All-Female Newport Race Team Highlighted
An all-female team that recently completed the Newport Bermuda Race – one of only a handful of all-female teams in the race’s history – has been highlighted by Rhode Island Monthly.
The Rhode Island Monthly website said, “Sailing can be a bit of a boys’ club. Just ask the ladies of Team Bitter End, who became the first all-female youth team — and one of only a handful of all-female teams in the race’s history — to complete the Newport Bermuda Race when they crossed the finish line at St. David’s Lighthouse on June 20.
Team Bitter End, including [top row, from left] coach Libby Greenhalgh, member Elizabeth Gardner, coaching assistant Maya Hoffman, members Gigi Fischer, Sarah Wilme; [bottom row, from left] Phoebe Lee, Olivia Vincent, Callie Dawson, Sophia Comiskey and Milla Clarke snaps a photo on their boat, the Oakcliff Farr 40 Blue, before completing the Newport Bermuda Race. Photo courtesy of Becca Hassel
“The team includes eight students and recent graduates from Rhode Island high schools, including seven from the Lincoln School in Providence — Elizabeth Gardner, Gigi Fischer, Phoebe Lee, Olivia Vincent, Callie Dawson, Sophia Comiskey and Milla Clarke. Sarah Wilme, a 20-year-old Portsmouth High School graduate and current boat-building student at IYRS School of Technology and Trades in Newport, also participated in the history-making feat.
“An all-female coaching staff led by Volvo Ocean Race competitor Libby Greenhalgh assisted the team. Maya Hoffman, Allie Surrette and Katie Zimmerman also joined the coaching staff before the twelve-person crew set sail from Newport last month.
“The Newport Bermuda Race, which kicked off on Friday, June 17, is the world’s oldest regularly scheduled ocean race. Crews travel 635 miles from Narragansett Bay to the coast of Bermuda, battling rough weather and navigational challenges along the way. It’s one of only two regular races completed mostly out-of-sight of land, presenting an additional obstacle for even the most experienced sailors. This year, that danger became evident on the third day of the race, when a New Jersey man and race veteran died after falling off his boat.”
You can read the full story here on Rhode Island Monthly.
