All She Sailor Sea Story LIVE events are free on Zoom. You do not have to be an NWSA member, however, memberships help our organization fund these kinds of events, scholarships, and in-person and on-the-water education for women by women. Please consider joining NWSA or donate directly to our programs through the button links on the bottom of this page. Register for the next She Sailor Sea Story in advance and share it with your sailing community.
Dawn Riley was inducted to the National Sailing Hall of Fame in 2021, after Maiden, the feature film, chronicled the story of the 1989-90 Whitbread Race to a wide audience. More than just a few sailors learned about the women who sailed around the world. The crew of Maiden set out to prove that women were resourceful and capable sailors even in under the demanding circumstances of blue water racing.
In the movie, Riley recalls “We started the race and many people thought we were going to lose and cry and all that kind of stuff and we won two of the hardest legs with all women aboard. When you are away from land and there are only ten people on the boat, it doesn’t matter if they are male or female. There are absolutely no jobs women can’t do offshore.” She continues, “In my opinion, the last frontier for women in sailing is in decision making roles. Women in leadership with decision making powers is where we need to go. The next step is for more women to own their own boats.”
With two around the world races, America's Cup races, and much much more Riley will surely share inspirational sea stories.
Sheila McCurdy will add her story the Women of the Cruising Club of America to the She Sailor Sea Story series — Broken Glass as the honoree of the BoatUS / NWSA Leadership in Women's Sailing Award in 2018.
McCurdy is the author of the soon to be published High Seas and Home Waters: The Centennial History of the Cruising Club of America. She is also the vice chair of the Board of Trustees of Mystic Seaport Museum, a board member of Storm Trysail Club, and only female commodore (so far) of the Cruising Club of America. She races and cruises her 38-foot sloop, Selkie, designed by her father Jim McCurdy and co-owned by her husband RADM David Brown, (USMS ret.).
She’s sailed over 125,000 miles offshore, including ten trans-Atlantics and several Pacific passages.
McCurdy advised the US Naval Academy Sailing for 20 years, and ran the US Sailing Association’s national faculty for 13 years. She is a long-standing moderator for Safety at Sea courses and holds a US Coast Guard 100-ton master’s license and a master’s degree in Marine Affairs.
In addition to her decades of writing and teaching, she recently edited Adventurous Use of the Sea, Formidable Stories of a Century of Sailing from the Cruising Club of America.
Jennifer Silva Redmond is the author of Honeymoon at Sea: How I Found Myself Living on a Small Boat and a freelance editor. Her essays, articles, and fiction have been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, and on sites such as Brevity.
On the staff of the Southern California Writers’ Conference and San Diego Writers, Ink, she was the prose editor for A Year in Ink, vol 3, and a co-founder of the critically acclaimed Sea of Cortez Review. Formerly editor-in-chief of Sunbelt Publications, Jennifer is now their editor-at-large.
She has lived with artist/writer/teacher Russel aboard their sailboat Watchfire, on the West Coast of North America for most of the past 35 years.
Zoom a bit after the She Stories and enjoy a sailor's social Happy 1/2 Hour.
Tell a She Sailor Sea Story
Fill out the application form and email a short sailing bio and brief description of your story to shesailorseastory@womensailing.org
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Alison Osinski is an aquatic consultant from Avalon, California, an island dweller, a U.S. Coast Guard licensed captain, keel boat sailing instructor, teaches boat handling skills, safety drills, navigation and rules of the road. She also provides boat deliveries, day sailing trips and Pacific Ocean cruises off Southern California and the Channel Islands.
Kathleen Seero is south of most of us landlubbers, on her boat, LOULOU. Kathy was guided by a bold dream, when she turned an ambitious idea into reality. That idea became the Boston Harbor Ladies Challenge — now the largest women’s sailing event in Boston Harbor. Kathy shares her story of the spark of inspiration, a fearless leap coupled with a love for the sea resulting in an extraordinary event.
Part II of Broken Glass series on NWSA's YouTube channel:
Betsy Alison is an American sailor who has been voted Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year five times, the first time in 1981. In 2011 Alison was in the first group of sailors elected into the United States' National Sailing Hall of Fame. In 2015, Alison won the President's Development Award from the International Sailing Federation (ISAF, known as World Sailing as of 2015) who recognized her for outstanding achievement in her work on the Para World Sailing Championships in 2015. Eleven years earlier, in 2000 BoatUS and NWSA recognized Alison as the recipient of the Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award.
Allison Bell etched her name in history as the first woman skipper to win the Transpacific Yacht Race in its 119 years when Restless crossed 2,225 miles of the Pacific to the finish line off Diamond Head on July 13, 2025. In a vintage 59-year old boat, no less. Without a professional crew. In a sport often defined by deep pockets and old networks, Bell’s win was built on community, grit, and a little luck.
Part I – Broken Glass, Sun, Nov 30, 2025
This episode featured two BoatUS/NWSA Leadership in Women's Sailing honorees. Both smashed through sailing's glass ceiling.Above: Jerelyn Biehl and Barbara Watson remember Patricia Seidenspinner. Below: Janet Baxter tells her glass ceiling smashing story.
Play stories from the She Sailor Sea Story episode THE LIGHT
Aired Friday, March 15, 2024
Storytellers: Lili Colby, Emily Zugnoni, Kate Tannian with host Anne Bryant & producer Debbie Huntsman
Lili Colby shares her story of how she and her husband fell in love with a land locked lighthouse and made it into their office.
Emily Zugnoni grew up sailing on the estuary and San Francisco Bay on her grandfather’s Tartan 30, Lelo Too. In her twenties she turned her passion for sailing into a career.
Kate Tannian shares the story of the New Canal Lighthouse on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain, in New Orleans, LA.
