Long Beach
“She was always the boat to beat,” Colleen Cooke, chief umpire of the Linda Elias Woman’s One Design Challenge, said.
She was talking about the late Linda Elias, who Cooke had raced against on many occasions.
Last weekend’s regatta brought 10 teams of the best women sailors together racing in Long Beach Sailing Foundation’s Catalina 37s.Over a two-day period, the teams raced in six fleet races.
The skippers competing were Wendy Corzine, Long Beach Yacht Club; Jane Hoffner, Balboa YC; Allie Blecher, California YC; Sunny Scarbrough, Hawaii YC; Carolyn Smith, Newport Harbor YC; Kris Zillman San Diego YC; Megan Marsh, Santa Monica Windjammers; Shala Youngerman, Cortez Racing Association; Liz Baylis, San Francisco YC; and Karyn Jones, Women’s Sailing Association of Santa Monica Bay.
Sunny Scarbrough and her team took top honors. Scarbrough graduated from Cal State Long Beach and actively campaigned with the university’s sailing team while a student. Second place went to Allie Belcher and Shala Youngerman took home the third-place trophy. Corzine took fourth.
Linda Elias was a skilled sailboat racer before her death in 2003 after a nine-year battle with ovarian cancer. The annual regatta that started in 1991 was renamed in her honor shortly afterward.
“We aspired to be like her,” Cooke went on to say in a text.
Long Beach YC was represented by Wendy Corzine, who according to her mom Sally Miller started sailing as a toddler when the Miller family owned a 15-foot sailboat and put Wendy and her sister Tina on each side of the mast, as they headed out for a family sail.
Wendy’s daughter, 13-year-old Sophie, was part of the Long Beach team this weekend. “She earned her spot,” Wendy told me at the burger bash after racing on Saturday.
Corzine’s team was unable to practice prior to the event because the life lines were removed from the boats. But that didn’t stop Wendy from holding crew sessions dockside to help her team bond.
Corzine not only commended her daughter as a member of the crew, she also credited her mother for being a trailblazer and role model in women’s sailing.
“She raced in this event when the name was simply the Women’s One Design Challenge,” Corzine said.
Miller credits Long Beach sailor Ofelia Voda for encouraging woman sailors in Southern California to form teams and compete against one another.
“Ofelia went to Tiffany’s and created a crystal trophy,” Miller said. “From there, she challenged women up and down the coast to compete against one another.”
Miller enjoyed being the bowman as she crewed with the all-women team.
“We had fun sailing with other women,” she said. “We did get a lot of attention. On Wet Wednesday nights, our husbands would watch us finish from the balcony.”
It appears they not only had good times out on the water, but were successful competitors as well.
“Our team competed in the Newport to Ensenada race (N2E) and won the Governor’s Trophy,” Miller said. “We looked at it as a challenge and adventure, but it turned out to be trailblazing.”
Women’s sailing has progressed since the early days of women and their role on board. Cooke cited last weekend’s regatta as an example.
“Look around to today’s event,” she said. “The crews are filled with women who have magnificent sailing backgrounds in fleet, team and match racing. They come from large boat and dinghy backgrounds.”
And as Cooke notes, it is not only those who are sailing where the impact is seen, it is race management as well.
“The Race Committee team is led by a female Principal Race Officer (PRO) that is a National Race Officer,” Cooke said. “The team is made up of a majority of women on the signal boat, and women on the mark set boats. And, of course, a female Chief Umpire.”
However, Cooke said it is too early to declare victory,
“So, yes, women’s sailing had progressed a lot,” she said. “But we still haven’t taken over the world, so our work is cut out for us!”
