Taylor begins, telling a story about trimming sails on larger yachts. She explains that when you trim, you also call instructions like “grind” or “hold”. In this particular story, it didn’t matter how loudly she called the word; another sailor at the back of the boat would yell the same thing over the top of her.
“I literally just said that, you’re speaking over me. Like, give me a second to just say it myself – and I find that happens every single time,” she says.
Crew member Katie O’Mara adds, “I’ve had someone physically come over the back of me and take something out of my hands.”
On other boats, women can be restricted to certain roles, such as trimming the sail. Tucker says women are frequently cast as “wing defence”, to borrow a netball term. Important, but never the playmaker.
“I guess on this boat we have a few more centres,” she says. “Every woman on the crew is a critical member.”
Even learning about the engines, batteries and solar panels are new for Maddie Lyons. “Most of us have grown up where boys would be shown mechanical stuff, and girls are shown how the stove works,” Tucker says.
On this boat, the crew are encouraged to speak up, ask questions and try different ways of doing things.
“I like the idea that you’re not put in a box or in a role,” Malin Ludwig, 32, says.
The crew are also quick to pay tribute to the men who have supported them. Their fathers, brothers, partners, friends, former crewmates, and financial and equipment sponsors, without whom they wouldn’t have been able to sail.
Loading
“Considering it’s such a male-heavy sport, I’d say most of the stuff we all know has actually come from a lot of really good guys,” Stevenson says. “They are the ones who have taught us.”
You assume these women have shared these stories with each other before – but, in fact, this is the first time, they say.
This is what women have always done. They collect experiences and wait until the right time to share them. They wait until they get to the end of the marina, disembark from the train, leave the meeting room or walk out of the elevator.
As much as they notice men when they are alone, they notice when a space has been created just for them.
Tucker has made that space aboard this yacht out on the ocean, and has done so for women who assumed they’d never have it.
“I think that’s very distinctive from the boats that I’ve been on,” O’Mara says. “I think everyone feels that they can have a voice.”
