About Gale Browning

Gale has been working on boats professionally for over 20 years. She started out as a deckhand in Hawaii and moved up to Charter Captain in the Caribbean and Delivery Skipper on the East Coast of the United States, the Bahamas and the Virgin Islands. She holds a 100-ton U.S. Coast Guard License and has operated power boats and sail boats up to 77 feet carrying up to 300 passengers. For the past 10 years, Gale has been working as a marine surveyor in Annapolis, Maryland, surveying sail and power boats from 20 to 65 feet.

From April 1994 to February 1999, Gale owned a 47-foot fiberglass composite gaff-rigged topsail schooner that she purchased to be used as a sail training vessel for her three sons. She sailed from Annapolis, Maryland, to Camden, Maine, in 1996 with the three boys, Zack 12, Nathan and Jeremy 10. After meeting the edge of Hurricane Bertha in Manasquan, New Jersey, the mood of the crew took a positive twist and the battle of wills lessened. Gale sailed the return trip back to Annapolis single-handed dodging two more hurricanes.

Gale has raced on J-22s, J-24s, Prindle 16s, 37' Express, 42' Beneteau and various other boats round the buoys and overnight races. Gale sailed her schooner in the Great Chesapeake Bay Schooner Race for five consecutive years and placed first in Class every year. In 1998, Gale placed First in Fleet, Second Over the Line (elapsed time to finish ahead of 105-foot schooner America), First in Class, Line Honors in Class, and Best Corrected Time (for race history) with a crew of three other women.

Read a longer version of Gale's biography.