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Sailing victory for women skippers

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avconway
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Sailing victory for women skippers

#155944

Postby avconway » July 29th, 2018, 12:02 pm

I note that women have skippered both the first and second place-getting boats in the eleventh Clipper Round the World Yacht Race which finished in Liverpool yesterday.

The winning vessel Sanya Serenity Coast was skippered by Sydney-sider Wendy Tuck, and Visit Seattle, skippered by 25-year-old Nikki Henderson, came in second.

So, we have two more names to add to the long list of women who have achieved much in the world of ocean sailing – Ann Davison, Clare Francis, Naomi James, Tracy Edwards, Dee Caffari, Kay Cottee, Ellen MacArthur …, a list from memory that is surely incomplete, and is drawn only from the English-speaking world.

I have a special regard for Ann Davison, in the immediate post-war period, alone in her little pre-war 23 ft Cornish-built double-ender “Felicity Ann”, racing no-one and navigating by sextant, compass, log and black-lead pencil.

She wrote:-
“For nine days out of Casablanca (she ws following the trans-Atlantic trade wind route - avc) there was not a ship to be seen, and I missed them, grizzling quietly to myself at the loneliness: then we joined the north- and south-bound shipping lane, and two steamers appeared on the horizon at the same time, whereon I perversely resented their presence, “What are you doing on my ocean?”

“One supper was especially memorable, though not for the menu. At 1750 hours, Sunday, October 5th [1952] to be exact, I was fixing some cheese nonsense on the stove, for it was a flat calm and I was in an experimental mood, and whilst stirring the goo in the pan I happened to glance through the porthole over the galley and spied a steamer way over on the horizon, the merest speck to eastward of us, going south. A few minutes later I looked out again and to my surprise saw she had altered course and was making towards us. Coming out of her way specially to look at a little ship. Thrilled to the quick, I abandoned supper, brushed my hair, and made up my face, noting with detached amazement that my hands were trembling and my heart was beating, and I was as excited as if I was preparing for a longed-for assignation.

“She was a tall, white-grey Italian liner, the Genale of Rome, and she swept round astern of us, the officers on her bridge inspecting FA keenly through their binoculars. As she had so kindly come many miles out of her way, I had no wish to delay her needlessly, for minutes are valuable to a ship on schedule, so I made no signals, but waved, and the whole ship seemed to come alive with upraised arms waving in reply. She went on her way satisfied that all was well with her midget counterpart, and the night was a little less lonely from the knowledge of her consideration.”

(Extracts from pages 107, 108 and 109 of her book [i]My Ship is so Small]/i])

Ann Davison's skills were those needed to cope with the challenges of sailing and seamanship. Wendy Tuck and Nikki Henderson needed additionally the “man-management” skills necessary to lead and live with 21 other people 24/7 in the confines of a 75 ft boat, all the while under the pressures of competition.

Capable people.

avconway

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