Women on the Water in Darien
By PAMELA DEY VOSSLER | photos by: BAMBI RIEGEL | riegelpictureworks.com
The women sailors of Darien including (clockwise from top) Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick, Devin Hart, Christi Hart, Janet Grapengeter, and Taylor Hart.
You have to take the helm. If you want to get anywhere that is …like to the other side of whatever may be holding you back, and certainly to your potential. It’s pretty much like that with anything in life, but with sailing especially. It really is as simple as that. And as difficult. A striking number of women young and old in Darien can tell you why, including the astounding roll call of accomplished female sailors who hail from this town of ours.
…Sailors like Darien’s Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick, a 4x All-American sailor at Brown University and the co-ed team’s first female captain in 2017, her senior year. In 2012, as the top I420 sailor in the country, she represented the U.S. at the ISAF Youth World Championships. This summer, she is competing on an IC37 Melges, when she’s not at her Boston-based job in sustainability consulting.
Then there’s her mom Janet Grapengeter, winner of the 1993 Adam’s Cup, which for many years served as the U.S. Women’s Sailing Championship. It’s just one of her many sailing triumphs. She began racing after college following a move to Darien in 1982 and has competed with Megan extensively—most recently in the inaugural Susan Widmann Sinclair Regatta, an all-women’s invitational held in June at the Noroton Yacht Club (Noroton YC).
Named in honor of Sue Sinclair, the legendary Darien sailor who won the Adam’s Cup as skipper in 1962 as well as U.S. Yachtswoman of the Year, the Sinclair Cup brought together 12 teams of top women sailors. They competed in Sonars, 23’ one design keelboats, in winds that gusted up to 25 knots.
“It. Was. Competitive,” declared long-time Darien resident Nancy Pearson, event chair of the regatta and a close friend of Sue Sinclair who passed away three years ago. An accomplished sailor in her own right, Nancy was one of Janet’s crewmates in that 1993 Adam’s Cup win. She channels her sailing skills now into race committee work and event management. (She also chaired the 2021 Women’s Viper 640 North American Championship and served on the 1996 Olympic Race Committee.)
Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick (at the helm), Taylor Hart, Janet Grapengeter and Christi Hart competing at the inaugural Susan Widmann Sinclair Regatta in June at Noroton Yacht Club / / Photo courtesy of sailors
These are just a few of the many women who make up the deep community of sailors in town—a strong, capable bunch. They want to test themselves and they don’t give up. They are tough with an ability to focus intensely, and still have fun. They are leaders and team players. They are knowledgeable. They are problem solvers. They know how to conquer their fears and what happens when they do.
…Not surprising when your sport challenges you at nearly every turn.
“Sailing gives you confidence that you can take on anything,” said Janet, who credits sailing with showing her just how self-sufficient she can be.
“I feel tested every time I go out,” added Britt Hall, who started sailing when she was 45 years old after she and her husband, a sailor, moved to Darien and joined Noroton YC.
To learn the sport, she approached yet another of Darien’s standout sailors, Carolyn Wilson, about starting a women’s sailing program. That was 1999. Carolyn, a member of Sue Sinclair’s 1962 Adam’s Cup team, was also the first woman commodore of Noroton YC.
“We thought, ‘OK if we can get 12 women to sign up we can host it; 53 women signed up the first year,” recalled Britt.
As part of the program – a collection of new and seasoned sailors who teach each other – Britt spent a year tacking, too afraid to gybe for the potential head-banging violence of the swinging boom that can accompany this type of turn in sailing.
Fortunately, Carolyn, a decorated sailor way beyond that Adam’s Cup win, took Britt under her wing, true to the culture of mentoring that marks this program and women’s sailing in general, (as well as Noroton YC).
“The second year, Carolyn said, ‘This will not do’” said Britt, laughing. “She took me out and forced me to gybe 20 times. Then I was over it. I could gybe,” she explained.
Now, at 68, Britt is a seasoned competitor herself and winning team racer, a coach in the Noroton YC women’s program and past coach of the Darien High School (DHS) Sailing Team. She was also the chief judge at the Sinclair Cup.
Emma Janson (foreground), Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick at helm in Brown life vest, at the 2016 Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association (ICSA) National Championships / / Photo courtesy: Emma Janson
“I caught the bug because I had people that were so encouraging and the lessons were so great,” said Britt who prefers crewing to the helm though she drives a pretty mean Ideal 18 and can single hand a range of other boats with ease. “There’s something about (sailing) I love. It takes 100% of what I’ve got and there’s always more to learn,” she continued.
She knows there’s nothing she can’t do on the water because there’s nothing she’s not open to learning, and empowering others to do too while she’s at it. “There are always challenges,” said Britt. But, “When you’re open for them, there’s always the joy of learning,” she added.
“I have learned that my personal biggest stopping point is fear,” she said. “As soon as I understand that’s it’s fear, it’s worthless,” she continued. It’s a certainty she instills in every aspiring sailor she meets, including a woman’s sailing program participant who returned to shore rattled after an unexpected puff sent her into a bad broach while flying a spinnaker.
“She comes in and I asked ‘What happened?’” said Britt. “She said, ‘I broached.’ And I said, ‘So then what happened?’ ‘I dropped the sheets and then I dropped the spinnaker,’ she said. I said, ‘Well OK, that’s about right. So then what happened?’ ‘Well I gathered the spinnaker in the boat.’ ‘OK then what happened?’ ‘Then I went close-hauled and I took a breath.’ I said, ‘OK what happened next?’ She said, ‘Well, nothing.’ I said, ‘There it is. Nothing happened.’”
