Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 4: Women's Jib

Women have always played an important role in sailing, evolving from their mythical presence of the siren calling sailors home into port to a formidable force on the water as both as amateurs and professionals. Throughout our sailing history names like Florence Arthaud, Isabelle Autissier, Sharon Sites Adams and Ellen MacArthur have resonated across the world and made us dream big, and today we have the likes of Sam Davies, Dee Caffari, Shirley Robertson, Alexia Barrier, Emma Creighton, Liz Wardley, Genny Tulloch, Paige Railey... and a host of other talented female sailors keeping the dream alive. We love these girls, many of them able to sail circles around their male contemporaries. There is nothing quite like having a chick dance around you on board a boat anticipating the skippers needs before any of the guys are clued in, weaving in and out of the rest of the crew with the focus & confidence of a champion and the agility of a fox.

There is also no comparison to being beaten in a race by a female crew and enjoying a beer together back at the yacht club. It is one of those rare times when elitist men will put their egos in their back pocket for a brief spell and give the ladies their due. The camaraderie we experience with the girls during these moments is great fun and an important lesson for everyone; bonding and communicating in the same language, laughing and clicking at the bar without the pressure of romantic intentions and facades... good healthy competition and rivalry bringing us together on equal footing. The sport of sailing is fortunate to have broken the gender boundary for the most part, girls are able to compete with the dudes in just about every race or record, limitations are defined by their own desires and personal abilities and not by what rest room they use. The reality might be humbling for some of the more prideful macho male types in our little village, but women who sail can be just as strong, just as talented, and just as dedicated to our sport as the men. These sailorettes have everything to prove and much to lose, but from my experience these things are insignificant to them. The girls are motivated by a fierce love for the sport and a deep passion for being on the water. Just like us. If only we could look so well put-together in our foulies.

The global presence of women in sailing doesn't stop at the tiller, every successful campaign is dependent on the talent and efficiency of the team on shore, and the ladies more than often are at the helm of the show. There are also some incredible female sailing photographers out there braving the seas to get the shot, some giving the men a run for their money too... check out the photography of Jen Edney and Nathalie Colloud.
It seems that currently things are only getting better for the female sailing community and that's fantastic news for everyone. I'm excited to see the developments of the all-woman team for the next Volvo Ocean Race.

While I was sorting through my vintage magazine collection for 'sailing-lifestyle' ads to scan, it was not surprising to see a handful featuring women in some context, but it is interesting how women and sailing were portrayed, what we were to assume sailing meant to them, and how we as a culture defined women in general. Have a look at the ads below and see for yourself. While the image of women in advertising today has deteriorated considerably, rife with objectification and sexism, we'll always have that magical era of time-passed to disappear into when we need a little refreshment from (and respect for) the opposite sex as she once was in print media. And for the fine fair ladies of sailing today, despite our current magazines sadly lacking advertising featuring the depiction of female sailors, in the 'real' world you've made a massive impact. Well done.
You've come a long way, babies.
Sail on les filles...

-fred

Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 3: Smoke On The Water
Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 2: Happy Place
Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 2: Auto Pilot

Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 3: Smoke On The Water

We all have our vices. For better or worse, many of us seek comfort from additives that aren't good for us. Despite sharp warnings from the Surgeon General and grotesque imagery on cigarette packs, a large percentage of the population still puffs away on their cigarettes, even though the popular smoke-break has become more difficult than ever seeing as cigarette smoking is now a publicly forbidden pastime. Smoking was once a prevalent force in advertising long before studies revealed it to be extremely harmful to one's health, and even shortly thereafter the ads continued. In the past smoking was perceived as the epitome of 'cool' and the quintessential expression of relaxation. The relationship between smoking and sailing are no exception, the thought of smoking on board a boat instantly conjures up imagery of salty captains and rugged crew members of days gone by, or unwinding on a pleasure cruise after a long afternoon of messing about on the water.

I have been both a smoker and a non-smoker and now a smoker again. Smoking was the norm in my glory days of being in a band and working in bars and nightclubs in SF, we all smoked on the job and so did most of our clientele. And after quitting for 12 years, I've taken up this nagging habit again thanks to several recent trips to Europe. It isn't something I am proud of and I know I will quit again soon, but for now it's something that I enjoy. Because of my complicated friendship with cigarettes, I can fully appreciate the pleasure one receives from a good smoke, and also completely understand the disgust that some people have when in the presence of a smoker.

