A message from the Commodore:
I would like to thank you all for the excellent evening last night celebrating the 30th Women’s Twilight Series. It was a very special occasion and a wonderful reflection on what has become one of the most important and enduring initiatives in the life of the Club.
Sue Walters’ speech was a highlight of the evening. As one of the sailors who competed in the inaugural race 30 years ago, her recollections gave a genuine sense of the history of the event and the spirit in which it began. It was particularly powerful to hear how the series started at a time when opportunities for women in club racing were far more limited than they are today, and it is a credit to the Club that the pathway created then has continued to grow and flourish over three decades.
Sue’s speech provides a wonderful record of the history of the Women’s Twilight Series and is an important part of the Club’s story.
Rob McClelland
Commodore
Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club
Susan Walter’s Speech from the 30th Women’s Twilight Celebration:
I’m not sure everyone in this room is fully aware of the achievement tonight marks, 30 years of the Ladies Twilight Series at Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. Even using the word Ladies rather than Women’s indicates the different status quo of Women’s Sailing in the 1990s. So, let’s go back there.
I moved to Australia in 1989 after spending 4 years racing for my university team and the next 3 years campaigning a 470 towards the first ever women’s event in the Olympics in 1988. That’s 7 years of high-level racing and training available to me as a woman in the USA. I met my husband Murray of 35 years at the J24 worlds in Canada. There were about 15 women at the event and roughly 400 men, this was typical at big international events at that time. For Murray and I, our relationship escalated rapidly, and I moved here 6 weeks later.
The time zone change on the flight to Australia seemed to wind back decades as to the availability of women’s sailing events, attitudes towards women’s sailing and coaching opportunities compared to the USA at that time. I connected with other terrific women sailors here easily through the sailing community and carried on racing at any opportunity. The CYC put on a regatta called the Asia Pacific Women’s Championship and Rob Brewer rang me to offer a boat and his wife Jo as crew to participate. Kerrie Shimeld, Kerrie Waterhouse and Sally Darmanin raced with me in the first event though you might know Kerrie and Sally better as Jason and Lisa’s mothers.
The regatta was a huge success and continued the following 7 years at Royal Sydney yacht squadron. I was interviewed by a reporter about the event, and I happened to mention that my husband teased me at our club the Royal Prince Alfred that I had to go park in the associate’s car park a distance from the club house while he as a full member could park conveniently next to the club house. I mentioned that women were not allowed to be full members of the club. I didn’t know what newspaper the Australian was at the time but when those comments were printed nationally it had a profound impact as you can imagine. Excluding women from membership was illegal and clubs scrambled to remedy the situation. Kay Cottee had recently completed her First Lady sail around the world and a lot of us thought she would become the first female full member of RPA. Instead, Elaine Fowler who was very deserving of the honour was asked to and accepted to become the first female full member and Kay was given an honorary lifetime membership. The men opened the door to women joining and welcomed us.
A very vocal minority was not so fond of women’s sailing at the club and in the following months I was out racing our J24 in a local event on Pittwater when I had an incident with another boat and protested them. They proceeded to unleash what was a shocking verbal attack swearing at me red in the face screaming profanities. Crews on boats all around were shocked. We went to the protest room not only for the incident but for rule 69 Sportsmanship infringement which is a very serious allegation.
The crew of the boat I was protesting preloaded at the bar and came into the protest hearing full of indignation. They actually shouted at me in the hearing that “women shouldn’t be on the water sailing, that I should be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen” and if I didn’t like that I should go back to the USA. It was not a successful hearing for them and Steve Merrington, Ken Moxham and the other Jurors threw them out and escalated the rule 69 breach. It went through the board, up to Sailing NSW and then on to Australian Sailing where they were given a 2-year yachting ban. They lost their club membership, and they threatened to sue me for libel as well as other threats. The men at the club rang me and said don’t worry about this, we’ve got you, that isn’t the sort of behaviour we want here at this club. That was not the kind of club that RPA wanted to be and a profound change was about to happen.
The 1990s were a fabulous decade for Royal Prince Alfred and women’s sailing too. The club made some bold decisions to push training for youth sailors and implemented the Youth Development Squad in 1993 and bought the first fleet of small keelboats. More sailing lessons were added for adults, specifically women. Many women from the club participated in the Women’s Asia Pacific regattas at the Squadron and we added a training symposium for all crews to raise the level of competition and skills for women sailors. Kerry Goudge who did the WOW Sydney Hobart races got funding added for these symposiums and I organised and ran the coaching with some high-level coaches both male and female.
Match racing was taking off and we jumped into that discipline and to learn and prepare, we organised some of the very best men in Australia to help. We set up a mini regatta with a couple of boats full of amazingly talented sailors and match racers such as Iain Murray, Peter Gilmour, Gary Geitz, Jan Scholten and Nev Whittey. We also lined up on water judges like Steve Merrington and Ken Moxham to umpire and others in support roles setting up racing. It was amazing. In 1995 Kerrie Shimeld, Karyn Gojnich, Mel Scott and I won the Women’s Nations Cup World Match Racing Championship. We qualified through a series of events and at the event finals I was pregnant with my second daughter.
