Nobody Yells

My post about how my shouting instructions at female sailing students may be received negatively reminded me of an organization that I saw at a Boat Show a few years ago. They are called Womanship and they are a sailing school designed by women, for women.

As their website says they "bring together women of all ages ... from diverse backgrounds, from every part of the world, in harmonious collaboration and in a conducive learning environment, to take part in a sailing journey of self discovery, self fulfillment and the acquisition of real skills, real strengths, the ability to team and to lead, in harmony with nature." Or as the website also says more succinctly "Nobody Yells, Everybody Learns".

Women don't like being yelled at. I should know. I probably turned my own wife off sailing through making that mistake. We learned to sail together at a sailing resort and entered the beginners' race at the end of the course. The wind picked up, things got a bit scary and my competitive juices started flowing. I started yelling at her to trim in the jib or pull up the centerboard. We won the race but I lost the war. She has hardly ever raced with me again.

We laugh about it now. When we saw the Womanship stand at the boat show I suggested she ought to take one of their courses. She declined. So I teased her a bit. But they won't yell at you. If you drop the spinnaker under the boat and wrapped it round the keel they'll just quietly whisper, "Oh my dear, if you have a moment when you've finished painting your nails, do you think you could please, pretty please, be so kind as to see if there's anything you can do to tidy up that spinnaker, if you don't mind darling."

OK it's a politically incorrect sexist joke and a slander on Womanship. I know. And I am sure Womanship do great work and connect with women learning to sail in a way that I find more difficult.

I'm just jealous really.