We left off the first part of our conversation with Trish contemplating ownership of a Sunfish and not a Laser (windcheckmagazine.com/article/women-on-the-water-trish-sellon/).
Coop: OK, Sunfish not a Laser…
TS: Yeah, and Mom was like, “Deal with it.” Well, OK…There were about eight or ten kids in Lasers, and I was in my Sunfish trying to chase them and telling myself, “Grrr! This sucks.” I was used to winning, being in front in Optis. Then I thought, “If I cannot win, I’m going to be second,” and decided to simply follow the first boat. When he trimmed in, I trimmed. He eased, I eased. He moved his body weight, I moved. I tacked when he tacked, and I gybed when he did. After a while I started getting seconds, in my Sunfish versus all the full rig Laser kids. I thought, “Yeah, I CAN do this,” then I started WINNING!!! Bullets by a mile. That was a game changer, and I thought “This is the life.”
Coop: Ah, Olympics here I come.
TS: Well, we did some wild things in those days. We’d sail outside of Greenwich Cove and do crazy stuff like long distance sails while tacking on the whistle, roll tacking, gybing, all the usual training stuff, but out in the open waters of Narragansett Bay. One day we were out in the main bay as usual and it started hailing. We could hear it on the VHF…no cell phones then. The coach said, “Hey! We gotta get in, there’s a storm coming!”
It turned out to be a pretty nasty squall. It came out of a clear blue sky; rain, hail and big, heavy puffs, and boats starting capsizing. I rode my bike to and from sailing, plus sailing all day every day, and was getting pretty fit. After sailing I’d ride home, drink three glasses of milk and go to bed. I had muscles on muscles at sixteen. Anyway, I was determined to not capsize, and I weighed two pennies and a nickel. I still remember how cool it was being strong enough to keep the boat flat upright in a nasty thundersquall. That’s my favorite memory of feeling, “This is me.”
Coop: Was all this strength just from bike riding and sailing?
You didn’t hit the gym four days a week…?
TS: Nope, just bike riding and sailing.
Coop: I can relate. When I was aggressively racing Lasers and then Finns, I was riding my bike twenty-five miles round trip to and from work, then going to the gym. I reckon bike riding’s the best training for Laser sailing.
TS: Fitness was part of the self-responsible mindset that Justin [Assad] drilled into us…well, me. We did wind sprints, drank tons of water, and it was on us to make sure we had sunscreen. He’d quiz us on the Racing Rules of Sailing, and ask how many boat lengths away another boat or mark was, and challenge us on how fast we could rig up. Whoever was first on the water got a prize, or could dictate the day’s training. He gave us seemingly dopey challenges, like sailing in and un-rigging on the way. We’d be getting washed into the docks while wrapping the sail around the mast. He’d holler, “Go! You only have fifteen minutes for lunch!” He didn’t want us wasting time not sailing.
Coop: Yeah, Tiller Time is King.
TS: Justin pushed us all the time with silly things, but it was also so much fun. We wanted to win, and those challenges were a good start to that goal. It was great, because in this group anyone had the ability to win. We were all good, strong, capable sailors.
Coop: You went to North Kingston High School, I recall?
TS: Yes, I sailed out of East Greenwich YC and went to NK.
Coop: Did NK have a sailing program at that time?
TS: Yes, but the program had some ups and downs before I got there. Then parents stepped in, but there was much more focus on the sailors of the leading parents. Anyway, I don’t think I sailed my freshman year. There were only three boats and about twelve or fifteen kids.
I did eventually get to sail, but the Team racing coaching was not so great. It was really hard for me to sail, or not sail, and not learn anything. Anyway, it was not very invigorating. I left high school with frustration with sailing and school, and that changed my course for college. I did not go to a school with sailing. After I turned eighteen I was not allowed back into GBSA [Greenwich Bay Sailing Association] because I was an adult. I had a separation with my friends, and felt like I didn’t fit in anywhere. I thought, “Fine. I’m going to leave, run away.” I went to Switzerland and worked in an international boarding school. The school paired me with a family, the father/husband of which knew how to sail, but the closest water was a lake five hours away (sighs).
Coop: Was that a gap year?
TS: Basically, yes.
Coop: Where did you go to college eventually?
TS: CCRI for a year then the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale. I just wanted to get away… I felt like, “I’ve just seen the world. How can I come back to little Rhode Island, the smallest state?” – a serious “too big for my hiking pants” moment. I found an opportunity to coach adult sailing for a while, and it was good to be on the water.
Coop: What was your major?
TS: Fashion Design and Sewing.
Coop: Good intro to working for a sailmaker.
TS: Well yeah, but I was not sailing when I came back. I’d really fallen off my bandwagon. Remember, I was a pretty and successful sailor and had won a lot of stuff on Narragansett Bay.
Coop: You were no slouch, and here was this big hole in you.
TS: Right, and I was always fighting to sail more. Then subconsciously I was hearing, “There are no opportunities for you to sail anymore.” At that time, the sailing game was not Pro-Women.
Coop: It still isn’t. It’s just less against women.
TS: Then it was, “You’re not big enough, not strong enough” and so on. There were just no opportunities for women for sailing. When I went to my parents, my father said flat-out. “You’re not going into the sailing industry” and my mother said, “Well, sailing is a hobby, Trish.”
It was like I was missing a part of my soul. I was still disjointed. I had this degree, but where was sailing? My father was in the jewelry business, so I just hopped onto that track. I would design and “blueprint” the pieces, but they were made in China. And I made my employers a LOT of money at the expense of doing the things I loved.
The standard drill in the jewelry game is a company will buy, say twenty pieces, designs, from half a dozen jewelers, and so spread the risk. These guys bought 100 pieces from me. Unheard of. Big doings. But one of the things that drove me nuts was my boss. I think a good boss ought to be able to improve their weakest team member. This person was not that boss. Belittling me every day was more the standard drill. It was a really miserable time, and I was really lost.
Then COVID hit and the company furloughed everyone. Well, that was a saving grace. Using my education and fashion background, I started making masks. I have an industrial sewing machine, like a tank. I bought it with the small change I saved over time, and have been hauling it around for years.
That mask-making operation saved my life and my trajectory. I made over 5,000 masks that went around the world, and it gave me re-entry to an area where people valued me and loved me. And this time gave me the strength and redirection to go back to the things I loved. I went back to sailing and coaching, and was the Justin Assad of my time. That program flourished and those kids have gone to the Nationals.
Coop: Great stuff, Trish. Thanks for the stories.
TS: Thanks for hearing me out (laughs). ■
