Yacht club puts women at the helm
Female sailors on Great Salt Lake relish the challenge of the sport
By Brandon Griggs
The Salt Lake Tribune 2 may 2005
Pack a Lunch captain Diana Goodell, left, and crew member Dixie Casasola
wave to another boat as the two pass. Women were tacking their way across the
Great Salt Lake on Sunday in whitecapping waters during the Great Salt Lake
Yacht Club's women's sailing weekend. (Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune)
GREAT SALT LAKE - Late Sunday morning, under clear skies and against a steady
breeze, about two dozen sailors piled into eight boats and ventured onto this
briny inland sea. This wouldn't be unusual but for one fact: Except for a few
volunteer captains, all the sailors were women.
���The occasion was the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club's annual "Ladies Weekend,"
a two-day clinic designed to teach women to sail in a safe, nurturing
atmosphere - that is, without their husbands or boyfriends barking orders and
hogging
the helm.
���"It's a great opportunity for women to learn in a supportive environment
without getting yelled at," explained event leader Diana Goodell, who runs the
yacht club's women's programs. "Men tend to dominate the sport."
���True, although female sailors have come a long way since the 19th century,
when a woman aboard a ship was thought to bring bad luck. Ten years ago, a
women's team competed for the first time in the world's most prestigious race,
the America's Cup. And in February, Englishwoman Ellen MacArthur set a record
for an around-the-world solo voyage.
���Male captains vastly outnumber female ones at the Great Salt Lake Yacht
Club, which was founded in 1877 and whose slogan is, "Home of the World's
Saltiest Sailors." But Goodell and her daughter, Cory Weir, are trying to
change
that. The pair have been sailing together for two decades and have trained at
least several of the lake's women skippers.
���They also must work to overcome the lake's bad public image. With its
murky water and occasional stench, the Great Salt Lake is a unique, if not
downright bizarre, sailing locale. Boaters here battle brine flies, salty spray
and
treacherous shallows caused by years of drought.
���Yet � Goodell and other women sailors rhapsodize about the lake's
tranquility - motorboats are rare - and natural splendor, especially at sunset.
���"Some of [the 'Ladies Weekend'] is purely about the pleasure of the lake,"
Weir said. "People think it's stinky, but it's not. It's beautiful out here."
���A light breeze blew from the north Sunday as Goodell motored her 30-foot
sailboat, Pack A Lunch, out of the marina west of Saltair on the lake's south
shore. Aboard were Weir and two students: Dixie Casasola, a young Salt Lake
City technical writer, and Sandra Mountcastle, a retired nurse.
���Other students followed with instructors on other boats. Some, like
Casasola, had only sailed once or twice before. Others, like Mountcastle, a
Utah
newcomer who is familiarizing herself with the Great Salt Lake after years of
sailing in Florida, were veteran sailors.
�
���In sailing, as in any group effort, teamwork is key. Goodell led her crew
through the process of raising the mainsail, followed by the raising of the
foresail, or jib. The sails snapped tight as the wind caught them, pushing the
boat forward and causing it to heel to one side. For the next two hours crew
members practiced jibing and tacking back and forth across the wind, cranking
winches to tighten the sails.
���Despite a reputation as a leisurely pastime, sailing is not a passive
sport - and that, disciples say, is what makes it fun.
���"You don't just press a button, turn on the motor and open a beer," said
another student, Sue Lister. "You have to learn how to work the sails, how to
read the wind. There's a science to it."
���By 2 p.m., the wind was gusting to 12 knots - about 14 mph - and whitecaps
appeared on the lake's brownish � swells. Wispy clouds drifted overhead
across a pale blue sky. Lesson over, instructors and students steered their
boats
back into the marina, where they packed away the sails and opened some beers.
���Afterwards, students raved about the experience.
���"I had so much fun," said student Leslie Smith of Salt Lake City, who is
learning the sport in the hope that she and her boyfriend will someday sail
around the world together. "I like how everything you do changes the direction
and the speed of the boat. You understand the wind and how to harness it."
���Teresa Sowles had a less lofty reason for taking the weekend clinic.
Sowles, her sister Sue Lister, and their friends Michelle Cloud and Janet
Robbins
wanted to try out B' Jammin', the 25-foot sailboat they bought for $2,500 in
March. After some practice, the four women plan to race the boat as a team this
summer.
���"We � mostly want to beat the men," said Sowles, whose husband sometimes
sails with his buddies on the lake. She laughed, but she wasn't kidding.
��� [EMAIL PROTECTED]
���
���For more information on the Great Salt Lake Yacht Club or its women's
programs, visit http://www.gslyc.org.
���
_______________________________________________
http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
