In a society where equal opportunity and equal rights for women are valued, it’s frustrating to hear, “I don’t know anything about the boat, I’m just the wife/daughter/ girlfriend/granddaughter etc.” Until recently, this was a very common comment in the boating community.
As a female boater since early childhood, let me tell you there is nothing more invigorating than jumping behind the wheel of a boat or a truck towing a boat and effortlessly maneuvering these vehicles (especially when surrounded by men)! Let’s be serious ladies, we know there’s more to enjoy about a boat than its colour, clever interior design, or the hunk that’s currently driving it.
Boating is a great opportunity to meet new friends, entertain family, or just to get away from the fast paced world in which we live. The doors to the world of women in boating are open and opportunity beckons. Women now understand that boating is an activity that doesn’t have to involve a man, as was thought in previous generations. What better way to spend a sunny summer day than out on the water with a nice cold glass of water and a few girl friends?
I learned along the way that to many women this dream, this skill of boating, is one that may never come to fruition because of fear, the lack of instruction and the potential frustration which comes from learning from a beloved husband, father, brother or boyfriend.
While I understand this fear, I also understand that as women we have a keen sense of safety, which is inherent when it comes to protecting loved ones and ourselves. Think about this…by not knowing how to operate your boat aren’t you putting yourself at risk every time you embark on the water?
I don’t know about you, but I am of the mind set that an emergency is not the most ideal time to learn and master a skill. I don’t think that the Canadian Women’s Hockey Team won Gold at the Olympics by jumping on skates for the first time, so why should driving your boat be any different. You can’t become skilled at something without practice.
With this need for practice and education in mind, experience at my back and the passion to have all women experience the empowering joys of boating on our own, we created a course specifically for women to overcome their fear and not only become boaters…but to become proficient captains.
Women Behind the Wheel is a program that was designed to change fear into passion. It is rooted in the understanding that men and women are not the same. They are “hard-wired” differently. They feel and learn things in different ways. It was created on a platform of female experience.
Traditionally women have been taught to drive cars and boats by a husband or father, which is quite often a very stressful and aggravating experience for both of them. Women Behind the Wheel on the Water aims to provide a comfortable, non-threatening and stress free environment in which women can learn, from women instructors, the boating skills they need in a manner designed specifically for them.
The course takes into consideration the fears that women face and it aims to embrace them. This one-of-a-kind course consists of a full day of nautical learning in an intimate group. The core of this course is based around three main lessons: boating safety, boat hauling and captaining. The course is offered exclusively to women and taught by women to allow the participants the best possible outcome.
The morning is devoted to an in-class session on boating proficiency and safe boating practices and incorporates the boating license exam, Pleasure Craft Operator Card. After a buffet lunch, we get into hands-on learning. By the time a participant leaves, she will have experienced captaining, as well as the opportunity to acquire the license that allows her to do it. Also, the participants get to actually trailer a boat, learning the skills needed to tow on the highway and back up in a driveway or down a ramp.
We recognize that many of our female boaters may already have their boater license. To accommodate these women we offer the same hands on captaining and trailering in a half day format or, they can chose to work one-on-one with one of our female captains, for more intensive learning. This is a custom fit course for the “inner boater” in all women, allowing anyone to break out and take control of her own boat on the water. It is the goal of the Women Behind the Wheel on the Water program that every participant graduate feeling comfortable and safe behind the wheel of a boat and the wheel of a vehicle pulling a trailer.
Women Behind the Wheel on the Water is fuelled by a passion that can only come from being able to finally pull the boat effortlessly up to the dock or back a trailer gracefully down the ramp. It doesn’t hurt to see the jaws drop among the on-lookers as a woman reveals herself to be the one in the driver’s seat. The more women who are empowered to take the boat out themselves, or to take the kids out water-skiing, or who feel confident that in an emergency, they can get home safely, the more accessible the world of boating becomes.
