Swedish-born Katarina Ennerfelt, longtime sailor and part owner of Helen Virginia, had previously captained the Hilda M. Willing in the 2013 Choptank Heritage Skipjack Race in Cambridge, Maryland. That led to the idea of an all-female crew as a way to draw attention to the historic Chesapeake Bay fleet of skipjacks. In an interview, Ennerfelt stated that “We wanted to do this to create some noise about the Skipjacks. There are not many remaining, and to restore the ones we have left is a major undertaking, both financially and physically.”
