Yacht clubs nationwide are experiencing a surge in the number of women becoming commodores, and women at the helm say the trend is in great part a result of long-overdue structural changes in the ways yacht clubs have traditionally functioned.
“I can’t tell you how many men have come up to me and said, ‘It’s about time,’” says Lisa Curcio Gaston, who is serving as the first woman commodore of the Chicago Yacht Club in its 148-year history. “I think it goes to the fact that the culture of our club has changed a lot, in a good way.”
What’s happening is not that a handful of yacht clubs are getting their first female commodores. Those glass ceilings—some of them more than a century old—have been shattering, bit by bit, for at least the past few decades. In 1993, Bahia Corinthian Yacht Club in Corona Del Mar, California, chose Carolyn Nelson Hardy as its first female commodore. In 2004, Sanderson Carney became the first woman to lead Newport, Rhode Island’s Ida Lewis Yacht Club. In 2009, Sheila McCurdy was named the first female commodore of the Cruising Club of America. In 2016, when Helen Salogub became commodore of the Midget Squadron Yacht Club in Brooklyn, her ascension was featured in The New York Times. In 2017, when Lynn Wingard was named the Seattle Yacht Club’s first female commodore, she broke a 125-year streak of men at the top.
Nowadays, stories appear regularly about yacht clubs getting their first female commodores. Right now, four of the five clubs on Long Island, New York’s North Fork—Shelter Island Yacht Club, Orient Yacht Club, Old Cove Yacht Club and Mattituck Yacht Club—have women commodores. Lynn Kotwicki just finished her stint as the first woman to lead Detroit’s Bayview Yacht Club, which was founded in 1915. The 60-year-old Poplar Island Yacht Club on the Chesapeake Bay elected its first woman commodore, Missy Warfield, in late 2021.
“We’re kind of doing it as a society,” says Lynn Reich, the current commodore at Shelter Island Yacht Club. “The fact that this is happening all across the United States, it’s a really exciting time to be around and see these changes.”
What’s most noteworthy about the current surge is that today’s leaders are pointing out things that yacht clubs had to adjust for women to get a fair shake. Curcio Gaston and Reich say their clubs had to undergo structural shifts in the way routine business was done in order to create real opportunities for women to lead.
As one example at the Chicago Yacht Club, Curcio Gaston says, it was traditionally men who became members, and their wives came along. A few years ago, the club changed its regular membership policy to allow couples to join, including people in civil unions.
“In essence, what happens is that either one of the partners can be a voting member or an officer or a member of the board,” Curcio Gaston says. “They can’t both be at the same time, but they can change from year to year if they want to. That, certainly, opened up the availability of women to serve in these roles.”
The club also used to have a Women’s Committee led by the commodore’s wife. A few years ago, that wife was an ophthalmologist who decided to do the job differently. “She started to change the role of the Women’s Committee to women’s leadership and women on the water,” Curcio Gaston says. “The subsequent wives of commodores continued that path.”
Then, the club asked for members interested in leading the committee, whose name officially changed to Women on the Water. “We ended up with a woman in her late 30s or early 40s who is an active sailor, employed outside the home, has a child. She and her husband met at the club,” Curcio Gaston says. “So now, it is run by a female member.”
Reich, too, says structural changes have been needed to empower women at the Shelter Island Yacht Club in New York. “Years back, the women at our club weren’t even considered members. The men were the members,” Reich says. “It’s not that long ago, but I know the man, he recently passed. He’s the one who stood up and said, ‘This isn’t right. The women do half the work around here.”
The Shelter Island club has also changed its setup from the days when a flag officer’s wife was automatically the head of a certain committee. “We’ve certainly gotten away from it, and it’s a good thing,” Reich says. “There’s definitely a sense in our club that we’re actively recruiting women to take on leadership roles.”
The Shelter Island club has also made a point of encouraging women to become members, Reich adds. “We are sitting down and going through the book and really trying to make sure that committees are made up of 50 percent women,” Reich says. “A marine committee focusing on things like docks, waterfront, the fleet of boats we own, in the past that would have been a more male-dominated committee. We’re reaching out and making sure some women are sitting in with that group and being heard, women with experience and knowledge about those things who can really contribute.”
In early May, Curcio Gaston says, the Chicago club had its annual ladies’ luncheon. She noticed a palpable sense of change, of women feeling empowered.
“Back in the day—not many days back—it was a fashion show,” she says. “This year, I had to talk, as the first female commodore. I didn’t think I said anything all that exciting, and I can’t tell you how many women came up to me and said they came because they knew I would be speaking. They used the word inspirational, which, to me, is like, OK. But the fact that I have gotten to the commodore’s role is definitely having an effect on how other women look at their roles.”
Reich says she wants to see this effect take hold beyond female members.
“It’s not just about women; it’s about diversity and inclusion,” she says. “We need to get more people to enjoy the sport that we love. More people on the water means more ideas, more variety and background. It only makes us better.” — Kim Kavin
This article was originally published in the July 2023 issue.
