Stateside Podcast: Meet the journalists who moonlight as sailors

By Rachel Ishikawa,

Published July 21, 2022 at 8:34 PM EDT

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Sunrise on the morning of June 17, 2022 from the Phantom, the sailboat that Sandra Svoboda helped run. The sky is orange and pink and purple in a photo taken from the deck of a sailboat.

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Sunrise on the morning of June 17, 2022 from the Phantom, the sailboat that Sandra Svoboda helped run. Svoboda said the conditions of Lake Huron were very glassy and calm, but that is not always the case and that there are safety precautions that need to be taken. “Some boats wear [lifejackets] all the time, which certainly is not a terrible idea,” she said. “Even though it is an absolutely beautiful, fun recreational experience, you always have in the back of your mind, what to do.”

Sandra Svoboda

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The sailboat that Ward Detwiler helped sail from Port Huron to Mackinac Island. Detwiler said this was the 25th time he had competed in the race. “I’ve done a lot of these, this was probably the slowest race. This was definitely the slowest race actually,” he said.

Sandra Svoboda

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One boat that Svoboda and the Phantom crew saw while sailing around Presque Isle Harbor. Svoboda said that sailing is overwhelmingly dominated by men but that women and girls should not be deterred from taking up the sport. “We like to say there’s a brain way around the brawn,” she said. “Women generally sail a little bit smarter and figure out the process of what’s going on on the boat and how to use the equipment, instead of relying on the brute strength like the guys sometimes.”

Sandra Svoboda

There are two members of the Detroit Public Television program Great Lakes Now who moonlight as sailors.

This last week, Sandra Svoboda and Ward Detwiler took part in the Bayview Mackinac sailboat race. While they were on different boats, going at different speeds, they both finished up this week and talked with Stateside about the experience and to talk about the sport of sailing.

GUESTS:

Sandra Svoboda, program director for Great Lakes Now
Ward Detwiler, host of Great Lakes Now

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Stateside’s theme music is by 14KT.

Additional music byBlue Dot Sessions.

EDITOR'S NOTE: In a previous version of this post, there were two misspellings of Sandra Svoboda's last name in photo captions. They have been corrected in the slideshow above.