Penny Whiting, New Zealand’s first lady of the sea, may have hung up her sails and retired this year, but her legacy continues in the Penny Whiting Sailing School. Back in 1970, Weekly writer Vonnie Mugford set out on the Coruba, Penny’s yacht, to see how the sailing maverick got more women on the water.
“Oh no, not women drivers at sea too!”... the immediate reaction of, yes, a man, when he heard about the Penny Whiting Sailing School for Women recently started in Auckland.
What is the need for such a school? Why can’t they learn to sail on their man’s yacht, I wondered. I asked a number of women and it seems it’s all because men become “monsters” at sea.
Tutor Penny Whiting is a youthful, enthusiastic 20-year-old,…
