Sistership Blog

Not to be left behind in cyberspace, sailing student Jennifer Hagan has created a blog for Sistership; a place for 'EX PAT's' (i.e. any former 'Sistershippers') to post sailing experiences, sea adventures, stories, photos, insights, tall tales, outlandish fabrications, the best spots to sail, drink and anchor in all seven seas. A place to catch up with ex-crew members, pick up a crew member, and plan for the next great sail. Check it out at http://nolanscrew.blogspot.com.  Don't be fooled by the URL - it is not a porn site but really about sailing!

The Sweet Taste of Victory
Antigua Sailing Week - 2005
by Pat Nolan 

During the last week of April, 2005, history was made at Antigua Sailing Week, one of the top five yacht racing venues in the world. For the first time an all female team won their division and won the prestigious overall fleet prize. A team of nine women (whose ages average 50 years!) sailing 'Seabiscuit', a ten-year-old Beneteau 445, had the fastest racing times in a fleet of 73 boats. No luck involved here - this was a group of very talented, very fit women who were sailing a fast, well prepared boat. Former sailing students of Captain Pat Nolan of Sistership Sailing School all have been bitten by the racing bug, thrive on the competition and the camaraderie of team racing and are willing to put in the work necessary to achieve the level of fitness required to finish at the top. And finish at the top they did. Considering the team only sails together once a year their accomplishment is significant.
  
Six days of racing, in typically heavy winds and big seas can take its toll on crews. This year saw lighter wind conditions than usual, which meant easier racing physically but much more difficult racing mentally. Three times more concentration and focus are required to keep a 20-ton boat moving in 6 knots of air than 26 knots. The legendary partying at ASW makes it even tougher for some crews to summon that concentration. We found this to be to our advantage!
  
By the end of Thursday, day four sailing in the very competitive, hotly contested bareboat division, the team had garnered two first place finishes and two seconds for a total of 6 points in our class, Bareboat V. Our closest competitor, Hans Petersohn from Germany, was close behind with 8 points. In third place was Phil Otis in a Beneteau 43, last year’s division and overall fleet winner with 13 points - not such a big threat as Hans but we all know the racing isn’t over till it’s over - anything can happen. In the fleet standings we stood in second place with 13 points, one point behind Beneteau 47 'Justice' in Bareboat Division V. The racing was close and there was no telling who would come out on top. 
  
Friday morning dawned with fair weather. The course to be sailed was the 'Ocean Race' a mostly windward-leeward course with a few reaching legs thrown in for good measure.  Conditions were near perfect for us 10-12 knots of wind, flat seas. We sailed a good race, finishing with a second place. KHP Bulle, the boat finishing first, committed a course foul and was bumped to 4th place. At the end of the day we had 8 points to Hans’ 11 - enough to win our division. Lucky for us, our fleet competitor 'Justice' had his only second place finish of the week that day which gave him 23 fleet points to our 19. In yacht racing low points take the prize, which meant we were the fleet champions as well!   You couldn’t find a happier crew anywhere in Nelson’s Dockyard.
  
We had worked so hard during the week to achieve our success, but we couldn’t pop the champagne corks yet as the racing still wasn’t over for us. Two years ago Antigua introduced another race - the Bareboat Championship Race to be held on Saturday. Only the top three finishers in each of the five bareboat classes qualify to race. Conditions on Saturday morning were pitiful when the fifteen boats showed up at the start line. The wind was so light our course looked like a millpond. Sailing with all the top finishers, we were not surprised that our real competition was still our friend Hans. His light weight, fast and very well sailed Sun Fast 37 flew along in the light air. We finished the race second to his first. Third place was taken by Pereric Berggren in 'Fifty Feet Ahead' a Dufour 50 , sailed by his Swedish team.
  

And "Baby" Makes Three

Sistership has officially become a fleet. Adding to the current stable consisting of J33 'Boomerang' and 'Big Red', the Avon dinghy, the new filly is "Seabiscuit" a Beneteau 445. Designed by Bruce Farr, one of the best go fast designers on the planet, this is a great sailing boat with very comfortable accommodations as well. Sporting 3 double cabins, each with its own head, a comfortable main salon, a galley two people can easily work in, and a large comfy cockpit, she still slices through the water on a beat at 7+ knots with two fingers on the helm. This boat will be great for teaching sailing and just plain 'fun' trips.

The current name of the boat is actually 'Waisters'. In the old days it was bad luck to change the name of the boat, but did I have a choice?? Here is what the nautical terminology website said about that one -

Waister - an old term to describe an untrained or incompetent seaman, or one who was worn out after many years of work. The Waisters were relegated to the 'waist' of the ship; that part of the upper deck between the quarterdeck and the foc'sl.

