Future world champion in all classes - multihulls first, the monohulls, trimarans, etc. Then she can go on to become a world famous cat designer (or doctor, etc). Not too much pressure. Colleen, the world champ in about 16 years!

If you want more women skippers, have more little girl skippers.

my kid can beat your kid.
Catamaran Dads- the next political demographic. More cultured than Nascar Dads, yet more gentle than Soccer Moms.

Future women skippers at Hobie Kenobie Regatta in Buffalo.

I don't think it's necessarily the "lack of aggression", because I've seen my wife drive! I think it may be more of intimidation with regard to the (seemingly) numerous rules of racing.

Of the female crews I've seen, most are more than aggresive enough to handle a boat in tight quarters, but perhaps lack the assertiveness to ask to skipper. Either that, or our fragile male egos won't give up the stick...

There have been times when I feel I would be better crewing to get the boat speed where I need it, but then think I should be on the helm because I think (tactically) we should be doing something different (like banging the corner or closing the door on some people creeping up the middle). Until my communication skills improve, I think I will continue to frustrate myself...

But I see the advantage to the big person being crew:
- better leverage and the ability to use two hands to pull strings (mainsheet, downhaul or spin sheet)
- mobile weight to keep boat trim optimal
- Ability to board competitors boats and slaughter crew if they get to close at a rounding (Abast ye, matie.. ARRRR!)

A big problem is interpretation of the words "skipper" and "crew." It's one of my pet peeves. For some strange reason, catamaran sailors think that skipper is synonymous with helm.

On a two-person boat, you have two crew members, a helmsperson and a foredeck person. One of those crew members is the skipper, the person who makes the final decisions and gives the orders. And it does not matter whether the skipper is helmsperson or foredeck person.

It often makes sense for the skipper to be the foredeck person, who is more free to look for wind shifts and call tactics and laylines, and tweak the sail trim, so the helmsperson can just concentrate on telltales and making the boat go fast.

So, in other words, asking to steer the boat is not the same thing as asking to skipper.

That's an interesting perspective Mary...especially with the advent of the self tacking jib the crew is left with not a whole lot to do upwind except look around and feed information to the helmsperson.

I agree on the terminology. I usually refer to the positions as "stick" and "strings". And I do think the stringer has more of an opportunity to see shifts, tactics, call laylines, and other items of importance for the stick

On the other hand, I think it is important that the stick see the wind and figure out how best to get there. If the stick spends all day chasing the telltales, I don't think that's quite as fast.

It's always good to step back and take another "big picture" look at how you're doing something to see how you can improve it....

Weight transfer is critical in light air especially when pointing. Being able to move the bulk of the crew weight where its needed to make the boat go is quite benefical.

I tried two tri-babes on my 22 with interesting results. All three of us wore trap vests but only two were on the wire at a time. I was using my roller furling spin with the Fancor furler. After working out the methodology of tacking, who does what, etc. we had some really fun times. With the standard chute it seemed very beneficial with me doing the spin chores with the help of a 110lb crew. After some practice they both tackled the spin chores but were about 1 minute slower getting it done. Theres no substitute for bulk when tugging on a spin... We sailed about four times like this and it worked well for us.

Total crew weight was 425lbs... thats 25 lbs under the max recommended crew weight. With one crew we were as low as 325lbs which is the minimum.

Toooooooooooooo Baddddddddddddd for me one is pregant and appears not interested in crewing any further and the other has transferred/moved away. I have been swamped with work since March anyway... so maybe next year I will get to go somplace where you don't run out of room before you get the boat tuned.

Neither had a problem steering the boat or handling the mainsheet chores with a 12:1 in moderate air under 15 knots.

thom

Hankin down on that downhaul can get tiring man!

Being aggressive on the race course is certainly not a problem for the women I've raced against. Have any of you raced Heather Morrison with her 200+ pound husband Stu as crew on the H20? There is no lack of aggression in the back of that boat. She was, however, the only female skipper at H20 Nationals this year, which was a bit disapointing.