Charlotte Kaufman

Charlotte Kaufman is the founder of Women Who Sail (WWS),  an advocacy organization and platform providing resources, support, and a safe space for women and non-binary sailors, comprising a community of over 50,000 members worldwide, making it the largest online group of women sailors in the world. 

An avid sailor since her twenties, Charlotte and her husband lived aboard for seven years, sailing out of San Diego, Catalina Island, the Sea of Cortez, and the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Through various experiences on and offline, it became clear to her that the existing, male-dominated networks for information and support were often alienating to women.  This experience motivated the founding of WWS, which created a supportive, welcoming, informative online space for women on the water that did not exist previously.

Charlotte’s personal experience as a sailor became the subject of public debate when in 2014, en route to the South Pacific, a medical emergency necessitated her family’s rescue at sea. The rescue brought intense media scrutiny to the idea of parenting and living aboard. Her story was featured on “This American Life” and she has written in “HuffPost” about the experience. Charlotte is passionate about normalizing the idea of sailing with kids and raising children aboard. She now lives in Mammoth Lakes, California with her husband and two daughters.

Ayme Sinclair

Ayme Sinclair is CEO of Women Who Sail. An African-American woman, she is an advocate for diversity across the field.

Ayme is the former Vice President of the National Women’s Sailing Association and has been sailing for the past 8 years racing competitively on the J109 Sweet Caroline.  She also participates in races all over the world including the eastern coast of Africa, where she formed the first women’s sailing team to compete in a race held in Lamu, Kenya. 

Outside of her work with the sailing community, Amye is a UN communications consultant and prominent communications executive in the non-profit world as CEO & Founder of Sinclair Social, a leading communications agency. Nominated for many prestigious awards including the Bill Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Award and the United Nations SDG Media Summit Leadership Award, she is also the former Vice President of the National Women's Sailing Association.

She has been featured for her work in the sailing community on CNN’s Great Big Story, Essence, Sail Magazine, Windcheck Magazine, Boat US, Yahoo, and numerous other outlets. Recently, she worked with the United Nations to produce a welcome flotilla of 18 boats that met Greta Thunberg as she sailed into NY harbor for the UN General Assembly Climate Action Summit. Through this event she activated 500,000 members of the sailing community, helping to create the biggest media moment the UN has ever had around their sustainable development goals. 

Ayme is an American based between the United States and Nigeria.  She is a Board Member of the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Young Leaders, Former Chair of the Black Ivy Alumni League Reunion, and on the Board of the clean water organization FACE Africa. A graduate from New York University, Ayme has a Masters degree in Graphic Communication Management and holds two Bachelor degrees in Art and Marketing Management from Virginia Tech.

Cidnie Carroll

Cidnie Carroll has filled many roles in her life. Touring musician, writer, feminist radio show host, poker player, event manager, chef and wine steward but her favorite roles are mom, traveler and sailor. She lives in Kemah, Texas with her husband Mark and cat Patsy Stone where they are prepping their boat for more sailing adventures, this time beyond the Gulf of Mexico and the Bahamas.

Anne Bryant

Anne lives in Maine as a slightly rooted nomadic creature, splitting her time between her 27' wooden sloop and her little 1966 Shasta trailer. She's right hand Anne at Acorn to Arabella, and was an editor at a boat magazine until recently, but only started sailing a little while back, going all-in for slow, deliberate travel and living as close to nature as possible.

She also works on her occasional podcast, The Water Society, has produced videos for Restoring Rosalind, and still writes for WoodenBoat Magazine.

LeeAnn Toth

LeeAnn Toth currently lives in Ottawa, Canada where she is the mother of one, step-mother of two and a grandmother of two. She learned how to sail in the Thousand Islands in the St Lawrence River and Lake Ontario. In 2013 she and her family sailed south through the Canadian Maritimes and down the East Coast to the Bahamas. They will set sail again when their child finishes school.