The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-06-22

A SWEET young thing, still in
4 n school, but for two winters
now she has sailed in the FROST
bite f1eet-that queer armada of
eleven foot dinghies that puts out
to race every weekend in the icy
waters of November through Feb
ruary
The "dink" racers sail when
most shippers are glad to have
their craft safe in drydock and
themselves beside a warming fire.
There is an inner society called
"The Looms" To be a Loon"
one must capsize in the middle
Of winter in Long Island sound.
Miss Whittelsey belongs.
Not only has she capSized in
the dead of winter, but in March,
1892 she took her "dink" out at
Manhasset bay when only two
other shippers would brave the
weather.
In a near gale she drove on
top of a mooring Spite. There was
no motor launch at hand. She
sat calmly in her settling boat
until a rOwboat could be found
and hurried to the rescue.
And when they had taken her
off they had to convince her it
was more important to get her
to a fire than to save her lost
dinghy. She has sailed in Long
Island sound when the "dinks'
had to be chopped free from the
ice.
-Four years out of five she won
the Mrs. Charles Francis Adams
cup. That cup, given by the wife
of the former secretary of the
navy, is emblematic specifically of
the Massachusetts women's sail
ing championship, but in reality
is the highest trophy any woman
sailing against women can obtain
in America.
In the 1881 race her crew con-
sisted of her younger sister Myr-
tie, IL, and another Greenwich
girl, Miss Edith Wills.
Then in 1882, just when another
victory would have given the cup
to her permanently, she lost to
Clara Dinsmore of the Edgartown
Yacht Club, Vineyard Haven,
who had been runner-up the year
before.
MEANWHILE, however, she had
Iva been taking other honors.
During the 1881 New York Yacht
Club cruise she was in charge of
George G.. Mines 58-foot sloop
Branta. And in 1882 she proved
that she needed no Odds That
year, skippering Lucius Eastman's
30-foot Axon and bossing a three
man crew, she won the interclub
championship of the sound.
There were some two dozen men
shippers against her, all of them
just a bit doubtful about having
women in a race that for years
was a mans race. She beat the
lot of them, and they included
some of the best men sailors on
Long Island sound.
Times have changed incredibly
since that gentle period in the 70s,
when the New York Yacht Club
tried to hold Ladies Day" Al
most every yacht club along the
Atlantic coast now sets aside GER
tain days exclusively for women
and girls.
Back in the 70s a girl braved
the waves at Long Branch for only
few moments at time, and she
braved them Shrouded in flannel
bathing suit. ankle-tied boomers
and sun bonnet. The feminine
sailors of 1888 ARE CARRIED usually
in overalls, but often in the brief
est pants, held up by a couple of
crossed handkerchiefs.
There are hundreds of these
feminine tars. Edith and Helen
Wills also have graduated into
the interclub class in the sound
and their Shorty IL can be seen
out in any kind of weather.
Marie Iselin learned sailing as
deckhand for her brothers, and
now she sails her own Ariel and
defeats them in an even race.