlfriend) knowing enough to start telling him what to do.

And the wives (girlfriends), on the other hand, often did not care to know anything anyway -- they were content to just do the jobs they were trained to do as crew and do their jobs well.

Whenever a man found and trained a male crew, we always knew that was going to be a short-lived relationship, because as soon as the crew knew enough, he was going to want his own boat -- and there goes the crew.

That was not as much of a potential problem with a female crew, because not that many women are interested in getting their own boats and becoming skippers.

This problem with two macho men on the boat has only become a problem in more recent years since the advent of bigger, faster, more powerful boats and spinnakers and all that stuff that have driven most of the women out of the sport as crew -- including ME.

The best thing for this sport would be to have again some smaller, less intimidating boats in a one-design class that will attract male-female crews.

The Hobie 16 is the only one-design class out there that still works for couples sailing together.

Since women are basically out of the picture now, we have the bigger boats with two men aboard and all the other men (and a few women) going to small, lightweight singlehanders.

If we could get back to boats that attract women, you wouldn't have to worry about this problem of two male skippers on the same boat with clashing ideas and egos.

You men, with your need for power and speed, have created the problem that results in two men on the boat. So learn to live with it, and each other -- or go back to funner, gentler times and let women back in. Please.