Dawn Riley

Age: 35 Residence: Auckland, New Zealand
Occupation: Captain and CEO of America True
Why honored: For breaking up a men-only monopoly in championship sailing.

As captain of a winning team, she keeps her cool head above water

“She’s a goal setter. There is nothing that will stop her from achieving her goals.” -- Gary Domanaski, a former commodore at Northstar, who’s known Riley since she was a child.

f Dawn Riley were a different sort of person, the captain of America True would have her hand on the steering wheel every time her boat hit the water.

    The image of her tanned, smiling face would skitter around the world’s wire services every few weeks with some preening, outrageous quote about how good she is and how the competition was doomed.

    But she doesn’t brag or push herself into the top spot. Riley’s too smart for that, and it’s what makes her a dangerous competitor, as her opponents discovered on her way to the finals of the America’s Cup world sailing championships over the winter.

    With a modesty rare in captains, the Harrison Township native doesn’t insist upon driving or calling tactics when she races. As her brother Todd says: “Dawn realizes that she’s got a lot of duties in trying to rally the team, so if (teammate) John Cutler is better than her at certain things, she’ll say, “Go ahead, you do that rather than me.’ ”

    Instead, Riley is quite literally down in the trenches; she usually assigns herself the sweaty job of turning winches down in the boat’s cockpit. To stay in such an active job, competing against 25-year-olds, Riley puts herself through a grueling fitness routine.

    “You can honestly be pretty old and sail,” she says with a laugh, “but the problem is, I really like doing the physical stuff on the boat. I’m not good at sitting around and telling people what to do. For the jobs I do, I work on my shoulders and chest because I’m grinding a lot on the winches. I also need to be flexible and coordinated because I’m always reaching and pulling things behind me.”

    No matter where she is on the vessel, she has what brother Todd calls “the watchful eye,” always knowing what’s going on all over the boat, from stem to stern.

    That focus and the watchful eye took her all the way to Auckland, New Zealand, where, after a long, tough fight in the America’s Cup finals, the scrappy Riley and her America True crew were finally eliminated in February. She vows to make a return run at the cup.

    Riley got an early start on the Great Lakes; she was barely 2 days old when she was taken out for a boat ride on Lake St. Clair. She went on to sail as a junior with the Northstar Sailing Club in Harrison Township, a club notable for its lack of pretension and its working-class roots.

    There she distinguished herself as a cool head on the water.

    “To make a living in the world of professional sailing, you have to be focused, and that’s what she is, very focused,” says Gary Domanaski, a former commodore at Northstar, who’s known Riley since she was a child.

    “She’s a goal setter. There is nothing that will stop her from achieving her goals.”

    Riley went on to captain the sailing team at Michigan State University, where she majored in advertising and marketing. Her academic major has served her well; she understands how the notion of “chicks on boats” has drawn the notice of the press and brought in sponsorship money.

    But to her credit, Riley won’t exploit that gimmick. Although she raced on all-female teams in the past, when she became CEO of the syndicate that sponsors America True, Riley gathered the best sailors she could find, forming a versatile co-ed team that was tough for anyone to beat.

    — Susan Whitall