The oldest video footage of women’s sailing

The oldest video footage of women’s sailing

by Magnus Smith Oct 13 10pm AEDT

With the inaugural Puig Women’s America’s Cup just ending in Barcelona, ​​it seemed that our weekly look into the video archives should focus on female sailors. Since our goal is always to find the oldest footage, this immediately raised concerns. There are sailing videos from the 1920s… but since there were so few countries back then where women could even vote, what sexist horrors might we find there?

The oldest video we could find is Sea guide from 1926 in England. Sailing and rowing girls may have been chosen for a newsreel because it wasn’t a common sight, but at least we get to see it celebrated.

We also found The Girl On The Yacht
and The Girls Of The Yacht Brigade from the 1930s. Then there is a clear record of mixed-gender youth sailing in the 1940s: Snowbird racing in Newport Bay, California.

In 1968, Barbara Caulder was captain of an all-female crew from Aberdeen, Scotland, for a race across the North Sea. The video shows some preparations before takeoff, including what testing an emergency tiller looks like.
Barbara’s obituary makes for fascinating reading.

From an unknown year in the seventies, GP14 sailing at Lymington Town Sailing Club is great because it shows so many female sailors. While it’s not particularly exciting to watch people taking off boat covers, I’m glad the shots were taken on land, as the water shots are too far away to tell a person’s gender. Today there is still a wonderful variety of mixed crews in many dinghy racing classes.

In 1977, Clare Francis became the first woman to helm a boat in the Whitbread Round the World Race, but unfortunately her yacht is only mentioned in passing in the official film. We’re going to skip this video in disgust and show it instead Interviews before the startwhich Clare covers at 2:47 minutes.

Tracy Edwards went one better on the Whitbread in 1989/90 and increased the proportion of female crew members to 100%. The maiden voyage is a 52-minute TV documentary about the race. As a guy, I can’t quite say if this does the girls justice, but I hope it shows the world that they are simultaneously amazing… and yet just plain ordinary; I mean this in the sense that we shouldn’t be surprised that women can sail just as well as men. It should be a given! (See also the official film of the race and the charity The Maiden Factor.)

Back to the America’s Cup: It’s good to learn that the 2024 event is not the first time that female sailors have taken part. The story features several women taking on the men, and that reminds us to see if there’s any footage of Dawn Riley.

There is a short video from America³ Women’s team in action in 1992, but let’s watch America’s Cup 1995 (Part 2) This shows that the all-women team “Mighty Mary” leads Dennis Conner’s men in the Defender Trials with a lead of 4 minutes at 15:30 minutes. I would have liked to see them win overall, but that didn’t happen this time.

We want to stop at this point because after the 1990s everything became digital. If we missed a video you know (new or old), you can submit links for immediate review. If you have any thoughts on the past/future of women’s sailing, please contact us via email.

What a wonderful aspect of our sport it is that men and women, old and young, and those with physical or mental disabilities can enjoy the water – and in many cases have a level playing field for competitive racing.