That’s why every one of the 50 women who participate in the still-strong Noroton YC women’s sailing program each year is required to take the helm, whether they are in it to race or just get comfortable on the water: it is the way to find this perspective and acquire the knowledge and experience that flatten fear.
From left: Carolyn McCurdy Wilson, Sue Sinclair, and Sue’s sister Sandy Falconer at the 1962 Adam’s Cup / / Photo courtesy Carolyn Wilson
For the younger sailors, taking the tiller is how they begin.
“I started racing my own boat when I was about eight,” said Taylor Hart, DHS Class of 2015 who sailed at DHS and then four years at Tufts University where she studied chemical and biological engineering.
“I think probably everybody has at least one experience where they’re a little bit afraid and for me, I had a lot of apprehension when it came to sailing in big breeze. It ended up being probably my favorite because it’s exciting,” she said.
“Being out on the water asks more of you, is what I find,” said Lisa Washburn, one of the four volunteers currently leading the Noroton YC women’s sailing program. “There’s a little bit more risk involved but not that much once you learn some basics about the boat,” she added.
“It teaches great independence and life skills like being able to deal with a lot of factors such as weather, tides, getting along with your crew, delegating,” said Suzy Seymour, past volunteer lead of the Noroton YC Junior Sailing Program. She sees the confidence sailing builds in her own girls, Anna (20) who is spending the summer as a mate and marine scientist with Sail Caribbean, Merritt (18) who is teaching sailing at Norwalk Yacht Club this summer and Ella (15) who sails on the DHS team.
Universally, women on the water in Darien are comfortable with the uncomfortable.
“(Sailing has) definitely given me the opportunity to push myself out of my comfort zone …and learn how to function in situations that I would maybe normally be nervous about,” said Emma Janson, DHS Class of 2015 who learned to sail at Roton Point. She sailed at DHS with Taylor, then at the University of Vermont. There, she placed 7th in the ICSA women’s national finals and made the ICSA all-academic team.
“I always tell the girls I coach that get scared, ‘I actually cried for a year, every time the boat heeled,” said Emma, the head keelboat instructor at Sail Newport this summer. (She returns to the University of Rhode Island this fall to complete her masters in Marine Affairs.) “And then one day my instructor got in the boat with me and said, are you dying? And I was like, no, and she said, there you go. Now it’s fun,’” she recalled.
Right: Christi Hart on the foredeck at the Sinclair Cup, left: Emma Janson in the Annapolis to Newport ocean race in June / / Photos courtesy: Emma Janson, Britt Hall
Many of these women are also trail blazers. Because they have to be.
While it never happened to her, Carolyn, now 81 and retired from racing, said, “So many women report that they weren’t allowed to trim a sheet, they weren’t allowed to do different things because a man would just take it over for them.”
“It’s pretty much always assumed that the girls don’t know as much about sailing,” said Megan about the post-college default in thinking she has seen on boats.
“It’s hard to get on boats,” she continued about post-college sailing for women. But, she added, “If you do get the opportunity to sail, it becomes evident, usually quickly enough, that you can probably do your job better than a lot of other people regardless of their gender. …So people kind of figure it out that way,” she added.
Britt Hall single handing an Ideal 18
“Girls can do just as much as boys. It’s wrong to assume we aren’t as strong or capable and often aren’t given positions of leadership on boats because of that,” said Emma, a mentee in the Magenta Project, an international organization focused on creating gender equity in sailing. She was also boat captain and safety officer for Leading the Change!, the only all-female crew to start the Annapolis to Newport ocean race in June. “When women can have real ownership in sailing, incredible things can happen,” she continued.
No wonder women sailors, particularly those ages 35 to 50, represent the largest demographic coming into sailing and women racers are where the growth is in competitive sailing, thus the increasing number of women-only regattas like the Sinclair Cup.
And they are badass.
Left: Anna Seymour, now 20, finding her confidence as a beginner Opti sailor, right: Nancy Pearson, Sinclair Cup Event Chair, at the Awards Ceremony / / Photos courtesy Suzy Seymour and Nancy Pearson
How else would you describe moms of college graduate daughters who still race with them, manning the foredeck to flip the spinnaker pole on the gybe no matter how heavy the air, as Darien resident Christi Hart does.
“She is the foredeck queen,” said Taylor of her mom Christi. “She’s up on the front of the boat, gybing the spinnaker pole. I’m usually a little bit further back in the boat. But sailing with her is great.”
Last year, Christi competed with Taylor and Devin, her youngest daughter, also a four-year sailor at DHS and Tufts, in the 2022 Viper 640 Women’s Atlantic Coast Championship.
“To have both my daughters on the boat, to see all the things that they know and learn from them …the confidence that they have and the way they look at things …It was priceless,” said Christi who credits her girls for inspiring her to sail as she does.
Megan Grapengeter-Rudnick (at the helm), Janet Grapengeter, Christi Hart and crew at the June ’22 Viper North American Championship / / Photo courtesy: Janet Grapengeter
Taylor and her mom also sailed with Megan and her mom in the Sinclair Cup, tying for second but ultimately placing third when the tiebreaker rules were applied.
“I explained that I sail with (my mom) and everybody’s jaws dropped to the floor,” said Megan, recalling the time she told co-workers about a regatta she was competing in with her mom. “They said, ‘What do you mean you sail with your mom?!’ So that has been pretty cool,” she added.
They are young, they are older, and every age between. Some are well past the racing careers that took them to the top of the sport, some are just beginning, like the sailors you may see at Weed Beach, part of the Darien Junior Sailing Program open to all in town. But whether they race as skipper or crew, or sail for the lifelong pleasure of the sport, women sailors in Darien are most definitely at the helm.
