West End Sailboat Club commodore Emily Deshields has a passion for sailing that perhaps runs deeper than the Great Sound on which her club borders.“I love to watch the sailboats in the harbour, it’s a feeling like no other,” she said.The wife of past football great Cal Deshields, made history earlier this year when she was elected WESC’s first female commodore.It is a duty that the civil servant takes with tremendous pride.“It is definitely an honour, being the first female commodore of the West End Sailboat Club,” Mrs Deshields said. “It is definitely a new arena for me but I am ready to face the task head on and do what has to be done to make the club a huge success.”As commodore, Mrs Deshields is tasked with presiding at all club meetings, overseeing all aspects of the club’s operations and consulting with various committee chairpersons.And she comes highly qualified for the job, having previously been involved in administration at various members’ and workmen’s clubs.“The commodore is to guide the club, not only in the specific events and activities of the period of his or her office, but to be ever mindful that the policy he or she sets will affect the club in the future,” Mrs Deshields added.During her watch Mrs Deshields has vowed to take “the necessary steps” to ensure the club’s well being.She also intends to place heavy emphasis on the recruitment of youth sailors.“I want to keep the focus on the youth, encouraging them to become involved in the sailing programme,” she said. “The aim and desire in the future is to go into the schools to tell them about sailing, specifically the history of sailing in Bermuda and the advantages of getting involved in sailing and so on.”The local Comet fleet, based at Mid Atlantic Boat and Sports Club, East End Mini Yacht Club and WESC, each currently have female commodores something that has never happened before.“Collectively we have made history and I am very proud of commodore Patti Washington [East End Mini Yacht Club] and commodore Laurie Hendrickson [Mid Atlantic Boat and Sports Club],” Mrs Deshields said. “It is my intention to meet with the other commodores to discuss the sport of sailing in general and try to see if we can come up with suggestion/programmes to improve and boost sailing.”Mrs Deshields also intends to expand her own knowledge of sailing by picking the brains of club stalwarts such as Rudy Bailey and Gladwin Lambert, who is the club’s senior sailing chairman.She said: “I am hoping that with guys like Gladwin Lambert, [past commodore] Charles Gibson, Rudy Bailey and Quinton Simons to name a few, I will learn a lot more about the art of sailing.”