Maiden Voyage
Written by Brian Bushard
Photography courtesy of Vicky Wiseman
Figawi’s First All-Female Crew Sets Its Sights On Alaska
No engines, no support, no shortcuts. Just 750 miles in the cold waters and tidal rapids off the Pacific Northwest in the legendary R2AK Race to Alaska. For the winner: $10,000. For the runner-up: a set of steak knives. But for Vicky Wiseman, there’s a much more fulfilling reward. Her all-female crew that races regularly in Nantucket Sound will be just the second crew of all women to participate in the race.
“Many times, the men’s expectation is that you’re not going to do as well or be as good, and then they’re surprised and their feelings are hurt if you beat them,” said Wiseman, a lifelong sailor and a clinical psychologist at Roger Williams University. “I’m not going to say that the male ego is fragile but it can be.”
Wiseman’s crew is called Team Valkyrie, taking its name from the female Vikings who she said were treated as equal members of society. Now in her 60s, Wiseman has spent her lifetime on the water, ever since her mother—a retired U.S. Sailing judge—lied about her age to give her lessons as a five-year-old. She has taught at the Nantucket Yacht Club, led a charter sailing company and competed in races from Newport to San Diego (and won over a dozen of them). “I believe that sailing is part of my soul,” she said. “Everything revolves around sailing. I do own two motor boats but they’re only vehicles to get to my sailboats.”
Wiseman is used to being the only all-female crew on the water. Earlier this summer, she sailed in the New York Yacht Club’s annual regatta. There were 150 boats. Not only did she lead the only all-female crew; she was one of five female skippers. There have been times when the men Wiseman races with asked if she is a man. “It’s shocking,” she said. In Nantucket Sound, she’s one of the most experienced sailors around. During the 2026 Figawi Regatta—where she skippered the first all-female crew in the race’s history—she led a crowded pack more than halfway from Hyannis to Nantucket. “But there were five people on the boat that weren’t experienced sailors, so I brought them to steer, which trashed our position,” she said. “But at least they got to steer, and it was a great experience.”
After competing in Figawi, Team Valkyrie is now preparing for the Race to Alaska in 2027. For Wiseman, winning is not always the goal, and it surely is not the be-all-end-all when she heads up to Alaska. “Sailing builds self-esteem for the women to feel like they can sail, and do something that requires strength and knowledge,” she said. “There’s so much that goes into it. You have to understand nature, take in a lot of information.”
While she will take men on board occasionally, she said she is resistant to do so if she doesn’t have to. Some coed races she enters require at least two men and two women per team. For most crews, that plays out as two women joining a group of men. But for Wiseman, it’s the opposite. “It actually changes the whole dynamic on the boat when there are men there,” she said. “When women are together just with women, it’s a very different vibe. It’s supportive, and the language and communication are different.”
As a psychologist, Wiseman has appeared on Good Morning America, has written hundreds of articles on eating disorders, and taught at Yale, Cornell and Brown. But more than anything else in her life, teaching women to sail has become a mission. When she’s on the boat with all women, Wiseman said the communication and spirit among the crew is drastically different from a boatload of men. She compares the difference to research in her field. For starters, research has shown women are more successful at multitasking.
“It is surprising that more women don’t [sail] because I think that women would naturally be better at it, at managing that kind of input,” she said. “There’s no denigrating or nasty language [with the women],” she said. “If someone makes a mistake, we workshop it. Things happen, you fix it, then you talk about it. We always do a debrief. Most of the people on the crew are my best friends. These are people I’ve been friends with for years. There’s a different kind of trust that happens. I trust the ladies are going to have my back.”
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