A couple of months later the Royal Prince Alfred Ladies Twilight Series kicked off. I don’t remember all the names of who instigated and organised it though Woody, Elaine, Alex, Rosemary and Alice were involved. Alex helped us put a team together and boats to race on. By the final race of the1996 series, I was 8 ½ months pregnant and Alex and Iain Murray organised us to race that final race on the old Australian Americas Cup yacht Spirit. Standing behind that big wheel barefoot and pregnant but still out there sailing.
For the next 12 or so years whenever we raced any event, we always had a lucky totem on board because someone seemed to need one. That was the LBP or the Lucky Breast Pump. Who knew the freedom that thing could give you?
here are a few of us still racing from the early days of the ladies’ twilights. We remember that there was no kitchen open for meals and we had to have takeaway delivered. As soon as that changed, Tuesdays became one of the biggest nights of the week for the kitchen and how much do we all love the fabulous meals they put on for us? The sound across the water during races differs significantly from any other racing I have done. The sounds that dominate are talking and laughter, how wonderful is that?
The diversity of the experience of participants in this series is notable. Some have an incredible amount of sailing and racing experience and success. We’ve had everyone from children to grandmothers, beginners to Olympians, Ocean and even Round the World Racers, dingy sailors, match racers, wind surfers, foiling catamaran sailors, amateur and professional and of course the occasional token bloke whether contributing crew skills, wearing a G-string, or in utero. Despite all the experience on board, we showed a couple of weeks ago that we are still capable of setting the kite sideways or doing a calamari set as Lindy calls it. We also refer to Long Nose as Cape Fear on our boat from a memorable night when we nearly mounted the rocks on the point only preventing disaster by turning on the motor and throwing it in reverse. We’ve had our share of people overboard and Evelyn even tossed her son over a few weeks ago in 2 knots of breeze. I remember another night when we played a joke on Alex’s team on Bellisimo by setting our phones up so we rang every one of their crew at 30 seconds to the starting gun. This year has been another top season, and we all had a good refresher and learned things at the fabulous rules nights so thank you again to Nicole and Richard for running that and Emily for organising. No doubt you all have had numerous memorable evenings on the water.
Thirty years is a long time. Let’s fast forward to 2026 and look at some changes that occurred. There is equality at the Olympic Games for women sailors in events and participation numbers, there are coaching events for women and girls in many clubs and classes of boats to support them and keep them engaged in the sport. There was a women’s Americas cup event, Lisa Blair set records sailing around the Antarctic and Jessica Watson around the world. There is State and National recognition of special achievements specifically for women sailors. Women at all stages of their lives have had barriers removed and been made to feel included and supported in the sailing community. We’ve had significant achievers at RPA such as Nina, Katie, Alice, Nicky, Tash, Juliette, Claire, Sienna, Bayley and so many more who have come up through programs at the club and taken their sailing to outstanding levels. We’re proud of the accomplishments of the women sailors at RPA and around Australia. So, the question is, are ladies twilights still relevant and still needed? I say they absolutely are. Its part competition, part social, part learning, part fun and a significant foundation for women sailors at our club. The success of current and future sailing stars had their start by standing on our shoulders as we did on the women who sailed in this male dominated sport before we did.
This club RPA and in particular the men at this club chose to build programs and support for women and youth sailors. The men in our club joined the women sailors and made the choice to include and support us. It was the male members, who had led the club for over a century, who chose to make changes alongside women—resulting in over 30 years of women becoming co-members and active participants. Our partners and families, the boat owners who hand over their yachts, our race committee out there for hours to support us in all weather, our race organisers, the team in the sailing office and the participants have made this series a cornerstone at RPA. So, sincerely, thank you to all of you.
I’d like to thank my patient husband of 35 years Murray who joined our crew for about 5 races with us in the ladies’ twilights in the last 30 years but held the fort at home so I could compete. When he convinced me to move to Australia, he truly had no idea what he was taking on. I’d also like to thank my crew Girls zig zag through sailing course
for this season and many others Lindy, Sarah, Kerrie, Kathryn, Ros, Patti, Sue, Simone, Evelyn and Nicole. Thanks for another fun year together. And thank you to all of the other women sailors I’ve had the pleasure to sail with over the years.
What is next for the future of women’s sailing and specifically at RPA? More women members (Julia will get the application forms ready), more women in leadership roles and more women owning their own boats (consider forming or joining an ownership syndicate as an easier way to do this). As a group we are creating an atmosphere where the possibilities for women sailors are inclusive for women at any stage of their lives, are unlimited and exceptional.