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Latest News: Winners and losers Leg 4 of McIntyre Ocean Globe Race

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Tracy Edwards MBE and title sponsor of The Maiden Factor World Tour, DP World, the global logistics leader, are delighted to announce that the iconic yacht Maiden and her all-female crew will enter the 2023 Ocean Globe Race.

Maiden will take a break from her world tour, which began in September 2021, having covered nearly 30,000nm visiting 20 destinations and engaging with schools, charities and organisations as part of her mission to educate, empower and elevate girls, increasing their life and career choices and also raising money to fund girls’ educational projects around the world. The OGR will provide a great opportunity to amplify Maiden’s mission and the importance of educating all girls for better futures for all.

Maiden who is currently in Cape Town, SA, will sail back to the UK for final preparations for the September 2023 start, once again with a young female skipper and crew of up and coming sailors from around the world, who will no doubt inspire another generation of women and girls to follow their dreams.

With so many of the beautiful yachts from previous Whitbreads being rescued and restored, as has Maiden of course, it seems only fitting that they should be raced around the world again! Tracy Edwards MBE

In 1989, Tracy Edwards skippered the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race, becoming the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy.

At 11am on September 2, 1989, Maiden approached the start line for the Whitbread Round the World Race. They set off among the 22-strong fleet to begin the first leg to Uruguay, ultimately placing 3rd in their class. Although the girls were disappointed, the yachting press was astonished by their accomplishment.

After a three-week stopover, Maiden embarked on the 7,300-mile marathon from Uruguay to Australia. They opted for a southern route and faced numerous challenges, including icebergs, freezing temperatures, frostbite, contaminated gas, and a nine-day satellite signal outage. During the journey, two sailors from competitor yacht Creightons Naturally fell overboard, with one, Anthony Phillips, unable to be revived. Doctor Claire Russell stayed on Maiden’s radio for two days, providing guidance on how to keep the other man, Bart van den Dwey, alive.

Despite the treacherous conditions, Maiden arrived in Perth, Australia, ten days ahead of its nearest competitor and earned the Beefeater Trophy. They then made a short 14-day journey to New Zealand, winning that leg and extending their overall lead to 28 hours. Maiden underwent repairs and maintenance in New Zealand before setting off on the next Southern Ocean leg, around Cape Horn to Uruguay. Although the leg was difficult, the team persevered and arrived in Uruguay, where their Godmother, The Duchess of York, welcomed them.

The leg to Ft Lauderdale in Florida was not without its challenges, with Maiden finishing in third place.

Maiden embarked on its final leg to Southampton, surviving a tornado and the last five days without food, and arrived home to a hero’s welcome. They secured 2nd place overall in their class, the best result for a British boat in 17 years, and remain unbeaten to this day.

Tracy and her team faced formidable obstacles, including opposition and sexism, but still managed to secure victory in two of the most grueling legs of the course, ultimately placing second overall. This achievement marked a turning point for the sailing community, creating new opportunities for female competitors.

In recognition of her remarkable accomplishments, Tracy was awarded an MBE and became the first woman to receive the prestigious ‘Yachtsman of the Year’ trophy.

Sailing is in Heather Thomas ‘ blood, coming from a long line of mariners. Growing up in Otley, West Yorkshire, the sea was not close by, so Heather began her journey, dinghy sailing at the local lake, Otley Sailing Club, encouraged by her father. The Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation gave Heather her first taste of ocean sailing, with a bursary to compete in the Pacific Leg of the 15/16 Clipper Round the World Race. She has since worked in a variety of roles and vessels in the marine industry- from flotilla skipper to teaching young people in the Caribbean, delivering a yacht from the Galapagos to New Zealand, running flotilla holidays in the Ionian Islands and as Watch Leader for the Ocean Youth Trust North. Maiden has been a big inspiration to Heather throughout her sailing career, so to sail on her is a dream come true. Whilst on the Maiden programme she gained her RYA Yachtmaster Offshore (commercially endorsed) and loves inspiring young girls to dream big, a value that was instilled in her by her parents, who continue to be her biggest supporters.

Rachel Burgess is used to unexpected calls for help in the middle of the night, be it in the wilds of the Southern Ocean or as a vet of 12 years standing in remote locations. “It makes you appreciate the value of getting sleep when you can,” said Rachel. All the expertise of completing a Covid-interrupted Clipper Race Circumnavigation (2019-2022) as well as her long-standing involvement in veterinary practice in the UK as well as in Australia will be put to good use now that she is confirmed as being on board Maiden for the OGR. The 36 year old originally tried out in 2021 but simply wasn’t able to commit the time at that juncture. Now she can, and takes her place as Chief Mate, right-hand to skipper Heather. Rachel has a huge volume of experiences to call upon even though she did not get her first taste of sailing until she was 16 years old taking part in a Tall Ship expedition that went from Weymouth to Dublin via several other ports of call. She graduated from the University of Glasgow as a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine in 2010. Rachel rekindled her passion for the open water when based in Newcastle on Australia’s eastern seaboard and has made a great fist of combining her working life with what she used to view as her hobby. Now she is committed full-time to Maiden for the OGR, looking forward to ‘the rawness of the ocean,’ although she does nurse a fear of ‘running out of Haribo.’ The huge swells of the Southern Ocean are nothing compared to that.

In 1979, the yacht now known as Maiden was originally designed by the accomplished boat designer Bruce Farr under the name DISQUE D’OR 3 for the Swiss Ocean Racing Club. The club sought a lightweight and easily maneuverable ocean racing yacht for extended passage races, including the 1981-82 Whitbread Round the World Race. Pierre Fehlmann, a well-known Swiss yachtsman who had also participated in the previous Whitbread Race, skippered the vessel. Maiden, then DISQUE D’OR 3, completed the race and secured 4th place overall in the 1981-82 Whitbread competition.

Tracy was compelled to sell Maiden at the end of the race.

In 2014, she received news that Maiden had been abandoned and was slowly deteriorating in the Seychelles. Determined to preserve this exceptional maritime treasure, she launched a fundraising campaign to acquire the vessel and bring her back to the UK. Three years later, in April 2017, Maiden was transported to Southampton and underwent a thorough renovation, giving rise to The Maiden Factor initiative.

You are all much in my thoughts today, as you cross the start line of the Ocean Globe Race for Maiden’s final race.  I do hope that each one of you is proud to be part of such a special crew, bringing Messages of Hope to girls across the world.  I wish you fair winds and… pic.twitter.com/maUeIW1mke — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) September 10, 2023

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Whatever happened to Whitbread sailing yacht Maiden?

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Tracy Edwards MBE changed the course of sailing history with her all-female Whitbread race crew - a story of determination that was immortalised in the 2018 documentary film Maiden . Now she’s using her famous yacht to alter the destinies of girls across the world...

Checking her email one summer’s day in 2014, pioneering yachtswoman-turned-philanthropist Tracy Edwards saw a message from a sender she didn’t recognise. Out of curiosity she opened it, and in doing so altered the course not only of her own life, but potentially the lives of millions of girls the world over.

The email came from a marina in Mahé, an island in the Seychelles. Over a glass of rosé at the Royal Ocean Racing Club in London, Edwards shares the message with me: “It said, ‘Did you know your beautiful boat is sitting here rotting? If someone doesn’t come and do something about her, we’re going to take her out and sink her.’ It was heartbreaking.”

