In the fall of 1951, under the guidance of Dr. W. W. Jennings, a group of 10 women, all of them wives of St. Petersburg Yacht Club members, formed what is now believed to be the first organized group of sailing women in the country. The ten women in the original group were Eleanor Ellis, Betty Jennings, Dotty Lang, Joyce McEvoy, Mary Jane Misener, Margie Peterson, Joey Powell, Ruth Rifley, June Schowe and Phyllis Shaver.

The Salty Sisters meet each Wednesday for sailing followed by lunch at the St. Petersburg Yacht Club. The primary objective of this group is to teach and promote women sailing.

Throughout the years we have sailed eight-foot Hagerty Prams, gaff-rigged Fish Class Sloops, Flying Juniors, O'Day Sprites, Flying Scots, Sunfish and currently Optimist Prams, 420's, Rhodes 19's and Sonars. Spinnakers were first introduced with the Sprites. We have had as many as 60 women participating on Wednesday mornings.

In September, new members start an eight-week series of sailing and racing classes. In addition, there are classes throughout the year on racing rules, strategy and tactics, seamanship and race committee work. We frequently have seminars with guest lecturers.

Many of our group are actively sailing other class boats in regattas and have often participated in National and International regattas as well as the U.S. Women's Sailing Championship, Adams Cup, reaching the finals three times including one runner-up in 1993.

Salty Sisters are involved in every facet of regatta work and are the mainstay of the St. Petersburg Yacht Club Race Committee. Members are also very active in the organization and facilitation of many of the Yacht Club functions as well as serving on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee.

In 1958, the Salty Sisters started sailing against other women's sailing groups. In the fall of 1973 Fran Weaver-Nohren and Ardith Rutland spearheaded the formation of a Women's Interclub Council "to promote women's interclub racing in Florida". This group was to become the present Florida Women's Sailing Association. Fran Weaver-Nohren was the first president.

In 2000 we organized a regatta for junior girls from ages 8 to 18. The regatta was named after the first woman to win an Olympic Gold Medal in sailing and who also learned to sail at the St. Petersburg Sailing Center. Using Allison Jolly as a roll model we have seen the regatta grow from 20 local girls in IOD's to 60+ from several states sailing IOD's, Lasers and 420's.

The Salty Sisters organization, which is made up of a group of diversely talented women, continues to flourish after 59 years and along with the social activities and parties, our purpose continues:"to promote sailing and to assist our members in becoming proficient in the science of sailing".