One Woman’s Ongoing Effort To Encourage Female Sailors

Published: Monday, March 25, 2019
By: Beth Oliver, Director of Marketing, Offshore Sailing School

Doris Colgate wears many hats – wife, sister, business leader, mentor, author, non-profit organization founder, and sailor – and Doris continues to celebrate the sailing lifestyle today as President and CEO of Offshore Sailing School.

Doris’ work life started in the advertising department of Yachting magazine when she was not yet a sailor. To learn to sail, Doris was advised to go to Offshore Sailing School... and the rest is history. In 1969, she married the school’s founder Steve Colgate, and “the school,” she says.

Doris quickly focused on getting more women into the sailing and boating lifestyle, founding the National Women’s Sailing Association (NWSA) to create more awareness of sailing among women and help women build confidence in their boating skills. From introducing, “You Can Sail Escapes,” all-women training programs, to today’s “Women’s Weeks” courses for women-only at Offshore Sailing School, Doris has stayed true to her mission.

In 1991, Doris launched AdventureSail – a mentoring program for at-risk girls and, in 1997, she established the Women’s Sailing Foundation (WSF), a not-for-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the lives of women and girls through education and access to the sport of sailing. For nearly 40 years, these organizations have thrived.

To Doris and most sailors, sailing is freedom. Doris’ own passion for sailing is reignited when women express just how much sailing has changed their lives and created an even stronger bond with their kids and spouse/partner – when everyone puts down their mobile devices to grab a line, set a sail, drop anchor, and just enjoy each other’s company.

Doris was most recently honored as a Pace Center for Girls, Lee County, Florida, Grande Dame for her business leadership, community involvement and philanthropic efforts. Doris continues to make a difference in the lives of girls who have never felt the exhilaration and freedom of wind in their hair under sail, never held the helm of a sailboat and experienced the power of making that boat go where THEY want it to go.

Doris summed it up best, “Let’s take our passion (for sailing) to new and inspiring heights for girls and women who… in this unsettled world… deserve a better life.”