The boat was Maiden , a 17.7-metre aluminium ocean racing yacht designed by Bruce Farr in 1979. Edwards had bought it second hand to contest the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race (later the Volvo; now the Ocean Race). At 26, she skippered the first all-female crew to take on the challenge and, against the expectations of sceptics, won two of the race’s six legs, including the perilous Uruguay-to-Fremantle leg across the Southern Ocean. At the end of the race, after 167 days and 33,000 nautical miles Maiden finished second in class overall.

By the time that email came through in 2014, the boat wasn’t hers anymore; she’d sold it in 1990. And the marina was demanding €75,000 (£63,000). “It wasn’t what she was worth,” Edwards explains, “it was what they were owed. Her owner had skipped and just left her. She was in such a bad state, she wasn’t even worth scrap.”

Edwards didn’t have the money to spare. But – as someone for whom there is no such word as can’t – she was unfazed. She contacted Maiden’s original crew members, and between them they raised the money through crowdfunding. Two months later she was on a flight to Mahé, expecting to sail Maiden home. “I thought, ‘She can’t be that bad,’” she says. “But she was. We’d have died if we’d sailed her a mile.”

This time Edwards was in a quandary. But, as has happened more than once in her extraordinary life, the planets were aligning in her favour. She was booked to speak at a conference of the Association of Independent Travel Operators at a Dead Sea resort in Jordan – motivational speaking is one of many strings to her bow – an event that garnered much more press attention than one might have expected because of the story of the decaying boat. Word reached Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, Maiden’s original sponsor, who called her. “She said: ‘My brother sent me a press release saying you’ve rescued Maiden . What can I do to help?’”

The story of how Tracy Edwards, now 57, became a competitive sailor is the subject of two books and the recent feature film, Maiden , a documentary that grossed $3.5 million (£2.7m) in the US in the first three months of its release. But it’s a tale worth retelling nonetheless.

As a child, Edwards had dreamed of becoming a ballerina like her mother, who had danced with Sadler’s Wells Royal Ballet, attending the performing arts school ArtsEd.

But although she retains the bearing and physique of a dancer – slight and slender, yet forged, one suspects, from steel and springs – Edwards quit at 12, when her widowed mother remarried. The family moved to Wales, and a volatile relationship with her stepfather turned her into a rebel. She was suspended from school 26 times and eventually expelled. Encouraged to travel by her mother, she went to Greece, where, still a teenager, she was working in a bar in Piraeus when the skipper of a motor yacht asked her if she would consider filling in as stewardess on charters. She didn’t hesitate. “I left that night and was on the boat the next day.”

Until then she’d had, she says, “zero” experience with boats, bar a short trip with her father from Hayling Island, on the south coast of England, to the nearby Isle of Wight when she was eight. She was seasick, and “vowed never to set foot on [a boat] again”. But this was a job, and she had a living to earn. And in any case, the yacht in question – Kovalam (now Lady May of Glandore ) – was an alluring prospect: a 31.5-metre motor yacht designed in 1929 by Philip & Son that had been used in the 1982 film of Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun .

“She was beautiful,” recalls Edwards, who despite occasional seasickness soon found she loved the life aquatic. Autumn approached. “We ended up in Palma, and someone asked if I was doing the season in the Caribbean. So, I did my first transatlantic, this time on a sailing boat, and learned how to sail. On my second transatlantic I learned how to navigate.”

Over time – she reckons she covered about 250,000 nautical miles working on charter boats – she made the transition from stewardess to deckhand to first mate, thanks to a succession of “extraordinary” skippers. “They were such mentors. Every single one saw something in me and took time to change my life.”

The luckiest of her breaks came in 1985 off the coast of Massachusetts in Martha’s Vineyard, on a 31.6-metre ketch called Excalibur that was hired for a day charter by King Hussein of Jordan and his wife, Queen Noor. Edwards served them lunch, and the king engaged her in conversation, continuing to chat to her as she washed up afterwards.

“We shared the same interests,” she says. “He was a pilot, and I’d learned to navigate, and we both loved navigation. I love radios; he was a ham radio operator. And we both loved taking machinery apart. He asked me what I was going to do next, and I said what I really wanted was to do the 1985-86 Whitbread Round the World Race and that I’d tried [to sign on] a boat, but they didn’t want a girl. And he said: ‘You don’t strike me as someone who takes no for an answer. If you want to do this, you have to fight for it. You have to go back and get on that boat.’ And I realised then that was what I had to do.”

This time she was taken on as a cook. The 24-metre yacht, which like Maiden had been designed by Farr , was called Atlantic Privateer . Its skipper warned her at her interview that, in his opinion, “Girls [were] for shagging when we get into port.” But Edwards knew she could take care of herself, even though she was the only woman on the 18-strong crew (there were only four female crew, out of 230, in the entire race). Atlantic Privateer didn’t finish. But the experience galvanised her determination to try again – as skipper of her own all-female crew.

She placed an ad in Yachts & Yachting that read: “Wanted: girl sailors,” recruiting 11 women, all of whom were more experienced than she was. King Hussein, who had kept in touch, told her: “Leadership is not about being the best, it’s about bringing out the best in others.”

Edwards recalls: “He said, ‘You have to believe in people, trust people. If you truly love human beings and understand them, that’s the way to lead. With faith, honour and courage, anything is possible.’ That was his motto. I wrote it on a piece of paper and stuck it above my desk, and it went around the world with me stuck above the nav station.”

She needed a boat. A new one was beyond her, financially, but eventually she found Maiden , then called Prestige , and mortgaged her home to pay for it. Thanks to King Hussein, Royal Jordanian Airlines became the major sponsor. Three decades on and now newly restored, Maiden’s livery retains its grey and white as a gesture of gratitude to her mentor, who died in 1999. Which brings the story to King Hussein’s fourth daughter, Princess Haya’s, offer to help.

“You’ve rescued Dad’s boat,” she’d told Edwards when she heard about Maiden in Mahé, and asked how she could help. “So I said: ‘We need a lot of money to restore her.’ And she replied: ‘Well, I can take care of that. But what are you going to do with her?’.”

At that stage Edwards wasn’t certain. “I knew I wanted to do something meaningful with her. She’d changed my life, and I thought maybe she could change others’ too.” Princess Haya flew to London; the two met, and within two hours they came up with a plan. They would use Maiden to raise funds for a grant-making charity, the Maiden Factor Foundation, to support initiatives that help educate girls around the world.

Edwards, having become an ambassador for the UK’s National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children soon after her 1990 Whitbread achievement, has a history of supporting good causes. A patron of six projects, it made sense to start with those. It isn’t only culture and poverty that prevents girls from going to school, she explains, it can be something as simple as a lack of segregated toilets that deters them, hence the work of Fields of Life, a development organisation in East Africa, and now a beneficiary of the Maiden Factor Foundation. And Just a Drop builds wells in developing countries so that women and girls can spend time studying instead of spending hours fetching water for their villages.

Then there’s the literacy charity Room to Read, specifically working with girls in refugee camps in the Middle East, and Positive Negatives, which produces literary comics, animations and podcasts about contemporary social and humanitarian issues aimed at young girls. Last, but not least, the Girls’ Network mentors young women at risk of leaving school before their exams.

