The W.O.W. factor

New Women on the Water classes aim to rock the chauvinistic boat world

They don’t call them sea legs for nothing.

Not everyone instinctively operates a boat like a pro. And women may have a tougher time learning than men.

A recent survey by BoatUS.com revealed that 42 percent of those questioned feel there aren’t enough opportunities for women and girls to pick up the skills. The poll found that women want to learn in relaxed settings, possibly away from well-meaning spouses.

Enter MarineMax, the country’s largest recreational boating and yachting retailer.

The Clearwater, Fla.-based firm runs Women on Water, a free four-to-five-hour course that teaches women not only how to operate a boat, but also about docking and mooring, basic navigation, knots and dealing with emergencies.

The course fits with the goal of the National Women’s Sailing Association (NWSA), Marblehead, Mass., which gives female sailors a chance to network with other women while gaining maritime knowledge.

Most of the MarineMax enrollees, who are usually in their 20s through their 60s, own their own boats, and are married to their “captains,” but neither your own boat nor husband is required.

“They just want to understand the boating lifestyle better,” says Phil Wolhar, marketing coordinator for the Lindenhurst, L.I., branch of MarineMax. “Unlike a car, where you can see a road at all times, you don’t know what’s underneath the water — where there are rocks, where there is sand.”

The goal is to egg on conversations about safety and team work.

Shirley Quarles, from Tom Ball, Texas, a 30-minute drive from Houston, waded into the course last April, and came out ready to take the wheel of her 30-foot trawler.

“It’s different when you ask questions to someone who doesn’t know you. You ask your husband and they look at you like, ‘Don’t you know that?’ Like they expect you to know something,” says Quarles, who sails in Galveston Bay, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico. “You learn so much you just don’t think about. You’re just not intimated.”

In addition to potential uncomfortable moments with their husbands on the water, women also deal with old-time maritime superstitions that mess with their egos.

One classic: “Women on board a ship make the sea angry.”

Another: “A naked women on board will calm the sea.”

Go figure.

Contact AWE senior writer Jodi Lee Reifer at reifer@siadvance.com. MarineMax’s Women on the Water class This free course gets women behind the wheel of their own boats. Check marinemax.com for upcoming classes run out of the company’s locations in Brick, N.J. (732-840-2100), Greenbrook, N.J. (732-627-0800) and Lindenhurst, L.I. (631-957-5900).

  BY JODI LEE REIFER

Staten Island Advance