Women in Wind

Women in Wind is a KYC program, exclusively for women, run by women.
All women members of KYC, who have reasonable sailing skills, are welcome to participate in W in W. Our goal is to help women gain confidence, sailing experience and friendship through the variety of programs offered under the "Women in Wind" banner.

Brief History of the KYC Women in Wind

During the winter of 1982 a group of KYC sailors discussed the idea of having a seamanship course for female members. The ideas put forward to help more women become actively and competently involved in all aspects of sailing their own boats culminated in a program which was offered the following June. A total of 16 women registered and four volunteer instructors conducted 8 on-the- water sessions. They covered a wide variety of topics and the result was a keen group of ladies who had gained a huge amount of knowledge and confidence in their boat handling skills. In the summer of 1984 a similar program was offered for another 15 women.
Most of these women wanted to continue sailing as a group one night a week to keep up their skills, their confidence, and the social aspect. Thus began our Wednesday night sailing activity in July, 1984 which continues to this day. The number of women joining this group has increased to about 40 today.
In 2006 a steering committee got together to explore more activities for our female sailors and to set up a more formal committee structure with a name. And so K.Y.C. “Women in Wind” was born! We continue to offer several activities as outlined in this brochure and welcome new sailors to our group.

Programs:

• Wednesday Night Sailing
• Seamanship/Skills Building
• Racing
• Dinghy Sailing
• Women's Sailing Weekend

Wednesday Night Sailing

The regular Wednesday night program is open to people who own or have access to a boat or, if without a boat, have reasonable sailing skills. This is not a learn to sail program but a time to improve your sailing skills and get on-water experience under a variety of conditions. It is a great confidence builder as you sail on a variety of boats with different skippers and crew members. An added benefit is the chance to get to know other members of KYC while having a bit of fun. From June through September, WinW sails every Wednesday night at 5:30 for approximately 2 hours followed by an on-shore social time.
Sign up for this program in April

• Improve sailing skills
• Build confidence
• Gain experience on different boats
• Meet and socialize with fellow KYC members
• Sign up in April

Seamanship/Skills Building

The Skills Building program is designed for women who want to improve their ability to sail their own boats. Non-boat owners can participate as crew. The program is geared to the individual needs of the women. We are planning for instruction 2 nights a week over a 3 week period in June

• Skippers- fine tune your skills on your own boat
• Non skippers-fine tune your skills as crew on other boats
• Individual attention for participants
• Twice a week in June (3 weeks)

Racing

• Try your hand at yacht racing
• Same rules as off shore racing
• Two races July 22 -09 and Aug 12-09
• Register two weeks ahead

Dinghy Sailing

• Looking for a new experience, try dinghy sailing
• Instruction by junior sailing staff
• Club 420 dinghies
• Small cost for expenses

Women's Sailing Weekend

• Get away for women only
• Details to be announced

Contact: Joan Butler jbutler@sympatico.ca
and Lila Watson lila.watson@sympatico.ca

For more information on any of our programs check out the "Women In Wind" web site kingstonyachtclub.com

To join us contact Suzanne Hamilton. membership@kingstonyachtclub.com