“We have a big problem in the West with girls dropping out at 15,” Edwards says, “and missing those really important years, which is something I’m very aware of.” She herself gave up on school at 15, but eventually earned a degree in psychology. “That really decreases their life choices. The Girls’ Network puts women who’ve achieved something in business, or in life, into schools to work with groups of girls, and it’s phenomenally successful in motivating them.”

Just as Maiden is proving to be. Towards the end of 2018, the yacht was ready to go to sea again, setting sail on what will be a three-year, round-the-world voyage, crewed entirely by women, aiming to raise both funds and awareness. She headed first for Malta, then Sri Lanka, Australia and New Zealand, where Steinlager 2 , her great rival and overall winner of the 1989-90 Whitbread Race greeted her.

From there she sailed across the Pacific to Hawaii and then to Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles – “All wealthy yachting centres where we know we can raise lots of money,” Edwards notes. The day we meet, the boat has just left San Diego and is heading, via the Panama Canal, for Antigua in the Caribbean. There had been a plan to go south along the Pacific Coast, but Hurricane Kika held the crew in port in Los Angeles for 10 days. "Thanks to climate change, hurricane season is so unpredictable now,” Edwards says.

The yacht has a practical role to play, too. “We have hundreds of schoolgirls come aboard,” Edwards says, “which is much scarier than the Southern Ocean, I can tell you. And we’ve got this amazing female crew who also give talks in schools. We can’t keep up with the number of schools that want us. Teachers love it.”

Because, she stresses, it’s not just about telling girls there’s nothing they can’t do. It’s equally about showing them. And Maiden is proof of where single-minded determination can get you. “She’s not an idea or a motto,” says Edwards, or a glib instruction to follow your dreams. “She’s an absolute, actual physical thing.”

And so she is: a gloriously restored and refitted manifestation of just what a young woman can achieve – and go on achieving – if she really puts her mind to it. themaidenfactor.org

First published in BOAT International's Life Under Sail in April 2020. Get this magazine sent straight to your door, or subscribe and never miss an issue.

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With An All-Female Crew, 'Maiden' Sailed Around The World And Into History

Dave Davies

"We weren't surprised that there was resistance to an all-female crew in the race ..." says Tracy Edwards, who assembled the first all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. "But I was shocked at the level of anger there was that we wanted to do this, because why is this making you angry?" Courtesy of Tracy Edwards and Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

"We weren't surprised that there was resistance to an all-female crew in the race ..." says Tracy Edwards, who assembled the first all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. "But I was shocked at the level of anger there was that we wanted to do this, because why is this making you angry?"

In the 1980s, Tracy Edwards dreamed of racing a sailboat around the world. But at the time, open ocean sailboat racing was a male-dominated sport. She was only able to sign on as a cook for an all-male team in the 1985-86 Whitbread Round the World Race, a grueling 33,000 mile endeavor.

Afterward, when she still wasn't able to crew, she decided to take matters into her own hands: "My mom always told me, 'If you don't like the way the world looks, change it,'" she says. "So I thought, OK, I will."

In 1989, Edwards, then 26-years-old, assembled an all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. The idea was unthinkable to many of the men in the world of yacht-racing, and backlash was intense.

"We had so much obstruction and criticism and anger," she says. "Guys used to say to us, with absolute certainty, 'You're going to die.'"

But Edwards didn't back down: "We all became very aware, as a crew, as a team, that we were fighting for all women, and actually anyone who's been told they can't do anything," she says.

Edwards and her 12-woman crew restored an old racing yacht, which they christened Maiden, and finished the nine-month race second in their class. Now, a new documentary, Maiden , retraces their voyage.

Interview Highlights

On restoring an old racing yacht while the male crews had new boats

We found an old, secondhand racing yacht with a pedigree. ... She was in a terrible state, and we put her on a ship and we brought her back to the U.K. and then I gave the girls sledgehammers and I said, "Right, take her apart," and we did. We stripped the inside of the boat. We stripped the deck. We took the mast out. We took everything apart. ...

This was also a bit of a first, because people didn't usually see women in shipyards. So that was an interesting situation. ... All these other guys had a shore team. They had brand new boats. So they didn't really need to do any work on them. And so they'd sit in a cafe and watch us as we were putting this boat together. ...

Although, as I say, there was a very nice part of that sort of, being part of this big Whitbread family, is that if you did go and ask for help, 99.9 percent of the time you would get it. You know, you might get a bit of a snide, "Ugh, you know if you need help ...," kind of thing, but you know, beggars can't be choosers.

But the great thing about doing what we did the way we did it was we learned everything we needed to know about the boat. We put every single item into that boat, onto that boat. We painted her. We put the rig in. We did the rigging. We did the electronics, the plumbing, the [navigation] station. ... So when we put Maiden in the water, I would say that we, as a crew, knew our boat better than any other team in the race.

"We were always chatting, always talking," Edwards (left, with crewmate Mikaela Von Koskull) says of the Maiden's voyage. "I don't think there's one subject that we didn't cover in depth inside, outside and backwards." Courtesy of Tracy Edwards and Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

"We were always chatting, always talking," Edwards (left, with crewmate Mikaela Von Koskull) says of the Maiden's voyage. "I don't think there's one subject that we didn't cover in depth inside, outside and backwards."

On the media's reaction to an all-female crew

We weren't surprised that there was resistance to an all-female crew in the race. Sailing is one of the last bastions of patriarchy. ... It is so entrenched. We're a maritime nation. It's entrenched in our history, in our warfare, in our culture, and it is extremely male-dominated. ... So I wasn't surprised there was resistance, but I was shocked at the level of anger there was that we wanted to do this, because why is this making you angry? We're only going out there and doing what we want to do.

On how at the time she didn't think of herself as a feminist — and said so in an interview — and why she changed her mind

In the '80s, "feminist" was an accusation. It wasn't a nice title. It had all sorts of horrible connotations, and really, it had been made into a word that women should be ashamed of — I think with deliberate reason. ... I was very young. I was 23, 24 ... [and] I didn't want people not to like me. You care very much, at that age, that people like you. ...

But I do remember [after that interview] my mum said to me, "I am so surprised that you don't think you're a feminist, and I'm not going to tell you what you should say, but I think you need to have a bit of a think about that one."

And then when we got to New Zealand and we won that leg [of the race] and we were getting the same stupid, crass, banal questions that we had on every other leg, I just thought, you know what? I think this is bigger than us, and bigger than Maiden, and bigger than anything we've been tackling. This is about equality. And I think I am a huge, fat feminist. I think I absolutely am! And I stood up for the first time in my life and I said something that might hurt me and might make me not likable, and I took pride in it, and it was an extraordinary experience.

On how her experience with a male crew was different than the female crew

[Male-run boats are] very smelly. It's very messy. There's a lot of swearing and then there are days when guys don't talk to each other. What is that? So that was very weird. A lot of tension, testosterone, egos. I mean, it was an interesting experience, that nine months, [the] first time and last time I'd ever been with 17 men and sort of watching them in their environments, if you like, their natural habitat. ...

