Maine Women's Sailing Team World Champions!

All-Women Sailing Team From Maine

For the first time, an all-women team of sailors from Maine won first place for all-female finishers in the 2017 J/24 World Championship in Mississauga, Canada. The J/24 World Championships included qualified J/24 racers from all over the world. The championship consisted of ten races over five days of racing, the whole event spanning September 15-23, 2017. The Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team finished in 39^th place out of the 63 teams that competed in the World Championship.

 

While Sea Bags has a long history of supporting sailing regattas and sailing teams, including the 2016 Atlantic Cup, 2015 J/24 World Championships, 2009 J/24 Nationals, 2013 J/24 North Americans, the Offshore New England Championships, and the 2007 Horton/Nichol Olympic Campaign, this represents the first time the company has sent an all-women’s team to a World Championship race for competition on this scale and came back with quite an achievement.

 

Beth Shissler, President and COO at Sea Bags, says, “We could not be more proud of Erica and Jessica and their all-women’s team. They have worked so hard individually and together to win the Jager Women’s Trophy. “

 

Erica Beck Spencer, Skipper of the women’s sailing team says, "Our goal was to be the top women’s team and to reach that goal felt surreal.”

 

Accomplishing their goal was not an easy task as there were many obstacles they had to overcome. “We started off the event as the top team, but that is almost harder than coming from behind, as the other women’s teams were steadily getting better as the week went on,” added Spencer.

The above excerpt was taken from the Sea Bags press release on the team.

MY THOUGHTS:

This is an absolutely incredible feat! These women over came some incredible odds and brought home the J/24 World Championship in sailing!

They competed against the best sailing teams, from all over the world! This is the first time EVER that an all women's team from Maine has competed in the championship. And they brought their A-game! This is something that the team of 11 has worked towards since Erica Beck Spencer and Jessica Harris started the team three years ago.

I am truly amazed and proud to post this. These women are truly amazing! I cannot think of a more empowering group of ladies. After reading this myself, and reading blog posts on the team from the Sea Bags blog. I decided to expose my 7 year old daughter to the team and stories as well.

Well it has now been decided that my daughter Maddie now wants to be a sailor! When asked why she wanted to be a sailor now, she states " Mom, look at them! They are so strong, why wouldn't you want to be a sailor? I want to be just like them! Strong and powerful! Can we go sailing this weekend? I need to start now mom!"

We are now looking into sailing classes for my mini me. She gave a very convincing argument. Why wouldn't she want to be empowered by such an amazing team. It showed her that girls and women can accomplish anything when applying a lot of hard work. Isn't that what we want all our daughters feel? Accomplishment, empowerment, and that they can accomplish incredible things?