I DON'T THINK SO!! No waisters on 'Seabiscuit'. Not to worry though - I will appease the sea gods by going through a proper renaming ceremony so as not to incur anyone's wrath. This is most important as this boat comes with a reputation I must maintain. Seems that a group of Dutch boys chartered her for Antigua Sailing Week last April and cleaned up - they got a first in every single race all week. They won their class of course, but also won first overall out of six divisions of bareboats - over 100 boats!

The original "Seabiscuit" was a very famous race horse from California who ran in the late 30's. He was a grandson of the great horse "Man-o-War", kind of funky looking for a thoroughbred, with a funny gait. He was described as "undersized and knobby, a claimer with an attitude". No one took him for a champion for quite a while. Boy, did he fool everyone. Once he got in the hands of the right trainer he ran like the wind and captured the heart of the whole nation at a time in history when they really needed a hero.

"Seabiscuit's" father was named 'Hard Tack'. Both of these words are nautical words, of course, referring to the hard biscuits that sailors ate while out at sea.
  

This article appeared in the September 2001 issue of PACIFIC YACHTING magazine.   CHARTERING by Barbara Barde
	A Sisterhood of Sail
The "Barkley Babes"	On a unique west coast charter cruise, Sistership Sailing School brings together women sailors for a week of fun and adventure -- and a chance to learn new skills.    The skies were blue and it seemed like a perfect August day to arrive in Victoria to begin a six day trip Barkley Sound. Our eight member crew was all female and had traveled from such diverse places as St. Louis (Veronica), Anchorage (Kathy and Cherie), Corvallis, Oregon (Marolyn) and Toronto (Kim, Pat. T. and me) to be part of a wonderful adventure. Our skills varied from beginner to highly competent. Most of us fell somewhere in the middle. Only one of us, magical Marolyn, at the age of 73, owned a boat. Our captain was Pat Nolan whose company, Sistership Sailing School, had put the whole trip together.

Many of the women had sailed with Pat before, either as a student in one of her learn to sail courses held in Tortola (British Virgin Islands) or on one of her other 'adventure' trips. But two of us were new converts. Pat had chartered a 51 ft. Cooper with a Swan hull and it was a fabulous boat.

The groceries magically arrived with the skipper. We each brought our own libations so there would be no battle between the wine and the beer drinkers. At first, I couldn't quite figure out where all of us were going to sleep but after stowing all our gear and provisions there was plenty of room left over. After strapping two kayaks on the foredeck and charting our course the dock lines were released and we were off.

Pat's 'adventure' trips are designed to be a sailing vacation for those with basic sailing skills rather than a learn to sail course. During the week, however, each of us were to add more skills to our sailing repertoire.

Leaving Victoria that afternoon our first adventure would be an overnight passage through Juan de Fuca Strait and up the west coast of Vancouver Island to Barkley Sound, about 90 nautical miles. Most of us had never done an overnight passage so we were all really excited.
  
The watch schedule was 2 hours on and 4 hours off. The voyage would take 14 hours. Watch partners Pat T., Kim, and I stood our first watch from 8-10pm. It started out as a fairly clear night so there were lots of stars and we stayed well clear of all the main shipping lanes. 
 

Suddenly that "introduction to navigation" course began to make sense. We practiced both charting the route traditionally as well as entering the waypoints in the GPS to check ourselves. I was stunned to discover how hard it was to sail by the compass at night. Keeping us on course and not daydreaming was definitely a challenge. It was chilly, so most of us slept partly clothed. We also found that it was then easier to get dressed in the middle of the night and not wake everyone else. Hitting the deck for our next watch at 2am we found it much colder but luckily the watch before us was kind enough to hand us up hot chocolate. More challenges followed: staying awake, on course and warm.

Navigating through the many rocks and swift currents of Barkley Sound kept the crew on their toes!

We arrived in Bamfield the next morning to beautiful warm sunshine. After breakfast, we began our wonderful 5-day exploration of Barkley Sound. Being late August we rarely saw another boat. It was like having this huge area all to ourselves. The pure beauty of places like Pipestone Inlet and anchorages like Nettle and Turret Islands took our breath away. And did we luck out on the weather. Aside from one day, we had blue skies all the way. 

For those of us from St. Louis and Toronto, the 9 foot tides were quite an experience. In fact, one day we were having a fabulous sail and we didn't go anywhere, even sailing close hauled, due to stiff currents. I couldn't believe it.
  

