Nance Frank sold conch shells to buy her first sailboat, a used dinghy. She was 10, and all that stood between her and the sea was $50.
The girl from Key West, Fla., grew into a woman with a passion for ocean racing and the best sailing machines. Today, Frank is in search of a corporate sponsor because she needs a lot more than $50 to race around the world.
”Corporate America has not heard of the Whitbread,” lamented Frank, who was in south Florida in April to drum up support for a U.S. yacht in the next Whitbread Round the World Race, in 1993.
In 1989 Frank was the skipper of the U.S. Women`s Challenge, the lone U.S. entry. She and her all-female crew started the 32,932-mile race from Southampton, England.
But they had to turn back after crossing the starting line. They had no sponsor and fell $140,000 short of the $590,000 they needed to buy their 57-foot yacht from its Spanish owner. The crew flew its U.S. flag at half-mast as 23 other boats sailed into the horizon, including an all-female entry from Britain. Frank would have to wait four years to try again.
”Maybe corporate America wasn`t ready for us, but we were ready for them,” Frank said. American companies appreciate the Olympics and the National Football League, but not the longest race in the world, Frank said.
”The company that sponsors us is going to be lucky,” she said.
”They`re going to be really lucky.”
Frank, 42, lives above the U.S. Women`s Challenge office in Annapolis, Md., where her crew is in training, and she coaches the U.S. Naval Academy`s offshore varsity racing team. She has logged more than 100,000 miles at sea since she was 10.
Frank`s experience includes sailing around treacherous Cape Horn on her 30th birthday. (True to sailing tradition, she pierced her ear with a sailing needle as she rounded the Cape.) She has sailed the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the North Sea, the Atlantic, the Caribbean.
She plans to do the Whitbread in a maxi-class yacht this time, a vessel she said will cost about $2 million. And she plans another all-female crew.
Ocean racing is dominated by men, but women can handle yachts, Frank said. ”It takes more technique than brute strength. I`m competent. I should be able to get out there and do it.”
”Why not have a team of women who feel just like I do? I think it`s a tremendous psychological advantage when you are doing any kind of competitive sport to be different. `Different` does not always mean disadvantaged.
`Different` means there`s an opportunity for you to be better.
”The other reason is that it`s excellent marketing. The men`s boats have to say, `We can win,` to be able to say to the sponsor, `We`ll really get the big press.` We don`t have to do that. We`re going to get the press no matter how we sail.”
But don`t get Frank wrong.
She sails to win.
”I have never, ever been out there not to win.”
