Christy Crawford Donnelly, formerly known as Christy Steinman, covers a variety of topics on the San Diego Yacht Club Sailcast including the start of her sailing career, being a navigator, several intense races she sailed in, SORC, and of course, being the first woman to crew for America’s Cup with Dennis Conner.
Christy kicks off the Sailcast telling host Alli Bell about how she got started in sailing Hobie 14’s and how she was automatically hooked looking for wind shifts. She tells the story of her first sail in the Tahiti Race sailing on Obsession, where sailing became her “obsession.” Christy quickly became a talented Navigator and was hired by many skippers in the ‘80s.
Navigation back then used to be very different. Christy talks about navigating before GPS, delivering charter boats, and some of the people that helped her get into navigating. One of which was Fang who helped her get her first real competitive position in the SORC on Bruce Farr’s first boat coming to the US. Comically, the crew was surprised to see that the new navigator, Chris, was female.
Moving on, Christy talks about her adventures in the Solent where she tells stories of challenging currents and tides. That same year, she got invited to be the first woman to ever sail on Kialoa for the Fastnet Race in 1979, the year with one of the worst storms, where she spent a lot of time doing radio communication.
Christy continued mentioning some of the large boats she was able to sail on before telling stories about sailing on Condor, unfortunate accidents and how local knowledge isn’t always beneficial. She talks about sailing with Dennis Connor on Williwaw, sailing with Tom Blackhaller, the Bermuda Race, and some of the struggles of being a woman in the fleet.
Topics switch over to the America’s Cup and Christy explains how she got involved with the Cup. Christy tells the story of her first big navigating experience in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
“In order to get a weather map, you had to de-code Morse Code… it’s hard for me to believe that I’ve lived through this span of the changing of navigation.”
Christy finishes talking about her responsibilities handling weather and communication in CUBAR, SDYC’s Amateur Radio Group, and the importance of communications in the industry.