Girls Go Sailing
Welcome to Girls Go Sailing
In 2018 we saw a great revival of our Girls Go Sailing scheme, which we have run intermittently for a few years. By making it a member led activity, we have seen increased numbers of women participating and welcome new members at any time throughout the year.
What do we do?
- Encourage women and girls to enjoy sailing activities safely within the Exe Sailing Club.
- Provide taster sessions in yachts, the Hawk, dinghies and power boats which will lead on to progression through the RYA courses.
- Encourage participation in shore-based theory sessions and offer knowledge and safety seminars through the winter and spring.
- Encourage social gatherings of women and girls and to have fun on and off the water.
Go to the Calendar for an up to date listing of the wide variety of club events.
If you would like to get in contact with the GGS group please contact the Club Professional for more information ggs@exe-sailing-club.org.
The team are a group of ladies who run and support the Girls Go Sailing come from varied sailing and non-sailing backgrounds, they are here to help you. To find out more, please go to our GGS team page.
News
Girls Go Sailing Cruise to Dartmouth | 17-18 May 2025
What a fabulous weekend we all enjoyed in Dartmouth. Five yachts with female skippers and 17 of the Girls Go Sailing group met at the Safe Water Mark at 10.30am on Saturday morning, 17th May, in a light NW breeze and sunshine to sail to Dartmouth for the weekend. A big thank you to Fiona Bolt – Andante, Tineke Dixon – Exeat, Sophie Coleman – Hiva Oa, Jane Williams – Indulgence, and Karen Melling – Zephyr for supporting this cruise.
It was the weekend of the Dartmouth Music Festival – Dartmouth was buzzing and the river was busy. We all tied up close together on the DA walk ashore pontoon. A big thank you to the Dartmouth Harbour lads, who were intrigued by all these boats with female crews! Sophie with Hiva Oa nipped onto the pontoon outside Dartmouth YC with some boats from Lyme Regis also visiting the Music Festival.
Time to enjoy some of the music at the various venues around the town.
We were lucky to have sole use of the Function Room upstairs in the Dartmouth YC for our chatty, and fun dinner of seafood and meat and cheese platters followed by home made puddings. Steve and Rachel Hughes joined us for dinner. Steve was our token male for the evening and seemed to enjoy being surrounded by noisy female company!
Light north easterly winds and sunshine met us for the sail/motor back to Exmouth on Sunday morning. All boats were safely back for early afternoon and some of us had time to head up to the Exe River Cafe for a celebratory glass at the end of a fabulous weekend.
The Royal Dart YC has a similar group – Ladies Afloat – and we are planning a combined gathering in 2026, maybe a lunch in Ansteys Cove.
Thanks to all who took part and made this weekend such a confidence boosting and fun time.
Jane Williams
Indulgence
As part of the RYA Steering the Course week highlighting women in sailing, the Exe Sailing Club Girls Go Sailing group had a lovely write up – click here for the article.
To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024, this video highlights five inspiring female Olympic sailors over the last couple of centuries. It’s worth a look – click here to view it.
Winter 2025 Seminars
We hope you have had a fun sailing season this year and have had happy times on the water. We now have some dates for your diary for the GGS winter programme:
- Friday December 13th 2024 | Christmas meal – 7pm for 7.30pm – restaurant.
- Friday 24 January 2025 | Film Maiden – 7.30pm Preston Room. The story of Tracey Edwards racing around the world with an all female crew on board Maiden.
- Friday 28 February 2025 | Light supper in SC at 7pm followed by talk in Preston Room by Jenny Hart and Bel Bailey – Racing around Ireland – a Foxy Tale at 8pm.
- Friday 21 March 2025 | Talk by Rob Adams – Trimming Sails – 7.30pm. Second hand sailing clothing for sale too.
- Friday 4th April 2025 | Start of Season Meal 7pm for 7.30pm. – restaurant.
Hope to see you there.
If you would like more information or are interested in our previous seminars please go to our Girls Go Sailing Seminars page.
Getting Afloat
Cruisers
A very useful Beginners Guide to Cruising – specific to our club written by Tink.
Cruiser Training & Qualifications - Lots of opportunities to take part in RYA cruiser courses throughout summer on Zephyr with Karen Melling – go to Training for more details.
Dinghies
Dinghy Training & Qualifications
The Club also runs various RYA dinghy courses through the season, go to Training for more information.
Powerboat Training & Experience
If you are interested in improving power boat skills please sign up for Power Boat Level 2 training courses run by the Club throughout the summer. Go to the Training Section of the web site for more information.
Last updated 14:20 on 26 May 2025