It takes a village...
- Anne Longo
- Mar 29, 2021
- 4 min read
How did a group of four young women from Connecticut end up on their way to competing in a 2,000+ nautical mile offshore race with a group of military vets based in Hawaii?
I’ve gotten this question a lot in a variety of different forms and I wanted to take some time to explain how we got here. First, turn on this jam and let me paint a picture:
The eastern Connecticut shoreline in Junes of the early 2000s. Screaming kids in lots of tiny sailboats. The smell of sunscreen and sunshine and the feel of some pretty soft Opti sails. Sarah and I got our start in Optis in Fishers Island Sound at different yacht clubs. I learned how to sail at Masons Island Yacht Club in Mystic, CT and Sarah at Ram Island Yacht Club in Noank, CT (where I’m now the head sailing instructor, Lindsay’s successor). Meanwhile, Lindsay and Megan were starting their own sailing adventures on Lake Washington, all the way across the country in Washington state.
Children of the sea
As children, we all spent a lot of time on the water. Megan and Lindsay are too young to remember but they were taught to sail by their parents on JY15s in Stonington Harbor, CT. Megan, the youngest of our group, was a little later as she wasn’t born yet by the time Lindsay was learning. Their sailing timeline is a little unclear, though, as they grew up in a Coast Guard family so they were moving around quite often. Lindsay first took sailing lessons at Sail Sand Point on Lake Washington, while Megan didn't attend sailing class until they moved back to Stonington, CT! Moving around so much did not stop them from quickly becoming some of the best sailors in each new home. Sarah has sailing in her blood and she can remember when her dad got her a pink Opti for Christmas when she was probably 7 years old or so. She recently showed me an old home video of this - that was one happy kid. She wanted to eat and sleep in that Opti. And she did! One of my favorite childhood memories was when I was finally able to convince my sailing instructors to let me sail out to the lighthouse, Latimer Reef Lighthouse, to be exact. It felt really far away and I was really, really excited. I just texted my dad though, and turns out, it’s just over two miles in a straight line from the yacht club to the lighthouse. Felt like a lot to me but now I’m imagining myself thousands of miles offshore. That’s a pretty crazy comparison to make.
So anyway, we caught the sailing bug pretty early on. We all sailed competitively in high school. Sarah was my 420 crew! She’s almost a foot taller than me (I’m pretty short), so we looked like an unassuming pair but we were known to surprise the boys out on the water who often assumed they could beat us because of our size! We kept them on their toes, we turned out to be a great weight combo. We also all sailed or currently sail competitively in college, as well. Megan is still kicking butt on the University of Rhode Island Varsity Sailing Team and making us proud. I was on the University of Connecticut sailing team, Sarah on the College of Charleston dinghy and offshore teams, and Lindsay on the Cornell University sailing team. To hear more about our sailing careers, check out the bio section of the website.
How we got started in Big Boats
There are a lot of things that connect us within the sailing world, besides having grown up on the sound together. We all race in the Mudheads Donzo Wednesday Night Race Series in Mystic (named after Sarah’s late dad). We all have been or still are sailing coaches in the ECSA, the Eastern Connecticut Sailing Association, where we learned how to sail. The big thing that brought us all together, though, was the MudRatz Youth Offshore Sailing Team we all made it onto in 2018 for the Newport to Bermuda Race. I talked about this a little in my last blog post.
Strong women in sports
It’s not always easy being a girl in the male-dominated sport of sailing. We have a lot of supportive people on our team and owe a lot to where we came from but it’s important to acknowledge the lack of female representation in the sport (more on this to come). We’ve discussed as a group more than a few times how lucky we feel to have a group of women in the sport to turn to when things aren’t easy. Since that race, we’ve stuck together. We all look out for each other and are always extending sailing opportunities to the group.
How COVID-19 played a role
About a year ago, Lindsay was in the process of preparing for another season with the MudRatz to compete in the 2020 Newport to Bermuda Race when we found out that the race was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But, as Lindsay is known for, she did not let that stop her. She was determined to raise her number of offshore miles. That’s when she started exploring her options. She was looking around on crew boards and found out about Doug Pasnik, owner and skipper of TRADER Sailing, the military veteran based sailing team from Honolulu, Hawaii. He was looking for young leaders to add to his crew for the Transpac and Lindsay sent him a message. She rightfully assumed that the three of us, Megan, Sarah, and I, would probably be on board. A little while and some Lindsay magic later, when she texted us in a group chat (that we now use all day, everyday) to see if we were into it, she wasn’t surprised when we all responded with enthusiastic 'Yes!'s'. Now, we’re buying our plane tickets for training in May and ramping up our workout routines to get prepared for 8-10 days at sea.
So that’s our story so far! We’re working every day to get a step closer to making the Transpac a reality. If you want to help us out or have any ideas as to potential sponsors for the team, feel free to contact us.
Don’t forget - sail fast, have fun…
And stay tuned for more updates from Flow State Sailing!
~Annie L
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