Team Fly Girls

Team members: Chris Christenson, Betsy Hoats, Marnie Landau, Lindy Leach, Cheryl Stearns
Hometown: Arlington, WA, USA
Race vessel: Hobie 33′ 
LOA: 33′
Human propulsion: Pedal (Prop)
Connect: website, facebook, youtube

They’ve jumped out of planes over 27,000 times. For fun. Two of them are even on the U.S. Parachute Team, which is apparently a real thing, with medals and uniforms and everything.

Now these five women are trading freefall for wet socks and headwinds. Their training involves a floatplane and a spreadsheet with 32 tabs. They are highly capable and possibly not okay.

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What’s going to break first—and what’s your plan when it does?
Our dignity, somewhere around day four when we’re still pedaling at 1.8 knots through kelp in Johnstone Strait while singing sea-shanties in the wrong key with the wrong words.
Real answer: the rudder cassette on the first deadhead we surf into at 18 knots. Plan: spare rudder + cassette, two of us will swap it while the other three keep pedaling and screaming motivational skydiving insults.

What’s the story behind your boat?
Our boat is a 1982 Hobie 33 named Fast Forward purchased from a guy in Spokane, WA who used to race barrels. We bought it in 2024 trucked it to Arlington and turned into the world’s fastest floating pedal station for a bunch of women who love to sail and refuse to row.

Luck/Skill Ratio
12:88

Confidence
94%