Then, doing an all-female crew, then I noticed, wow, there's a huge difference between a group of women and a group of men. ... I prefer sailing around the world with an all-female crew. I prefer sailing with women anyway — much cleaner. We do tend to wash, even if it was in cold, salt water. More use of deodorant as well, I have noticed. But we were always chatting, always talking. ... We did talk the whole way 'round the world. I don't think there's one subject that we didn't cover in depth inside, outside and backwards.

Women are kinder to each other, and in a much more obvious way. We're actually more nurturing and caring, I think. And if you saw someone scared or worried or anxious or a bit down, there'd always be someone that would put their arm around your shoulder and say, "Cuppa tea?"

On the conditions on the Southern Ocean near the South Pole

Your body starts to deteriorate as soon as you cross the start line. Pain and cold are the quickest ways to lose weight. You can get frostbite in your fingers and toes. It's minus 20, minus 30 degrees below freezing. You are constantly damp because salt water doesn't dry. So the girls up on deck would be miserable — cold, wet, miserable. Freezing fingers and toes. Tons of clothing on so you can barely move. The food's revolting. So you just shovel it down your throat as quickly as possible and and try and get as much sleep as possible with this four [hour]-on/four-off watch system. It's also a sensory deprivation. There's no sun. There's no blue sky, it's gray, and the boat's gray, and everything's gray.

On Maiden's second-place finish in the Whitbread Round the World Race

Thousands of boaters cheered Maiden's crew as they finished the round the world race. Courtesy of Andrew Sassoli-Walker and Sony Pictures Classics hide caption

Thousands of boaters cheered Maiden's crew as they finished the round the world race.

We came second in our class overall, which is the best result for British boat since 1977, and actually hasn't been beaten yet, but that didn't mean much to us at the time. When you finish a race like, that you go through a mixture of emotions. Obviously if you're winning it's all happiness and wonderful and fantastic. We hadn't won; we've come second, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that, because second is nowhere in racing. But as Claire [Warren, the ship doctor] says in the film — and she's very right — there was a bigger picture, and the bigger picture was what we had achieved.

On the reception when Maiden arrived in England

It was sunrise. There wasn't really that much wind, and we were so close to ... [the] final stretch, and as we were going up Southampton Water, hundreds of boats came out to meet us and they would come towards us, turn round, and start sailing with us. So the final two hours of the boat was two hours I will never forget as long as I live, surrounded by thousands of people on hundreds of boats throwing flowers and cheering. It was absolutely amazing. And crossing the finishing line we knew, OK, we hadn't won, but we had sailed into the history books, and we are first, and you can't beat being first to do something.

Lauren Krenzel and Thea Chaloner produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.

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Maiden and her new all-female crew set sail on their new three-year world tour

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With an all-female crew, 'maiden' sailed around the world and into history.

A new film tells the story of the first all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race: "Guys used to say to us with absolute certainty, 'You're going to die,'" says sailor Tracy Edwards.

In the 1980s, Tracy Edwards dreamed of racing a sailboat around the world. But at the time, open ocean sailboat racing was a male-dominated sport. She was only able to sign on as a cook for an all-male team in the 1985-86 Whitbread Round the World Race, a grueling 33,000 mile endeavor.

Afterward, when she still wasn't able to crew, she decided to take matters into her own hands: "My mom always told me, 'If you don't like the way the world looks, change it,'" she says. "So I thought, OK, I will."

In 1989, Edwards, then 26-years-old, assembled an all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race. The idea was unthinkable to many of the men in the world of yacht-racing, and backlash was intense.

"We had so much obstruction and criticism and anger," she says. "Guys used to say to us, with absolute certainty, 'You're going to die.'"

But Edwards didn't back down: "We all became very aware, as a crew, as a team, that we were fighting for all women, and actually anyone who's been told they can't do anything," she says.

Edwards and her 12-woman crew restored an old racing yacht, which they christened Maiden, and finished the nine-month race second in their class. Now, a new documentary, Maiden , retraces their voyage.

Interview Highlights

On restoring an old racing yacht while the male crews had new boats

We found an old, secondhand racing yacht with a pedigree. ... She was in a terrible state, and we put her on a ship and we brought her back to the U.K. and then I gave the girls sledgehammers and I said, "Right, take her apart," and we did. We stripped the inside of the boat. We stripped the deck. We took the mast out. We took everything apart. ...

This was also a bit of a first, because people didn't usually see women in shipyards. So that was an interesting situation. ... All these other guys had a shore team. They had brand new boats. So they didn't really need to do any work on them. And so they'd sit in a cafe and watch us as we were putting this boat together. ...

Although, as I say, there was a very nice part of that sort of, being part of this big Whitbread family, is that if you did go and ask for help, 99.9 percent of the time you would get it. You know, you might get a bit of a snide, "Ugh, you know if you need help ...," kind of thing, but you know, beggars can't be choosers.

But the great thing about doing what we did the way we did it was we learned everything we needed to know about the boat. We put every single item into that boat, onto that boat. We painted her. We put the rig in. We did the rigging. We did the electronics, the plumbing, the [navigation] station. ... So when we put Maiden in the water, I would say that we, as a crew, knew our boat better than any other team in the race.

On the media's reaction to an all-female crew

We weren't surprised that there was resistance to an all-female crew in the race. Sailing is one of the last bastions of patriarchy. ... It is so entrenched. We're a maritime nation. It's entrenched in our history, in our warfare, in our culture, and it is extremely male-dominated. ... So I wasn't surprised there was resistance, but I was shocked at the level of anger there was that we wanted to do this, because why is this making you angry? We're only going out there and doing what we want to do.

On how at the time she didn't think of herself as a feminist — and said so in an interview — and why she changed her mind

In the '80s, "feminist" was an accusation. It wasn't a nice title. It had all sorts of horrible connotations, and really, it had been made into a word that women should be ashamed of — I think with deliberate reason. ... I was very young. I was 23, 24 ... [and] I didn't want people not to like me. You care very much, at that age, that people like you. ...

But I do remember [after that interview] my mum said to me, "I am so surprised that you don't think you're a feminist, and I'm not going to tell you what you should say, but I think you need to have a bit of a think about that one."

And then when we got to New Zealand and we won that leg [of the race] and we were getting the same stupid, crass, banal questions that we had on every other leg, I just thought, you know what? I think this is bigger than us, and bigger than Maiden, and bigger than anything we've been tackling. This is about equality. And I think I am a huge, fat feminist. I think I absolutely am! And I stood up for the first time in my life and I said something that might hurt me and might make me not likable, and I took pride in it, and it was an extraordinary experience.

On how her experience with a male crew was different than the female crew

[Male-run boats are] very smelly. It's very messy. There's a lot of swearing and then there are days when guys don't talk to each other. What is that? So that was very weird. A lot of tension, testosterone, egos. I mean, it was an interesting experience, that nine months, [the] first time and last time I'd ever been with 17 men and sort of watching them in their environments, if you like, their natural habitat. ...

Then, doing an all-female crew, then I noticed, wow, there's a huge difference between a group of women and a group of men. ... I prefer sailing around the world with an all-female crew. I prefer sailing with women anyway — much cleaner. We do tend to wash, even if it was in cold, salt water. More use of deodorant as well, I have noticed. But we were always chatting, always talking. ... We did talk the whole way 'round the world. I don't think there's one subject that we didn't cover in depth inside, outside and backwards.

