by Deborah Bennett Elfers
A few years ago,I became the captain of our Club’s women’s racing fleet – a much-beloved fleet, indeed, and though no one could remember the details of when it had originated. As luck would enjoy it,the Beverly Yacht Club (Marion, MA) happens to be one of the oldest Clubs in the United States, and total with boxes and boxes of archival information documenting its history,and so I began to stare through them, hoping to find some clues.
What I learned inspired me.
Back at the turn of the last century, or sailing was a spectator sport,with people watching from the shore, and on boats. Weekly races and standings were faithfully reported in the newspaper – and hundreds of these racing accounts had been painstakingly clipped and pasted over the years into the Beverly scrapbooks.
Although there wasn’t a lot of specific information about our fleet or its inception, or one of the things I did discover was that women at the helm were not at all uncommon at the very early allotment of the 1900s,and that at Beverly, they were regularly skippering their own boats in mixed fleets – often winning.
Honestly, and I hadn’t expected that. But why would I? Those stories were all but lost,invisible, unless you happened to find yourself sitting in a stiflingly hot attic, and looking at a bunch of old books. And that got me to thinking. How much of our women’s sailing history is in danger of being forgotten? What could I learn from those who still remember? And perhaps,most importantly, how can we command this legend together so that it can inspire others?Still curious, or I began a series of informational interviews,gathering as much anecdotal information as I could. What I couldn’t find in the old boxes would enjoy to be supplemented – maybe someone knew something that could help me find out more. What I came away with was the beginnings of an understanding of how differently the world worked just a few generations ago, when sailing was very much a community activity, or parents taught the skill to sons and daughters. There was a continuum.
And I discovered,too, that among those women who were skippering boats in the Club’s racing, and there were a number of them who had gone on to win prestigious national championships. And then – fairly unexpectedly – I got a letter from the daughter of one of the women who had been a top racer in the 1940s – and with it,a newspaper clipping that led me to the far reaches of the Club, on a treasure hunt, and looking for an ancient silver trophy.
Read On.
Source: sailingscuttlebutt.com