Annapolis Yacht Club Hosts U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship

From the Annapolis Yacht Club: Each sport deals with a generation gap, whether in the amateur or professional ranks. There is a concerted push in the sailing community to encourage young women to continue participating in the sport throughout their junior careers.

Continuance in sailing will be encouraged through education, competition, and sportsmanship when the U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship lands at host Annapolis Yacht Club from July 13-18. Sailed in private or chartered 420s, “it’s very different from a lot of regattas,” said Molly Hughes Wilmer, the chairwoman of this year’s championship. “There is a lot of research that shows a majority of women ages 13-18 drop out of sports for a variety of reasons. Good coaching can help prevent that. The coaching for this regatta is paid for by US Sailing and the coaching is top-notch.”

The championship dates to 1995 and is commonly known as the Ida Lewis, also the namesake of the event’s trophy which was named in honor of Idawalley Zorada Lewis. She was the keeper at Lime Rock Lighthouse in Newport, R.I., and was credited with saving many lives on the water in the mid-1800s, when it was considered unfeminine for a woman to row a boat.

Annapolis Yacht Club is pleased to have four teams vying for the Ida Lewis Trophy. Among them is the team of Maddie Hawkins and Kimmie Leonard. Hawkins, 15, has been sailing for eight years and said she takes pride in having the familiarity of local waters to be someone her competitors can turn to for guidance.

Hawkins said Annapolis Yacht Club is “a great venue for junior sailing championships,” and she is eager to not only get out on the water and perform, but also take advantage of every bit of education and competition the event offers young female sailors.

“I am most looking forward to the opportunity to sail against some of the best female 420 sailors from around the country,” said Hawkins, who will be a first-time competitor at the U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship. “These types of clinics and regattas provide not only amazing coaching, but a chance for sailors to come together and compete at a high level.”

Families within the Annapolis area, including those of some local competitors, have volunteered to host the 70-plus competitors. Newport Beach, Calif., resident Skylar Jacobsen, 16, will compete in the Doublehanded Championship and has been sailing half her life. Her experience is limited to the west coast, where she said much of the coastline is dedicated to beaches, tourists, and surfing, which often overshadows sailing. Competing in Annapolis will be an opportunity for Jacobsen to “make the more nautically focused east coast a really rewarding experience for me and my crew.”

Jacobsen said she is a little concerned about the climate shock, but she is also excited to “experience what makes the east coast so unique.” She learned to sail in a Sabot, or what she calls “a dinky, boxy-shaped 8-footer similar in idea to the opti” and very popular in southern California.

Social events each night will promote camaraderie and an opportunity for the young women to interact with each other outside the arena of competition. Hawkins, who has made friends worldwide throughout her sailing experiences, said balancing friendship with competitiveness can be difficult, but achievable.

“When it is time to compete,” Hawkins said, “I focus on doing the best I can. At the end of the day, everyone is there to try and win. A great way to sum it up would be ‘friends on land, competition on the water.’”

Jacobsen also has an outlook toward competition, and traveling east for the first time is and experience she plans to enjoy to the fullest. “Sailing in southern California, I have developed a close-knit group of friends with whom I compete against regularly,” she said. “At this regatta, however, I am most excited to both meet new sailors from across the nation, and also experience the east coast with some of my more local friends.”

Wilmer has several local female role models participating at the event, citing the volunteerism of Commodore Debbie Gosselin, AYC Race Committee Chair Sandy Grosvenor, AYC Regatta Manager Linda Ambrose, and US Sailing Treasurer and AYC Principal Race Officer Taran Teague. “It’s fun to pass along the passion that we have for the sport to the next generation,” she said.

Wilmer noted that she had “wonderful” female role models during her own junior sailing career, including Grosvenor. “This is really cool for me to be doing this with Sandy as Race Committee Chair.”

The U.S. Junior Women’s Doublehanded Championship is about more than simply racing — there is an air of education to the near weeklong event. Clinics and lessons in sportsmanship kick off the week, which culminates July 18 with an awards ceremony. Wilmer reminds everyone that each team is fiercely intent on winning the regatta. “The girls definitely want to win — they’re competitive,” she said. “But our goal is in setting the girls up to be collegial and not just cut-throat competitive.”

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