Tall ship Wylde Swan is one of the few large sailing ships with a female captain and a helmswoman.

Sailing a Tall Ship has been male dominated for centuries. But that was then…

The best known of the Tall Ships fleet will be sailing over a long weekend at the end of June from the Netherlands to the start of the Tall Ships Races in Denmark. And the crew? Thirty women! Sign up now and come sail with us!

You’ll be part of the crew’s watch system and learn how to sail (at different levels), navigate and make decisions at sea. You’ll discover how it feels to sail at night under a starry sky and over a fluorescent sea.

The Wylde Swan is collaborating on this journey with Wieke van Oordt, author of the Dutch book Women cannot sail, a book about the marvelous world of water sports. Van Oordt: “A completely female crew sailing a Tall Ship to Denmark! At first I thought the Wylde Swan was wanting to organize a kind of ‘learning journey’ to help women ‘get the most out of themselves’. That’s not something I’m such a big fan of because as far as I’m concerned, women don’t need that kind of thing just because they are women. But then I found out it was about having a wonderful and unique sailing experience and I became enthusiastic. I’d like to go too!”

Ibrichje Engelsma of the Wylde Swan: “We met Wieke at the Hiswa Amsterdam Boat Show. Coming from Friesland, I’ve sailed my whole life and the title of Wieke’s book got me thinking. As the new captain of the Wylde Swan is a woman and we’ve also just appointed a helmswoman in the team of officers, it seemed a good idea to really focus attention on the cliché by developing a great expedition about it.”

From Thursday 27 June in Scheveningen, the Netherlands, to Tuesday 2 July in Aalborg, Denmark.

Group travel returning from Aalborg to the Netherlands can be arranged.

The journey costs 750 euro and is full board.

Each person making a booking will be sent a free copy of the book Women cannot sail (in Dutch only).