13 February 2003

My name is Corrie Deacon and I am one of the few female skippers.

I started to be interested in racing through the social events at our club VCA. Doing quite well in the club races , my crew (family members) and myself decided to attend races in the MOD series.

WHAT AN EXPERIENCE.

From the friendly encourageing environment we experience by our club we came in the most hostile environment imagable.

We were bullied, sneered at by other racers. Only when the other racers realise we had more knowledge of racing rules than they will ever have did they leave us alone. As we sail for fun this did not appeal to us resulting we left the racing scene and only attend the social races eg. RTIR, Keelboat week and the Grand Slam.

Only when the attitude from the racers themself change the social scene will appeal the most sailers and the only way to change the racers is more social events, because sailers are great persons, but like car drivers they change when holding a tiller.

Corrie Deacon