Story by Julie Tait, SY “The Wizard”

All the girls had a great time. We had a few starts with a lot of close quarter tacking in the Dent Passage and this was a lot of hard work for the girls on the winches - this boat is not set up for this type of sailing, long distance sailing is its place. It was exciting sailing and a very close quarter mark rounding in the second race whilst on port tack that was much talked about afterwards.

There is no shouting or yelling as we all work as a team. No egos to get over.

We had winds from 15 to 18 knots to zero. I thought that we were never going to get around the northern end of Pentecost Island during the third race. It was hot, frustrating, and mentally hard to do so many hours of this light air sailing.

The performance of the girls improved out of sight during the six races and are all keen to come back and do it again next year. There was plenty of partying afterwards especially during the Mardi Gras Night where The Wizard had a couple of pirates in the parade.

I would like to see other women look at what we
have done and be inspired to take up sailing themselves and be part of a terrific sport. It is possible for women to have fun and enjoy the sport. You don't have to be young or especially fit. It is not all a men's sport and I believe most men like to have females on the boat as it equals out the dynamics of the boat. So all you women get out there and sail on anything that has a sail!