Showing results for "the women" in Sailing & Boating

This 148-day journey began on Darcy Gaechter’s 35th birthday. She sold her successful outdoor adventure business, upsetting her partner and boyfriend of 12 years and getting them both fired in the process. The emotional waters that would fester and erupt on the ensuing journey were often more challenging to navigate than the mighty river itself. With blistering lips and irradiated fingernails, Darcy would tackle raging Class Five whitewater for 25 days straight, barely surviving a dynamite-filled canyon being prepared for a new hydroelectric plant.

Gender issues are stark at sea. Historically a ship’s crew is all male, and although vessels are referred to as ‘she’, women’s contributions to sailing have been largely ignored, if not actively opposed. Today’s sailing legends such as Tracy Edwards and Ellen MacArthur compete with men on equal terms, but they stand on the shoulders of many women before them, who had to challenge preconceptions, prejudice and even the law in their wish to sail.