Adam’s Cup : Do Sisters Make Good Crew? It Works for Backus Family
The skipper and crew aboard the J-24 sailboat, which sliced its way across the gray morning waters of San Diego Bay, have more in common than the deed to the $21,000 vessel.
Heidi, Amy, Susan and Gretchen Backus are sisters from Ohio who have been sailing together for about 19 years. This weekend, they are competing in the U.S Women’s Sailing Championships for the Adam’s Cup at the San Diego Yacht Club.
This is the first time the Adam’s Cup competition, the top race for women amateur sailors, has been held in California. The race has been in existence since 1924.
The Backus sisters won the Adam’s Cup in 1982 and 1983.
Heidi, 31, is the crew’s skipper because she steers better than her three sisters. She also owns the car that pulls the crew’s J-24 to competitions. For this race, however, the San Diego Yacht Club is supplying the boats.
Amy, 29, controls the boat’s sails. Gretchen, 34, works the foredeck, or everything in the front of the boat. And Susan, 37, works the middle.
They agree that being sisters makes them a better crew.
“Being sisters helps more than it hurts,” Amy said. “We can yell and scream at each other out on the boat, but when we come in from a day of sailing we can’t stay mad at each other for very long. . . . I don’t think we could be sailing together this long if we weren’t sisters.”
Said Heidi: “The best part of having your sisters for your crew is knowing that you will always have the same crew and you can always rely on them.”
Their home base is in Vermillion, Ohio, where Heidi lives on the shores of Lake Erie. The others live in separate corners of Ohio, which means they are not always available for a race. The crew’s alternate, Liz Elden, lives near Heidi in Vermillion, so she is usually available for races.
“I think we get along better than we think we do,” Gretchen said. “I think it works better because we don’t live close to one another.”
She added that the sisters will gossip, joke and argue on the way to and from a race but during the competition the conversation is all business.
They are all teachers, from the elementary level through college, which gives them plenty of time off during their sailing season of May to October.
They can’t sail in the winter because Lake Erie often freezes over during those months. Amy says that having the winter layoff doesn’t necessarily give Pacific sailors, who can race year-round, an edge.
“I think it helps because you get psyched up for the new season and you’re ready for it,” she said. “You don’t get burned out as easily.”
It also relieves some of the cost. During their sailing season, the four will compete in a race each weekend, usually on Lake Erie or on the East Coast. They are amateur sailors who pay their way to most races, although they rarely stay in hotels. During the Adam’s Cup, all crews are staying with “host families” who are members of the San Diego Yacht Club.
Sailing has always been a part of the sisters’ lives.
“We don’t have any brothers and our dad loved sailing, so we had to like sailing,” Heidi said.
Susan and Gretchen were the first to take an interest. The family couldn’t afford a sailboat, so the girls began sailing with kids from their neighborhood.
By the time Heidi was 9 and Amy 11, their father bought a J-14 two-person boat for the girls. Heidi has been at the helm ever since.
Now they share the payments for their J-24 sailboat, which, they joke, creates a tighter bond than sisterhood.
“We’ll keep sailing together for at least 15 more years,” Gretchen said. “Because that’s how long the mortgage is on the boat.”
On Friday, the second day of the U.S. Women’s Sailing Championships, the Backus sisters took first place by earning 6 1/2 points in four races. Catherine Chrisman of Charleston, S.C., is second with 11 points and Carol Buchan of Seattle is third with 12 3/4.
Becky Wilson of Newport, R.I., is fourth with 18 3/4. Barbara Beigel of Chesapeake Bay, Md., is fifth with 22.
The competition continues with three races today and concludes with three Sunday.