Louise T. Guinther

What better time than Women’s History Month for a woman to make history, as Cole Brauer did when she became the first woman to race a sailboat solo and non-stop around the world? And how cool is it that the woman who accomplished this feat is what the male chauvinists of old (and not so old) might call a “pretty little thing,” standing all of five foot two and weighing in at a mere 100 pounds?

The twenty-nine-year-old Brauer, who looks about eighteen to me, with her bright eyes and infectious smile, was the youngest sailor in the race. She not only finished the 30,000-mile journey but came in second out of sixteen competitors. She hails from East Hampton, New York (my second hometown), and grew up loving the water, but she didn’t start sailing until her college years in Hawaii. It took Brauer 130 days to complete the course, enduring injury, dehydration and exhaustion and managing not only to sail the vessel but to perform all the necessary maintenance and repairs on her boat, the beautifully named First Light, which suffered a lot of wear and tear along the way. Brauer revealed a poetic side by delaying her arrival at the finish line to coincide with the first light of morning, from which the boat derives its name. 

As for the women’s history aspect, Brauer offered not only a feminist but a feminine take on her achievement. “It’s not just being a woman,” she told the PBS Newshour, “but it’s bringing that feminine energy to balance the super male-energy-dominated sport…. If you are feminine, you should be able to be who you are even in the middle of the ocean. You shouldn’t have to be thinking if someone is judging you when you’re trying to deal with a boat that’s breaking in half. I think that’s super-important for young women to understand: you don’t have to lose yourself to do your dream.”

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