We used the kayaks and the dinghy to explore areas where out keel would not allow us to go. When we were anchored in Pipestone Inlet, for example, we leaped into the kayaks and dinghy at high tide and headed for Lucky Creek and a lovely waterfall. Our other motive was a little soaping of the old body. The cold, cold water did not deter our daring Veronica and our bold skipper from just diving in. I, on the other hand, could barely take a birdbath. We also tried our hand as fishing. Kathy had brought her rod and was the queen of the crab pot as well. We did catch some crab and shrimp - enough for Capt. Pat to make a wonderful fish stew.

"Windshadow" in Barkley Sound

After 4 days, the fog finally rolled in and with it came some rain. We decided that maybe we would pay a visit to Ucluelet, have lunch ashore, and check out the local community. A fisherman was kind enough to give us the most wonderful gift. (I think he was stunned to see 8 women on a sailboat). He presented us with 8 lbs. of fresh caught halibut. We were sure that we had all died and gone to heaven.

Finally we had to begin the journey back to Victoria. En route we anchored briefly at Effingham Island so that we could go ashore and explore an old native village site. We returned to the boat to discover that the anchor windlass had packed it in. As Capt. Pat says, "It's always something". We solved the problem by winching the anchor up using the spinnaker halyard. 

Our next stop was Wouwer Island to check out a sea lion colony, but we didn't dare anchor, so Capt. Pat minded the boat while we leaped in the dinghy to get a closer look. Huge rocks along the shore were covered with hundreds of sea lions, some of the males as big as our dinghy.
   

The Cooper 51. "Windshadow", proud to have plenty of space for eight women.

We also had a short stop at Bamfield. After a walkabout, it was back on board and then off on another overnight adventure on our return trip to Victoria. This time Pat T., Kim and I had the watch from 10-12am, so we got to sail out of the sound into the big rollers of the Pacific. It was fun. Once again, the weather gods were with us. We were also fortunate because our next watch was from 4-6am, the last one as were coming into Victoria just as the sun was rising. The trip was an amazing experience combining the best aspects of a vacation with our passion for sailing. We laughed continuously, read few books and indulged ourselves in good wines (I'm elected official 'sommelier' for our next adventure) and great food. We couldn't believe that the time had gone by so quickly. By the end of the week we had bonded and become incredibly close friends. Since our return we email each other regularly and are starting to plan our next BC adventure. Until next August....

ASA INSTRUCTOR QUALIFICATION CLINIC

Since becoming an Instructor Evaluator for ASA Pat has conducted three instructor qualification clinics in Tortola qualifying twelve new ASA instructors.  If you are a proficient sailor and have a yen to teach, consider attending an IQC to get your instructor credentials.  We meet for 5 days from 9:00am - 5:00pm.  Successful completion of the clinic will certify you as an instructor for 4 levels - Basic Keelboat, Basic Coastal Cruising, Bareboat Chartering and Coastal Navigation.  We assess sailing skills during the week, but more importantly the emphasis is on acquiring teaching skills.  As we all know a great sailor does not necessarily make a great instructor.  We assume you are a good sailor coming into the clinic.  We aim to make you a great instructor coming out of the clinic.

SHE DOES THIS FOR FUN???

Foredeck queen "Spinner" douses the "glad-bag"

My old friend Nancy "Spinner" Strayer from Seattle is one of the finest foredeck people I have ever sailed with. She travels to the BVI to act as foredeck instructor for the BVI Spring Regatta and The Rolex Regatta. She grew up on a farm in Ohio where her parents still live. Sharing her sailing experiences with her non-sailing family is always a challenge. She shared with me an excerpt of a letter to her folks with the comment "if you wondered what your foredeck instructor was thinking during those long beats at the Rolex......" "My best description of what I experience from my position as first crewperson on the rail, closest to the bow: First, imagine yourself in a lawn chair sitting in the sun. Except take away the chair back and arms. Tilt the chair back slightly, and drop the ground away so your legs are dangling 4-5 feet above the ground. Now rock the chair side to side and back and forth, in no particular order or rhythm. Still with me? Turn on one of those warehouse fans and point it directly at one of your shoulders, to the side. Imagine it being so cranked up that your hat flies off every time you look toward the fan at the wrong angle (this is why they sell strings with clips on them at marine shops). "

" Now rig a clothesline so it cuts across your stomach side to side. Strap a second clothesline about Adams' apple height. (These are the lifelines). Comfortable? How about a 5-gallon pickle bucket of cold briny water thrown directly into your face and chest at least every 5 minutes and always when you least expect it. (And I do this for fun??) Those sitting next to you on the side away from the fan are cheering your efforts at keeping them dry. Now this scenario is only true for the first third of the crew. Those farther back get splashed a little or not at all. This is why I, as foredeck can be seen sporting foul weather gear and knee high boots in July. The driver, who doesn't even hang her legs over, will be in shorts or tennis shoes."

This is the sport we all love!

Sistership Sailing School