Women who helped shape a legacy

It is a weakness of the US National Sailing Hall of Fame as it relies on public nomination for candidates to consider, but public awareness only goes so far back in history. More so, as the sport has significantly matured since the early days, assessing noteworthy achievement is challenging.

This is particularly hard for women as the Herreshoff Marine Museum highlight two impactful women who helped Herreshoff Manufacturing Company become the highly successful yacht design, boatbuilding, and marine engineering firm during its era of  1878 to 1945:

• Phyllis Brodie Leslie Gordon Sopwith knew how to take a picture. She was regularly photographed at the helm of the America’s Cup challengers Endeavour and Endeavour II, and always dressed for the occasion. Her official capacity onboard was timekeeper, which she performed when the yachts competed in the 1934 and 1937 America’s Cup races off Newport. – Full report

• Jane Nelle was a sailmaker at HMCo. beginning in 1923. She trained under sailmaker Billy Paine, and left with Paine in 1933 when he began his own sailmaking business. Her career spanned an era of great transition in sailmaking, from cotton to nylon and Dacron. Today she is thought to have been the first female sailmaker in Rhode Island. – Full report