It's been my experience over the past several years of showing people how to sail Hobie Waves at Rick's Place that, in general, women seem to learn to sail more easily than men do.

Now, is this because women
a. seem to get a feel for the boat faster than men do?
b. pay more attention to instruction than men do? (And is that because women know what they don't know, whereas men think directions aren't that important and they can figure it out for themselves?)

OR is my view of it skewed because possibly women relate better to being taught by women (in what is a mostly male-dominated sport)?

Maybe what is needed is a women-only sailing school on small boats, monohull dinghies and small cats, with only women instructors. Get some top-name, Olympic-level female sailors or coaches as guest experts for female-only seminars. There are very successful programs like that for the big sailboats (Womanship and others); so why not for the small boats?

As Tracie said upwards in this thread, "If I could start off on a smaller boat I think I could do well, because the desire to skipper is there. I would even want to eventually race as well."