It's interesting to look at these ads below, the perception of smoking and sailing as something fun and almost even somewhat healthy. The refreshing experience of the great outdoors was complemented nicely with the addition of that tobacco crutch... or so we thought. The truth is, the natural high of sailing needs no embellishments, the pure invigorating feeling of flying along the water unassisted by nothing but the control of the wind is something that can't be harnessed and sold in convenient little packages.

Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 2: Happy Place
Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 1: Auto Pilot

Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 2: Happy Place

I've received some nice response to my first installment of this series I posted last week entitled Auto Pilot, thank you all for reading and for your messages. Not surprisingly, the popular reaction from members of the sailing community to those idyllic car ads which feature the 'sailing lifestyle' in some capacity is... "So.. What Happened?"

This is a difficult question for sure. As the years go by and technology changes our gauge on the 'good life', having to process and form opinions and perceptions of our hyper-chaotic immediate surroundings are enough for our brain to deal with. For most of the population, whatever is happening this very instant has a tendency to take precedence over our rich history and what happened in the 'olden days'. All of us are feeling the pressure of the 'now'. Because of this, it's easy to look at vintage advertisements with warm fuzzy nostalgia and with a desire for simplicity and innocence... these days it's difficult to just find a minute to yourself, let alone be able to break away for an afternoon of sailing. or a pleasure cruise in a car. We are constantly bombarded with so many distractions and propaganda in the media today, ultimately advertising now confronts us with the demand to consume life instead of enjoying life. Thankfully our society has an unbelievable perpetual popular culture archive occurring organically, and we have the means to access it anytime. These things, these ideas of our 'happy place' make us feel good and we should embrace them. It's always important to look back to the past for some perspective on the present, our knowledge of history is increasingly relevant to how we live our lives today and how we communicate with each other as humans. It's also very therapeutic and enjoyable to lose yourself in the way things were, aside from sailing there is no better escape than letting your mind wander through a good classic book or vintage magazine, or listening to an LP on an old record player. Tune the 'real' world out for a few minutes.

That is, if you can find the time.

My first sailing experience was at eleven years old, with my brother on a 10' Montomery dinghy my dad had just bought. A few years earlier, my parents had purchased a waterfront vacation home on the Georgiana Slough in the California Delta, and summer was in full swing again. We would all muck about in the water from sunup to sundown, taking full advantage of our new playground and our new little boat. The property was magical, across the slough from us was a picture-perfect dilapidated barn behind a levee wall covered in blackberry bushes, met at the water's edge with a natural beach which only appeared at low-tide. We would swim over with coffee cans and jars to pick the blackberries for mom's famous cobbler, and then cool off by walking out into the water up to our necks, searching through the sand and mud with our toes to find clams for bass fishing.

On this particular day, I was with Tom on board the 'Misty' for transportation duties of our family foraging, he was at the tiller and I was in charge of gathering all the containers of berries and clams from my mom and my sister. We'd beach the dinghy, load up, and then sail back to our house on the other side and drop the bounty off with my dad. I felt like a little bad-ass sailing on that boat... until... we were on our second trip back and were buzzed by our neighbor Brett on his shiny new white Jet-Ski. He had just customized the machine to shoot out a massive rooster tail of spray, and he completely soaked us as he passed. I looked up and Brett nodded at me and my brother and smirked. I remember feeling so lame at that moment, like some sort of Huck Finn farmboy with my ill-fitting outdated life vest, holding stupid berries and stupid clams on a stupid sailboat. This emotion was a complete contrast to the 'cool' nodding experience I'd had years before riding in my dad's MG. What happened? It wasn't the embarrassment of getting hit by his spray, we were all friends and this type of playful water harassment was normal. It was because my 11 year old brain didn't like that his leisure time was more advanced and faster than mine, and therefore more 'fun' and more 'cool'. It's strange to think that such a perfect and memorable day with my family was ruined for me in a second by jealousy for something I didn't have, and something I couldn't do. Something I assumed was 'better'. I often think of that period in my life and would give anything to go back to those times in the Delta. I would be super proud of that stupid sailboat. And perhaps if Brett is thinking of that incident today, he's visualizing my family picking berries and our sailboat with the same endearment we have for these vintage advertisements.

So, before we rush to consider what happened to the real or advertised 'sailing lifestyle', let's relax and enjoy another group of ads I scanned which express the carefree unpolluted climate of days gone by... that seemingly unobtainable 'Happy Place' feeling of sailing bliss sorely lacking in our current pressurized marketing world...

Advertising The Sailing Lifestyle. Part 1: Auto Pilot