Women are kinder to each other, and in a much more obvious way. We're actually more nurturing and caring, I think. And if you saw someone scared or worried or anxious or a bit down, there'd always be someone that would put their arm around your shoulder and say, "Cuppa tea?"

On the conditions on the Southern Ocean near the South Pole

Your body starts to deteriorate as soon as you cross the start line. Pain and cold are the quickest ways to lose weight. You can get frostbite in your fingers and toes. It's minus 20, minus 30 degrees below freezing. You are constantly damp because salt water doesn't dry. So the girls up on deck would be miserable — cold, wet, miserable. Freezing fingers and toes. Tons of clothing on so you can barely move. The food's revolting. So you just shovel it down your throat as quickly as possible and and try and get as much sleep as possible with this four [hour]-on/four-off watch system. It's also a sensory deprivation. There's no sun. There's no blue sky, it's gray, and the boat's gray, and everything's gray.

On Maiden's second-place finish in the Whitbread Round the World Race

We came second in our class overall, which is the best result for British boat since 1977, and actually hasn't been beaten yet, but that didn't mean much to us at the time. When you finish a race like, that you go through a mixture of emotions. Obviously if you're winning it's all happiness and wonderful and fantastic. We hadn't won; we've come second, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that, because second is nowhere in racing. But as Claire [Warren, the ship doctor] says in the film — and she's very right — there was a bigger picture, and the bigger picture was what we had achieved.

On the reception when Maiden arrived in England

It was sunrise. There wasn't really that much wind, and we were so close to ... [the] final stretch, and as we were going up Southampton Water, hundreds of boats came out to meet us and they would come towards us, turn round, and start sailing with us. So the final two hours of the boat was two hours I will never forget as long as I live, surrounded by thousands of people on hundreds of boats throwing flowers and cheering. It was absolutely amazing. And crossing the finishing line we knew, OK, we hadn't won, but we had sailed into the history books, and we are first, and you can't beat being first to do something.

Transcript :

TERRY GROSS, HOST:

This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. In the 1980s, the world of open ocean sailboat racing was pretty much all male. That is, until our guest, Tracy Edwards, decided she'd assemble an all-female crew to enter the grueling and dangerous 33,000 mile Whitbread Round the World Race. As you'll hear, the idea was unthinkable to most of men in the world of yacht racing and the journalists who covered them. The remarkable story of Edwards and her crew is told in a new documentary directed by Alex Holmes titled "Maiden," which was also the name of the yacht she sailed in the race. The film opens in theaters tomorrow.

Tracy Edwards had an unhappy childhood after her father died and her mom remarried. She ran away from home as a teenager, made her way to Greece and fell in love with sailing. She wanted so badly to compete that she signed on as a cook for an all-male crew on a Round the World Race. Though she learned a lot about sailing, she had no luck getting on as a crew member. She talked about her story with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies.

DAVE DAVIES, BYLINE: Well, Tracy Edwards, welcome to FRESH AIR. So as I gather from the documentary, you decided you're never going to get accepted as a crew member on a Round the World Race. So you decided, well, you're just going to start your own. How did you pull that off?

TRACY EDWARDS: Yes. I did look at the world of sailing and thought I need to change the shape of this because I don't fit in here. And so, you know, my mom always told me, if you don't like the way the world looks, change it. So I thought, OK, I will. I thought the easiest way - (laughter) that makes me laugh - the easiest way to do that would just be to put an all-female crew together. And, you know, we'd just prove we can do it and everyone will accept it and everything will be fine.

But that was far from what happened. You know, we had so much obstruction and criticism and anger, which I found really quite strange. You know, why would you be angry that we want to sail around the world? It's - we're not putting you out. We're just doing our own thing.

So it's - it was a strange process. I started out putting an all-female crew together because, A, I wanted to prove that we could do it but also so that I could be the navigator, which was quite a selfish reason. And then as we went on with it and it - people thought it was so impossible. And I thought, well, I've just raced around the world. It's not that difficult.

DAVIES: Right. And, well, you had to figure out - well, you had to buy a boat. And I gather you had a house that you mortgaged - right? - and put up - and borrowed money. And then you and the women that you recruited worked on restoring this boat yourselves. And it needed a lot of work, right?

EDWARDS: Yes, it did. We got to the point where we'd been trying for so long to raise money, the sponsorship to design and build our own boat, which, of course, all the other crews were doing. And I just - I realized one day that that's not going to happen. There are times where you do have to admit failure and go in a different direction. This is one of those times.

And so we found an old secondhand racing yacht with a pedigree. And that was - she was called Prestige at the time, but before that, she'd been Disque D'Or 3 and had been designed and built for Pierre Fehlmann in the '81-'82 Whitbread Round the World Race where she hadn't actually done that well.

When we bought her in the summer of '88, I mean, she was in a terrible state. And we put her on a ship, and we brought her back to the U.K. And then I gave the girls sledgehammers, and I said, right, take her apart, and we did. I mean, we stripped the inside of the boat. We stripped the deck. We took the mast out. We took everything apart.

DAVIES: Yeah. Was it unusual for crew members to do the repairs on their own boat? Is that what the guys did?

EDWARDS: It was absolutely unique - completely unique. All these other guys had a shore team. They had - well, they had brand-new boats, so they didn't really need to do any work on them. And, you know, so they'd sit in the cafe and watch us as we were putting this boat together. Although, as I said, I mean, there was a very nice part of that sort of being part of this big Whitbread family is that if you did go and ask for help, you would 99.9% of the time you would get it. You know, you might get a bit of a snide, well, you know, if you need help kind of thing, but then, you know, we were - beggars can't be choosers.

But the great thing about doing what we did the way we did it was we learned everything we needed to know about the boat. We put every single item into that boat, onto that boat. We painted her. We put the rig in. We did the rigging. We did the electronics, the plumbing, the NAV station, the rigging. So when we put Maiden in the water, I would say that we, us as a crew, knew our boat better than any other team in the race.

DAVIES: Which would come in handy later on (laughter).

EDWARDS: Yeah.

DAVIES: You got the boat, and even if you fixed it up, you still needed a lot of money because this is a race that takes months, and you need shore crews to help. And so you needed a sponsor. And typically, corporations would sponsor crews. You couldn't get that and you got some help as the result of a kind of a chance association you'd made in the past. Tell us about this.

EDWARDS: Yeah (laughter). So - I know. There's bits of my life which are so surreal. I was a stewardess on a charter yacht in Newport, R.I., and we had a very secretive, very important, high-profile guest. And we didn't know who it was.

DAVIES: This is a couple years earlier, right? Yeah.

EDWARDS: This is in 1984. So in 1984, I was working as a stewardess on this charter yacht. We had a surprise guest. It was, you know, very - it was all a bit weird, actually. We thought it might be Ted Kennedy.

But anyway, so we went off to Martha's Vineyard. The whole boat was checked. You know, we had the Navy. We had sniffer dogs. We had divers. Then we weren't allowed to stay on the boat that night. We're like, who is this person? And it turned out to be King Hussein and Queen Noor, and they'd just been their - Prince Abdullah's graduation. And they came for day sailing.

And I was washing up after lunch, and I felt this sort of presence beside me, and I turned around and it was King Hussein. And he had a tea towel in his hand, and I said, I don't think you can do that. He said, I can do anything. I'm king.

DAVIES: (Laughter).

