A few weeks ago we had the privilege of doing a photoshoot on the J88 Hijinks - with Olympian Pam Healy and the only female J88 skipper in North America, Logan Ashcraft. We worked with the talented sailor and photographer, Christy Usher, to capture the day and it was important to us to feature real sailors (not hired models) for this shoot and to have an authentic experience on the water.
Image: Sailor & photographer Christy Usher is swift on her feet taking photos of the crew
It was incredible to spend the day on the water with an amazing all female crew. We had Logan Ashcraft at the helm, Olympian Pam Healy on the main, Nicole Voss as our trimmer, Bethany Windle on pit, Natalie Charles at the mast, and our own co-founder Laura Levy on the bow. In addition to our crew we had J/105 skipper Ian Charles of Maverick as our behind the scenes chase boat with co-founder Noelle Brewin aboard, this enabled us to get some serious up close action shots that would never have been possible otherwise!
Image: Olympian Pam Healy showing us how it is done!
We kicked off the day at 9:00 am with rapid Covid-19 tests to ensure everyone was safe and comfortable and then the next order of business was to get photo-ready, something we don’t typically do before a day on the water! Everyone picked the size and color of the Farallon jacket that suited them best and we were also very fortunate to have Dubarry Ultima sailing boots to keep everyone’s feet warm and dry and polarized Sunglasses from our friends at Velvet Eyewear provided for this photoshoot. Christy really took charge and made sure we captured some beautiful pre-sailing shots while rigging Hijinks and everyone had fun getting geared up and trying out the Sømand Farallon jacket (some for the first time).
After the dock shots we headed out of Sausalito Yacht Harbor towards the Golden Gate Bridge to begin the sailing portion of our shoot. We started out with our photographer Christy on Hijinks and we focused on detailed shots and close-ups of our sailors for this portion of the shoot. The weather couldn’t have been more ideal. We had 12-15 knots of breeze and a beautiful mix of sun and fog that is so iconic to San Francisco Bay. After about an hour of shooting Ian picked up Christy so she could shoot from the chase boat and we could focus on sailing shots.
Image: Sailor Natalie Charles models the Farallon Jacket in salt white on the bow
The sailing portion of our shoot was seamless and most importantly a ton of fun! Most of our sailors did not have experience crewing together or sailing on a J/88, but everyone communicated effectively and were able to execute clean tacks while sailing upwind and had a flawless kite set and takedown. It was a breath of fresh air to sail with such a supportive and skilled crew and we couldn’t have asked for a better day on the water. It was said multiple times “Why can’t we do this every weekend!”
Days like these make us so thankful for what we do and all the support we have in the Bay Area sailing community. We hope that Sømand inspires and encourages more Women to get on the water and fall in love with the sport of sailing. We are here to encourage, celebrate and support all women in sailing.
Image: Everyone was all smiles during this great day of sailing, photos and camaraderie
[disclaimer all local Covid guidelines were strictly adhered to, all models, photographers and participants were tested before the photoshoot]