Sherry Wilson

Long before Dawn Riley, or any other American woman for that matter, put together an all-woman team for a major sailing event, the Corinthian YC had a woman member who did it. Yes, indeed. In 1982 Sherry Wilson and Cliff Wilson, members of the Corinthian since 1982, did just that!

Who the heck is Sherry Wilson you ask? Well, she was an interior decorator, married to Cliff, who owned and sailed two boats, and wanted to get into the big boat sailing arena. Short on experience and long on chutzpa, Sherry decided to put together an all-woman team for the 1982 St. Francis YC Big Boat Series. A really smart businesswoman, she auditioned all the candidates for crew, and that’s how I ended up getting on the team.

Every woman who was anything in the northern California racing scene tried out for the team. In the end, Sherry chose 13 women and chartered the Trans-Pac champion, Sweet Okole, for the regatta. By earning a spot on the boat you also had to pony up $500 for the honor. After a month of hard practice, Jocelyn Nash and I shared the helm and Sherry was the skipper. She gained us the right to compete in the Big Boat Series, the first ever for women, and when we walked into the all-male skippers’ meeting, it was quite an event.

In sailboat racing you have to put your talent where your mouth is, and we did just that. In one hairy race, we threaded the needle between two giant maxi boats with me driving and Sherry in the stern, hanging on to the collar of my foulies and screaming something about how we were all going to die. Fortunately we made it and came into the St. Francis dock, with all male competitors clapping and handing us bottles of Champagne.

Sherry did this regatta two more years in a row, first chartering Irrational and then Strider, a Nelson & Marek 52 that we bribed Chris Corlette to drive. Our T-shirts read, “This ain’t no bakeoff” and featured a crossed off cupcake.

Sherry Wilson pulled off a three-peat all women’s Big Boat Series and sailed it all under the Corinthian YC burgee. And she did it with grace and style. So 17 years later comes Dawn Riley and the America’s Cup. I think Sherry helped bring women to the forefront of America’s potential in sailing.