EDWARDS: I was like, OK. I mean, I didn't really know who he was, if I'm perfectly honest. I was 21 years old, hadn't read a newspaper since I'd left home. But there was something quite extraordinary about this man, and he was fascinated with what I did, and King Hussein was a people collector.

He - and it wasn't just me. I mean, he collected people from all over the world, all walks of life. He found people interesting, fascinating. He loved his fellow human being. And I think that's what made him such an extraordinary leader and why Jordan is such a place of stability in the Middle East today. And he encouraged me to do the '85-'86 race. And then when I was putting Maiden together, he was always there in the background, always on the end of a phone if I needed help or advice.

But when I got to the point where I thought I can't spend any more time looking for this money - you know, two years and we had bits and pieces of money and donations and stuff but no big sponsor - I called him up and I told him, and he went, oh, for goodness sake. He said, right. He said, Royal Jordanian Airlines is going to be your sponsor. And that was just brilliant. You know, we - just having not to struggle for money anymore was amazing. And then, of course, she ended up this beautiful gray color with the red and the gold stripe because that's the color of Royal Jordanian Airlines' planes.

DAVIES: I have to ask. He was always on the other end of a phone. How does one dial up a king? Do you get his cellphone number?

EDWARDS: Well, he left me his phone number before he left the boat, and then before I got home to the U.K., he'd called my mum. And when I - I did a transatlantic home, and I got to Lymington and, of course, we didn't have cellphones in those days, so I went to find a payphone. And I called my mother and she said, what have you been up to? I said, nothing. I have - we just got off the boat. I've sailed across the Atlantic. She said, some guy called King Hussein keeps calling, and...

EDWARDS: ...You know? I said, oh, God. Please don't tell me you said you were the Queen of Sheba and put the phone down. She said, no, because knowing you, I thought there was every likelihood that it would be, so, yeah. So we forged this...

DAVIES: Wow.

EDWARDS: ...Very strong and very close friendship. And if I ever, ever needed to speak to him, he would always get back to me or be on the end of a phone.

DAVIES: Tracy Edwards' remarkable experience as skipper of the first all-female crew to compete in an around-the-world sailing race is told in the new documentary "Maiden." It opens in theaters this Friday. We'll be back and talk some more after a quick break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF DAN AUERBACH'S "HEARTBROKEN, IN DISREPAIR")

DAVIES: This is FRESH AIR, and we're speaking with Tracy Edwards. She assembled and led the first all-female sailing crew to compete in an around-the-world race in 1989. That's the subject of the new documentary "Maiden." It opens in theaters this Friday.

So you get the boat ready, and you start going out and sailing in runs. And there was actually a kind of a warm-up race to the round-the-world race. And there's some - there's a leadership struggle, in effect. I mean, you - your first mate, who was a very experienced sailor - you decide you have to let her go because there's a question of sort of who's really in charge of the boat. And it was kind of a tough thing. And it became a media story when you came back because it fed into the narrative of, oh, it's a catfight. These are squabbling women.

And I thought we'd just hear a - this is a scene from the film that's - where we hear a member of your crew, Jeni Mundy, talking about the kinds of questions that she and the crew and you got from the media. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MAIDEN")

JENI MUNDY: If you looked at the questions or the articles written about us at the time, they were always digging for stories on, well, who's boyfriend, girlfriend? Are you lesbians? Are you sleeping around? Or surely you're not getting on that well. Bunch of women on a boat that size - there must be a lot of squabbles.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What about the crew? A bunch of girls - how'd you all get on?

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Remarkably well.

MUNDY: You never saw them ask the guys those questions. They would be asked about tactics, challenges, you know, sail - sensible sporting questions. We almost never got asked those questions. Why?

DAVIES: And that's Jeni Mundy. She was on the crew of the Maiden. That was the ship that was skippered by our guest Tracy Edwards. You had the first all-female crew to compete in an around-the-world sailing race. That story is told in the new documentary "Maiden." Were you surprised at the media reaction that you got?

EDWARDS: We weren't surprised that there was resistance to an all-female crew in the race. You know, sailing is one of the last bastions of patriarchy, if you like. And it is entrenched. It's - you know, we're a maritime nation. It's entrenched in our history, in our warfare, in our culture. And it is extremely male-dominated. And it was, I would say, the hardest sport at - well, the hardest sport of any time to want to prove that women could do it, so I wasn't surprised there was resistance.

The thing that really made me laugh was the two things that guys used to say to us with absolute certainty. One was you're going to die, not you might or, you know, we think it's a bit of a risk. But, no, you're going to die, which - OK, we took that with a pinch of salt. And the other one, many says, women don't get on. Well, what? You're not a woman, and you're wrong. And, you know, it was (laughter) so weird.

DAVIES: Yeah. One of - one sailing journalist, Bob Fisher, called you a tin full of tarts.

EDWARDS: (Laughter) Well, Bob and I are now very good friends, you'll be pleased to hear. Bob was one of the very few journalists who allowed us to change his mind. And for the documentary, I have to say, he did a wonderful job of being very honest about what he thought then. You know, and he could have ducked it, but he didn't. He really - he stepped up to the plate. But when we sailed into New Zealand in first place, Bob Fisher then wrote in Yachts & Yachting, not just a tin full of tarts - a tin full of smart, fast tarts.

EDWARDS: And we all thought this was great. You know, oh, yay. Bob's changed his mind. And then someone said to us, you do know that tart is still in that sentence, you know? We were like, oh, yeah. OK. Well, maybe a little bit further to go.

DAVIES: You know, one of the things that struck me as I looked at the film - there's a lot of clips of you doing media interviews. And I have to say you seem very composed and on-message. I mean, you don't - you know, you don't rail at people. You don't rage at the criticism that you have been given. Did you get advice on this? Did it just come naturally?

EDWARDS: That is such a good question. You know, the first thing I thought when I first watched this documentary with all the other women - and we all said to - almost - a woman, the same thing. I looked at myself on that screen, and I thought, well, that's not me. That's - no, no. I have no link with that person - this young person up on the screen because I remember myself as being a bit of an idiot and a bit of a twit, really.

And I have this sort of almost horrible reoccurring dream about me being - oh, just kind of lurching from one situation to the next and, you know, fighting the next obstacle. And then we watched that, and I thought, I actually sound quite sensible in some of the interviews. And, you know, I say a couple of quite profound things. And to me, I don't remember myself like that.

And the only thing I can think - and I didn't have any major training. The only thing I can think is - I mean, my mom and Admiral Charles Williams, who was the organizer of the Whitbread, who was a huge supporter of Maiden. He was so wonderful. Admiral Charles Williams - yes, of course women can sail around the world.

EDWARDS: He was just wonderful. He did take me aside a couple of times and say, you know, yeah, you can't do a press announcement and then run out of the room. You know, you do have to stay for questions and little tips like that. But I was told right from Day 1, don't lose your temper. Because I, at the time, did have just a little bit of a temper, I have to say. So I am amazed when I watch that footage because I think I probably know what's going on beneath the surface.

DAVIES: And there's one moment which, I'm told, you cringe when you see now where you're asked, are you a feminist? And you say, I hate that word.

DAVIES: What was - I could kind of get what you were saying, but you tell me.

