Nicole Douglass has been riding the waves since she was a little girl, following in the bow wave of her father and grand father.
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Her love of sailing boats and saltwater has earned the Milton woman the nickname Sailor Girl and she is making waves in the international world of sailing.
Nic was back in Ulladulla this week, reflecting on her time spent learning to sail on the harbour with her father Rob Douglass.
The pair often sail together and have won plenty of races in recent years.
The father daughter team will take part in a State Title event at Jervis Bay over the weekend before both heading to the Caribbean where they will race in two regattas before Nic puts on her journalist hat to cover the event.
“The Caribbean will be very exciting,” she said.
“We’ve just won the VX One State Titles, so we’re hoping to do well in that, but we’ll be up against a lot of international boats.”
She’ll be back in Milton for a week after the event, before heading to New York to cover a leg of the America’s Cup Series.
Nic has been sailing most of her life and two years ago, when she stopped sailing full-time, she started her own sailing blog and website business which has taken her to events all around the world, including the America’s Cup and the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
“Last year I covered 43 events globally and sailed 15 of them, which isn’t too shabby,” she said.
When she’s not on the waves, Nic is covering the events via radio, Youtube and television, as well as social media.
This year she has competed in three regattas so far, including the Australian Sports Boat Nationals, which is for smaller end keel boats, that she won with team mate Matt Craig of Burrill Lake
Nic took out the NSW VX One State Titles earlier this year and the Spiral National Titles.
When she’s home, Nic loves nothing better than heading out off Ulladulla Harbour and she can be seen off the coast sailing her six-metre yacht with a single sail.
While she travels the globe and has been to some of the world’s premier marinas, Nic said her favourite place to sail was off Ulladulla or in Jervis Bay.
“This is where I have have done a lot of my hard yards,” she said while overlooking the harbour on Thursday morning.
“I’m pretty spoilt,” she added.
During this year’s Sydney to Hobart Nic was kept busy with live broadcast and blogs.
“It was a big show,” she said, “ I did interviews live from the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia and produced a live television show that had 20,000 international viewers.”
Nic told the Times she would one day like to take part in the Sydney to Hobart and said she aims to broadcast the whole event live “so people can live the Hobart with me”.
She said sailing was in her blood.
“My dad sailed and so did his dad, I think it was something I grabbed onto,” she said.
“It’s something that’s in my blood, I could never live without it and I don’t remember when I didn’t sail.”
Watch an interview with Nic at Ulladulla here: