LEADERSHIP IN WOMEN'S SAILING AWARD
The Leadership in Women’ s Sailing Award, presented by NWSA and BoatU.S.® began in 1999. The award is given annually to honor an individual who has a record of achievement in inspiring, educating and enriching the lives of women through sailing.
Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award Archive
The Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award, co-sponsored by NWSA and BoatU.S., the nation’s largest organization of recreational boaters, begun in 1990. The award is given annually to honor an individual who has a record of achievement in inspiring, educating and enriching the lives of women through sailing. In recent years until 2020, the award has been made at the Women’s Sailing Conference in Marblehead, MA the first weekend of June. In 2020 the award was presented virtually.
Jerelyn Biehl
2024
Congratulations to Jerelyn Biehl for being selected as the 2024 Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award honoree. NWSA and BoatU.S. announced and presented the Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award to Jerelyn at the June 8th, 2024 National Women’s Sailing Conference at Southern Yacht Club in NEW Orleans, LA.
The youngest of 3 children, Jerelyn was born into a sailing family. She learned sailing from her parents and as a teenager learned all things boating at her father’s marine store. She shared sailing with kids during summers in high school and college. After competing for the University of California, Los Angeles Sailing Team, she met her husband on the racecourse. They fostered a love of sailing in their sons, Graham (a two time Olympian) and Cameron also a World Champion. read more
Dr Anne Kolker
2023
Congratulations to Dr. Anne Kolker for being selected as the 2023 Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award honoree. NWSA and BoatUS announced and presented the Leadership in Women’s Sailing Award to Anne Kolker at the June 3rd National Sailing Conference in Sail Newport in RI.
Kolker grew up sailing, first as a youngster, then through college, medical school and into marriage. However, when her husband died in 2008, she realized that she needed to learn more about sailing and grow her confidence behind the wheel. Up until his passing, she had never docked the boat that she had purchased with him, a Sparkman & Stephens-designed Stellar 52, or competed in an offshore sailboat race. read more
Linda Newland
2022
Newland holds the fastest woman, singlehanded San Francisco-to-Japan record and has sailed and raced extensively on the West Coast. She is a two-time, 2,025-mile Los Angeles-to-Honolulu Transpac competitor as well as a Pacific Cup veteran. In the 1997 Transpac aboard her own boat, Newland skippered an all-women crew to a second-place division finish.
A 100-ton merchant marine license holder, Newland teaches sailing and is a certified American Sailing Association instructor. She has served as secretary for Recreational Boaters of Washington, which represents recreational boaters’ interests in Washington legislative and regulatory actions, and is a past commander and now assistant squadron education officer of the Point Wilson Sail and Power Squadron in Port Townsend, Washington. She is a long-standing board member of NWSA, having served as vice president, president and co-chair of the AdventureSail committee.
Marie Rogers
2021
Marie was the second woman in 118 years, the second black person, and the first black woman to be the commodore of the historic Los Angeles Yacht Club (LAYC). In fact, when she looked in 2019 to see if there were any other black women at the lead of a major club in the US, she found none, certainly not on the west coast. Marie races avidly. She was able to race last year in the 50th Transpacific race. She told me she didn’t see another black person, let alone another black female, in the fleet. Marie also races close to home on her J 29, Rush Street, and does coastal racing on Marie, a Nelson Marek 55, that she shares with Bill, her husband. Besides all this, she loves doing deliveries, cruising, and teaching sailing at LAYC and other yacht clubs.
Marie has fully dedicated herself to increasing equity in sailing. In doing so she joined NWSA’s board of directors. She works with US Sailing and Yacht Clubs around the nation to help them sailors recognize barriers and to increase inclusion. Rogers firmly believes sailing is for everyone. She actively spreads the idea inclusion is not only a healthy direction for the sport, it will bring a new vitality to clubs which embrace equity.
2003 Dawn Riley
Dawn Riley, is a world champion sailor who has made great strides in developing sailing outreach programs for young people. Riley founded and leads the America True Foundation, whose goal is to bring the joy of sailing to youth nationwide. Other accomplishments include being the first woman to head up an America’s Cup Syndicate (2000) as well as team captain of the first all-women’s America’s Cup team, America3 (1995). She was the only female crew member on an America’s Cup team in 1992 and she led the Heineken team, the all-women’s entry in the Whitbread Round the World Race (1993-94). Riley was the first two-time winner of the world-class BoatUS Santa Maria Cup women’s match race regatta; the first sailor to be named President of the Women’s Sports Foundation; and also the 1999 Rolex Yachtswoman of the Year. She is currently the Executive Director of Oakcliff Sailing Center, dedicated to building American leaders through sailing.
2002 Gail Hine
Gail Hine, is one of the first female sailors in the U.S. to organize large-scale training events just for women. Thousands of women in California have either been introduced to sailing or improved their skills because of Gail’s efforts. She has a truly remarkable combination of sailing knowledge, organizational skills and, boundless energy. For over three decades Gail has volunteered her time to expand the sailing arena for women. Hine was one of the first women in California to be elected commodore of a yacht club, Palos Verdes, which later named a perpetual trophy for her. In 1990, she was the first woman to be named “Yachtsman of the Year” — the Peggy Slater Award — by the Southern California Yachting Association. She has served on boards and committees too numerous to list and has made a significant contribution to improving boating in California through legislative advocacy work when she served as president of Recreational Boaters of California, a statewide organization. She also served on the BoatUS National Advisory Council. Gail raced her Nightingale 24 in local regattas.
2000 Betsy Alison
Betsy holds 22 national and international titles, and mentors young people in numerous sailing programs. As coach, Alison led the U.S. Disabled/ Paralympic sailing team to a Bronze medal. Much of her leadership has been in advising and coaching disabled sailors. She recently coached the U.S. Disabled/Paralympic Sailing Team to a bronze medal in Sydney. She has also volunteered her time to the National Women’s Sailing Association’s AdventureSail®. Alison holds 22 national, international and world sailing titles.
1999 Bernadette Bernon
Bernadette Bernon is the former editor of Cruising World magazine and founding director of the Cruising World Safety at Sea Institute which has educated over 15,000 sailors at their seminars. She has served on the BoatUS National Advisory Council, and the boards of the National Women’s Sailing Association, Sail Expo and Sail America. She sponsored numerous outreach efforts to make sailing and cruising more accessible to women.