EDWARDS: Yeah. Well, you know, in the '80s, feminist was an accusation. It wasn't a nice title. It was - it had all sorts of horrible connotations. And really, it had been made into a word that women should be ashamed of, I think, with deliberate reason. And, you know, I drank the Kool-Aid, basically. And I was very young. I was 23, 24, during that interview. And I didn't want people not to like me. You know? You care very much at that age that people like you. I mean, you may be annoying them and putting this whole female crew together.

But I do remember afterwards my mum said to me, I'm so surprised that you don't think you're a feminist. And she said, I'm not going to tell you what you should say, but I think you need to have a bit of a think about that one. And then when we again got to New Zealand, and we won that leg and we were getting the same stupid, crass, banal questions that we had on every other leg, I just thought, you know what? I think this is bigger than us and bigger than Maiden and bigger than anything we've been tackling. This is about equality. And I think I am a huge, fat feminist. I think I absolutely am.

And I stood up for the first time in my life, and I said something that might hurt me and might make me not likeable. And I took pride in it, and it was an extraordinary experience.

DAVIES: When you were working as a cook on the otherwise all-male crew of that Round The World Race back then, when you observed the men on the boat and how they interacted with one another, I'm wondering if that was different from your observations of all-women crews that you saw later on?

EDWARDS: It's very smelly. It's very messy. You know, there's a lot of swearing. And then there are days when guys don't talk to each other. What is that? So that was very weird - a lot of tension, testosterone, egos. I mean, it was an interesting experience, that nine months. You know, first time and last time I'd ever been, you know, with 17 men and sort of watching them in their environments, if you like. You know, their natural habitat (laughter).

So it was - I had nothing to compare it to at that time, but then doing an all-female crew, then I noticed, wow, there's a huge difference between a group of women and a group of men.

DAVIES: Right. And how would you describe the difference?

EDWARDS: Well, I prefer sailing around the world with an all-female crew. I prefer, you know, sailing with women, anyway - much cleaner, you know? We do tend to wash.

EDWARDS: You know, even if it was in cold saltwater. (Laughter). More use of deodorant, as well, I have noticed. But we were always chatting, always talking. I mean, I know women - I know people say women talk a lot. We really did. And we did talk the whole way around the world. I don't think there's one subject that we didn't cover in depth, inside, outside and backwards.

Women are kinder to each other, and in a much more obvious way. So, you know, we - well, we're naturally more nurturing and caring, I think. And if you saw someone scared, or worried, or anxious or a bit down, there'd always be someone, you know, that would put their arm around your shoulder and go, cup of tea? Yes, please. Thank you very much.

So just a completely, completely different atmosphere - and I do think that each flourish in their own atmosphere. You see, that's the thing. I have done mixed crews, which have worked really, really well. But I think at that time, it really was each to their own.

DAVIES: Right. The thing that I wondered was whether women are just simply more willing to cooperate. And a crew really has to work together on a long voyage like that.

EDWARDS: I think the one time when we didn't talk was the time when we were cooperating the most, which was on the start lines. And it was very interesting, actually. We didn't notice we did this at all because we trained a lot. We trained. We trained. We trained. And then when we were on the start line - on the start line, you've got a lot of screaming and shouting. There's a lot of very macho posturing, you know, between the boats. And it's all sort of playing chicken, and it's, (laughter), there's a lot of shouting.

DAVIES: 'Cause you're all close together there. Right.

EDWARDS: Because you're all close together. But what we didn't realize until we got to the next stop, one of the guys said, you girls not talking to each other on the start line then? You know, you're not talking to each other already? And we went, yeah. What do you mean? He said, well, no one was saying anything or shouting anything. I said, well, we don't like being shouted at so therefore we tend not to shout at each other (laughter). And then we realized, when we're sailing in those quite stressful conditions, we were completely silent because we were so in harmony with each other.

GROSS: We're listening to the interview Dave Davies recorded with Tracy Edwards. In 1989, she became the first woman to lead an all-female sailing crew on the Whitbread Round the World Race. That voyage is the subject of the new documentary "Maiden."

After a break, we'll talk about the dangers and the extremes the crew faced during the race. And Justin Chang will review the new movie "Yesterday," whose conceit is that a strange blip has erased The Beatles from history with the exception of one singer-songwriter who remembers the band and their songs. I'm Terry Gross, and this is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to the interview FRESH AIR's Dave Davies recorded with Tracy Edwards, who in 1989 was the first woman to lead an all-female sailing crew on the Whitbread round the World Race.

It was an arduous 33,000-mile competition divided into five legs. The boats would start in England and compete to arrive first in the designated ports, where the winning crew would win a trophy and the crews would rest a few days before starting the next leg. The best cumulative time for the whole race was named the winner. Edwards' story is told in the new documentary "Maiden," directed by Alex Holmes. It opens in theaters tomorrow.

DAVIES: This first leg of the journey from England to Uruguay, you finished third out of the four boats in your class. And the journalists who thought you wouldn't even get there were giving you a well done sort of treatment. You didn't feel that way, right?

EDWARDS: No. We were absolutely gutted when we came third. We were so disappointed. So we had this really weird situation going on on the dock. So we were coming in with a face as low as I don't know what and then everyone else on the dock was going, you're alive, you're alive. So we had this really strange party with a very happy group of people and a very grumpy group of (laughter). It was very weird.

DAVIES: The second leg of the journey is from Uruguay to Australia. It's the longest. And you're kind of sailing across the bottom of the world if you kind of turn the globe over and picture it. So the most direct route would be kind of as close to the South Pole as possible. That gets tricky. That imposed a tough decision on you. Tell us what, you know, the trade-offs were and the challenges.

EDWARDS: Well, you don't just stop in ports. You continue to work and the girls are fixing the boat and themselves. And I just either sat in my room in the hotel with all my charts and everything else or on the boat in the nav station. And you're planning your next leg, and you're looking at different things, like what does the weather look like that's coming up? What is the sea state currently in the Southern Ocean? Where are the icebergs? They were particularly far north that year. And you're looking at long-range forecasts and trying to piece all these things together. And so what you want to do is, yes, you want to go as far south as possible but - and the reason why others made the decision not to was because of the icebergs.

Now, I made quite a risky decision that we wouldn't hit an iceberg. And I took us the furthest south of any boats in the Whitbread fleet that year. But I was very clear on what I wanted to do and why I wanted to do it. What you don't want to do is go so far south that you go over the Antarctic shelf, which then changes the shape of the waves and can make them quite unmanageable. And you also don't want to get on the wrong side of the low pressures, which is to go south of them. You want to stay north of them because they travel clockwise. So it was a hugely fraught leg on the decision-making front, but I was probably the clearest I'd ever been about anything in the race, and I got it right.

DAVIES: OK. So this crew - this is not a balmy Caribbean sail. I mean, you're going to save time, but conditions are - well, I think one of you said there's nothing that can prepare you for sailing in the Southern Ocean. Can you just describe a little bit about what it was like, what the crew had to put up with?

EDWARDS: OK. So the conditions in the Southern Ocean is your body starts to deteriorate as soon as you cross the start line. Pain and cold are the quickest ways to lose weight. You can get frostbite in your fingers and toes. It's minus 20, minus 30 degrees below freezing. You are constantly damp because salt water doesn't dry. So the girls up on deck would be miserable, cold, wet, miserable, you know, freezing fingers and toes, tons of clothing on, so you can barely move.

