WHY I CREATED WOMEN WHO SAIL
Image via Kristi Black
By Charlotte Kaufman
I started Women Who Sail because I couldn’t find a kind, supportive, community for women sailors online. I searched and searched. I reached out in the ‘ladies-spaces’ of existing online groups, but there were few women on the sites. Men were the usual respondents to my posts and their responses were not always but often, off-topic, unhelpful, unkind, and/or sometimes sexist. These interchanges left me frustrated and occasionally furious. They did help me focus on what I needed. I longed for community and friendship. I needed a place to ask questions about the liveaboard and sailing lifestyle, and about raising kids on a boat. I needed not just sailors, but the wisdom and experiences of other women who lived on boats. It turns out I wasn’t alone in needing those things too.
I created Women Who Sail in December 2011. I initially invited a few women I knew who were writing about their sailing adventures. Many of you may know, and still follow some of these women today. Women like Cidnie Carrol, Behan Gifford, Cindy Wallach, and Amanda Stars. While I hadn’t met them in person, through their words and photos, I felt a kinship to them and their lives on the water. I encouraged them to invite other women they knew and I set only a few rules, but these founding ground rules remain – Women Who Sail would be women only, no dudes allowed, and we would focus on being kind, respectful, and supportive. In the years since our founding, we have also expanded our rule of women only to be inclusive of the nonbinary community and those who do not identify as men. The initial women I invited reached out to invite others, and before we knew it, we had over 200 women in the group and our size steadily kept growing. I remember when our membership reached 3,000 and I thought, “Well, we must have found everyone out there by now,” and I was wrong.
When an entire group focuses on being kind and helpful, amazing things happen.
- Charlotte Kaufman
Today, Women Who Sail has over 18,000 members in our main group and another 33,000 in our regional and topical subgroups. Combined, we’re a community of 50,000 women and nonbinary sailors. The success of our group shows the need for online spaces like ours. The key to our group’s success is our members. When an entire group focuses on being kind and helpful, amazing things happen. A special thanks as well to our group admins, past and present, who volunteer their time to help build the foundation of our community: Cidnie Carroll, Behan Gifford, Devi Sharp, Anne Bryant, Nica Waters, LeeAnn Toth, Jan Alexander, Laurie Felker Jones, Ayme Sinclair, and Jenn Harkness, thank you for all you do and have done to support our group. Everyday I’m honored to have founded Women Who Sail and to be a part of such a knowledgeable, friendly, supportive group of people.
The idea for this newsletter has been a longtime coming. While our online community provides a space for our members to commune and connect, I want to further amplify, celebrate, and lift up our collective voices across the web. An email newsletter format allows us to share beyond our group, to not just other women, but with men too. Now more than ever, we need male allies if we are going to continue to break down the barriers that sexism and toxic masculinity impose on our world.
In this our inaugural issue, you will get to read Amali Knobloch’s words on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in the sailing world and beyond. You will read Jennifer Harkness’ first Dear Skipper Jenn sailing column and her advice on the importance of women only spaces on the water and on the web. I hope you enjoy the content we will send your way. Feel free to share the newsletter far and wide and encourage your friends to subscribe.
In love and solidarity,
Charlotte Kaufman, s/v Rebel Heart
Founder of Women Who Sail
Founding Editor of the Women Who Sail Newsletter
From Women Who Sail Newsletter | Issue 1. | August 2020.