004: Why Can't Mothers be Competitive too?! Yacht Racing at the Women's Open Keelboat Championships

A few weeks ago I was invited to take part in the Women’s Keelboat Championships in the Solent. It was a great opportunity to do something competitive – something I really miss being a mother – but it was great fun too.

TRANSCRIPT

This weekend I did W.O.C which is the Women’s Open Keelboat Championships. We borrowed a boat from the United Kingdom Sailing Academy. They were kind enough to let us use one of their keelboats and that was also arranged by Pete Tyler at Neilson. So the weekend consisted of six races. On Saturday there were three races. The races were probably a couple of miles long
each and then we went out partying on Saturday night for the frocks and flip-flops party. So it’s nice to go out and party a bit with lots of other women.. with a hog roast and a glass Prosecco.

Then on Sunday we started again at 10 in the morning we did three long races. It was really great to do this this weekend because I don’t get involved with a lot of racing anyway, I’m mainly skippering boats for other people or just taking people out or helping with the kids so it’s nice to get out and be competitive. That’s another thing that I don’t really get to do, you’re not encouraged to be competitive when you’re mother.

Yeah, there are some technical skills that I don’t get to practice very much, I don’t get involved with a lot of racing. Cruising is very different so racing you have to do a lot of things really quickly. My main job in was to trim so it’s trimming the spinnaker and try and get it in the boat before it goes under the boat. So you have to do it really quick and you have to be really strong but it’s quite good fun.

It’s really great to pack up my rucksack that I used to go traveling with and shoot off for the weekend knowing that the kids were in good hands with their Dad and also when I get back it’s telling them what I’ve done and it inspires them maybe because both my eldest daughter and my middle son are learning how to sail at the moment on their little Opy’s and if they see that I’m doing it as well it might inspire them. Okay, so I’m off to do my lifeguarding beach patrol job. I’ve got my socks and my nice warm Dubbary’s and this is half the gear that we’ve got but I’ve got loads more kit to keep me nice and toasty warm today. The kids all forgot their pack lunches so I’m doing that on the way.

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