The inaugural J/24 Corinthian National Championship East was a superb event for J/24 competitors nationwide. Rochester Yacht Club hosted the ultimate 4-day event, with challenging conditions and highly competitive racing across a fully amateur fleet. The Sea Bags Women's Sailing Team had consistent performance and thrived in the heavy-air conditions on Saturday especially, finishing in the top 10 and as the highest performing women’s boat.    The event kicked off on Thursday with a practice race supported by on water coaching from expert sailor Mike Ingham. The Sea Bags team enjoyed ..read more

Last week, the Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team embarked on an exhilarating journey of competition, camaraderie, and challenge at the prestigious J24 North American Championship hosted by Sandusky Sailing Club (SSC) in Sandusky, Ohio. Twenty-eight teams from across the continent competed in a total of nine races over four days to crown this year’s North American champion. Competitors included teams from Jamaica and Argentina; as well as two all-female teams and a dozen Corinthian teams (i.e. boats sailing without professionals onboard). With wind-filled sails and a determined spirit, the team le ..read more

Prepping the boat for the J/24 North American Championship The Sea Bags Sailing Team is composed of members living in Maine to California, so we haven’t all been together since J/24 Nationals in May at Lake George, but that hasn’t held us back from sailing and competing this summer! Here are a few highlights from our crew:  Erica has been racing and coaching in Sonars at the Prouts Neck Yacht Club in Maine, and she joins Jess and Emily on Jess's Etchells for Tuesday night fleet racing out of Portland Yacht Club. Both Erica and Jess join Emily and her husband Gregg on their J/35 for Thur ..read more

Photo by Foreside Photography We are a team of female sailors racing against some of the best sailors in the world. Whether we’re on or off the boat, we are a team. Everything we do is in pursuit of one primary goal: to do the best we possibly can in each race. When we’re racing, everything we do, think, and say is committed to making the boat move as fast as we can physically go in the right direction. None of this is easy; it can be physically exhausting and mentally draining, and yet, we love it. What do we love even more than the act of racing itself? Doing it together as a team.   O ..read more

As a team and as individuals, we’ve participated in the Downeast Regatta more than any other event, as it’s in our backyard and our home port. It is also a perennial favorite for many as Maine — and its signature lobster bake — is a big draw for many boats from out of state. This year was no different, and we were thrilled to be able to have our team members from Rhode Island and San Francisco travel the distance to join us for the event.   This year, registrants for the regatta filled 27 boats, the biggest fleet since 2014! Boats came from Florida, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, New Ha ..read more

We recently spent a summer Saturday with our good friends at SailMaine participating in their Second Annual SailMaine Festival and Regatta. One of the main principles that the Sea Bags Women’s Sailing Team was founded on is the commitment to giving back to our sailing community. When we have an opportunity to give back and have fun racing in our home waters, it’s even better. SailMaine is a community sailing center located on Portland’s working waterfront, just blocks from Sea Bags headquarters. This organization is important to us because they work to provide affordable access to sailin ..read more

The Sea Bags Sailing team was back on the road for another regatta the first weekend of May. This time, we were participating in the J-Daze regatta in Canandaigua, New York. Unlike the majority of our races on the ocean, this time we sailed on a lake. Coming from our last regatta on the ocean in Florida, to a race in upstate New York on a lake, we knew the conditions would be very different. On a lake, there are no tides or currents. That’s a whole dimension of sailing that is removed. On this lake the wind comes over the hills and drops down onto the narrow lake creating tricky changes in ve ..read more

Photo Credit to Chris Howell Over the weekend of February 17th, our team participated in the 2022 Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta in St. Petersburg, Florida. Willem Van Waay, a multiclass world champion, approached us to participate in a brand-new Mixed Plus Class J/70 event. At most major J/70 events, the top boats are raced by four men, mostly professional sailors, with very few female sailors competing at all. Willem wanted to change that, and as a result the Mixed Plus Class at the Helly Hansen Sailing World Regatta was born, requiring teams to be at least 50% women. While we had never ..read more

Photo Credit to Chris Howell In the final regatta of the 2021 sailing season, the J/24 East Coast Championships, the Sea Bags Women's Sailing Team capped off the season with a 13th place finish out of 21 boats. Skipper Erica Beck Spencer shares her thoughts on J/24 East Coast Championships, the 2021 season, and what's on the horizon for next year. Despite the less-than-ideal conditions, were there any highlights from East Coast Championships? Without a doubt, the high point of the regatta was in race 2 of day 2. Our tactician, Hillary Noble Keimig and breeze guru, Joy Martin were on fire. Ou ..read more

We opened our season at the J24 Midwinter Championships the last weekend of February. We last attended this regatta in 2019 and placed 18 out of 29 boats. Our goal going into this race was to build off the strong foundation we created last year, and we did just that. We started our weekend a day early to guarantee that we would have the opportunity to clean and prepare the 2918 boat. The 2918 was lucky enough to spend its winter down in Melbourne, Florida after our 2019 Worlds last October. We spent the first day cleaning out the deck and hull, checking all the standing rigging, sorting throu ..read more