Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival 2026

The sea doesn't care what gender you are. But other people do — or did. Grand yacht clubs banned female members, the Royal Navy rejected the WW2 Wrens, and even when leisure sailing was opening to a wider public, women's social and economic inequality made participation harder. My presentation will focus on some of the inspiring women, throughout the c20th, who  went to sea anyway. They were the pioneers whose spirit of independence led the way for others. Some names you will have heard of but too many were invisible or forgotten.  We can change that.