The food's revolting, so you just shovel it down your throat as quickly as possible and try and get as much sleep as possible with this four on, four off watch system. And it's also a sensory deprivation. There's no sun. There's no blue sky. It's gray, and the boat's gray, and everything's gray. And it is a miserable leg.

DAVIES: And you have to look out for ice, and sometimes it's foggy, and sometimes it's at night. What - do you place someone on the bow? How does that work?

EDWARDS: Yep. So you have a bow watch. We realized when we had woken up - well, when I'd woken up and the girls were really staring at it, but I was - I went up on deck and we were sailing past an iceberg. And I said, oh, my God, I didn't see that on the radar, and they went, nope, we didn't either. So that's when we thought, yeah, we need to have someone up on the bow just because it just gives you that few seconds more of warning if you see an iceberg and you have to swerve.

DAVIES: Right. So you're not within sight of any of the other boats, obviously. And you finally get to the calmer waters as you approach Australia. Describe getting into Australia and realizing where you were.

EDWARDS: Well, coming out towards Australia, a number of things happen when you come out of the Southern Ocean. A, well, obviously, it gets warmer as you're heading up towards Australia. The sea state changes. The color of the sea goes from a black to this beautiful, deep, translucent blue. The sky - you can see the sky again. It actually has a definition between the - you know, between the sea and, you know, the clouds. You suddenly remember all these things that you haven't seen for five weeks.

And then obviously, as I said, it gets warmer. You start to dry everything out. And as you get closer to land, as Jeni says in the film, land smells. And, you know, for quite a way out, you can smell what's coming up, and that's quite amazing. And it is like being reborn. And as we came up to Australia, we did not know whether we had won. We suspected we were in first place, but we didn't know until we crossed the finishing line and Howard was on one of the boats shouting, you're first. And we just were - that was I think probably the happiest moment in my entire life.

DAVIES: The third leg is the shortest. It goes from Australia to New Zealand, and that's a different kind of sailing. It's sort of tactical. You're often within sight of the other boats. You win again. Describe arriving in New Zealand.

EDWARDS: Oh, it was just amazing. We knew we had to win this leg to prove that we could do a long, hard leg and a short, complicated leg. And I had three great tacticians on board, and we did match race pretty much the whole way there with L'Esprit (ph) and then with Rucanor. And when we got into New Zealand, we'd been delayed by the wind dropping, and it was nighttime, so we got - we actually ended up getting in at 1 o'clock in the morning. And it wasn't again until we crossed the start - the finishing line that someone said, you know, you've won, and we were so happy. It was only by an hour this time whereas the previous time, it'd been 36 hours.

So we were now 16 hours ahead of our nearest rival at the halfway point. And when we did turn the corner to motor into the port that we were going into, there was a wharf and we thought that it was covered with thousands of birds. And it was only when we got closer that we realized it was people. Thousands and thousands of people had come out in Auckland at 1 o'clock in the morning to see Maiden in. And it was - oh, it was just amazing.

DAVIES: So you were - you had become famous. I mean, I guess this was, in some respects, kind of a novelty story in some way. But suddenly, people are rooting for you, and you're winning.

EDWARDS: It was - yeah. I mean, I think we still stayed a novelty for some people, although for a lot of people, they started to wake up and go, wow. Actually, women can do this.

DAVIES: Tracy Edwards' remarkable experience as skipper of the first all-female crew to compete in an around-the-world sailing race is told in the new documentary "Maiden." It opens in theaters this Friday. We'll be back after a short break. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF LULLATONE'S "ALL THE OPTIMISM OF EARLY JANUARY")

The fourth leg of the race began not so well for you and the others on the Maiden. You had calm waters that prevented you from really getting a good start. And I thought we'd play a clip that describes the part where you were going around - I guess it's the Falkland Islands and some of the seas that you met. In this clip, we'll hear from members of the crew - Claire Warren, Dawn Riley, Jeni Mundy - and the clip begins with our guest, Tracy Edwards. Let's listen.

EDWARDS: We went 'round Cape Horn. And then there was, you know, the possibility of some options opening up for us to be able to pick up some ground, so I decided to go for it. Turning up and going up past the Falklands, it got a bit busy.

DAWN RILEY: There's only been a few times in my life that it had been that rough.

CLAIRE WARREN: Often, on a boat, you know, you'll find the shortest distance is straight into the wind, for example. Well, boats don't sail into the wind, so how far off do you go?

MUNDY: It's like hitting a brick wall in a car without your seatbelt on every 10 seconds. It's just relentless.

EDWARDS: There's a lot of slamming. Whoomp (ph), bam. Whoomp, bam - takes a lot out of the boat.

DAVIES: And that's from the new documentary "Maiden," which features the voyage led by Tracy Edwards, our guest. It was the first all-female sailing crew to compete in an around-the-world race in 1989. It is powerful watching those scenes of, essentially, sort of surfing down one side of a wave and then slamming into another. How dicey did this get? How did the boat take it?

EDWARDS: It was an all-or-nothing decision. It was - you know, it could have been the wrong one, but we just had to do something, and so we all decided to go for it. What it did do was it opened up four hairline fractures in the mast, which we couldn't see at that time and didn't know they were there. But I - so I was in the nav station one evening, and I suddenly found water around my feet. And as we were going past the Falkland Islands, we had to - we started taking on a lot of water, and I mean a lot of water. It was pouring in.

We spent two days trying to find out where this water was coming in, and we hove to, which means you come off a way of the wind and you calm things down a bit, you take a couple of sails down. And the RAF Hercules was scrambled from the Falkland Islands just to check where we were in case we needed to be rescued.

DAVIES: That's an airplane dispatched from - by the British and the Falklands, right?

EDWARDS: That's exactly - so, yeah, after about two days, we managed to get rid of most of the water. And we realized that it was worse leaning over one side than it was leaning over the other side. And we managed to get on our way, but that lost us so much time. There was no way we could catch up on our lead at that point.

DAVIES: Yeah. I mean, this problem appeared with water at your feet in the navigation station, right? Did the fact that you and your crew had effectively kind of built the boat over again inside out - did that matter in diagnosing the problem and resolving it?

EDWARDS: Oh, without a doubt. If we hadn't rebuilt that boat, we wouldn't have known where to start. And as Jeni so eloquently puts in the film - it's one of my favorite lines when she says, you know, you can't, then, just give up and call the repair people. There are no repair people. I just love that so much. And, of course, you know, I mean, Jeni knew every inch of the boat. She was the electrician, and she'd run every cable. And we'd all done our separate areas, so we felt - OK, it was worrying, but we felt very confident that we were sorted out and we would get to the next stop over.

DAVIES: The last two legs, you didn't do as well as you had in the previous two and ended up finishing second in your class out of four - right? - when you sailed to England. Is that right?

EDWARDS: Yes.

DAVIES: Pretty good showing, you know, considering what people were expecting. As you arrived, you weren't feeling that, right?

EDWARDS: No. I mean, we came second in our class overall, which is the best result for a British boat since 1977 and actually hasn't been beaten yet. But that didn't mean much to us at the time. We were going through - when you finish a race like that, you go through a mixture of emotions. Obviously, if you're winning, it's all happiness and wonderful and fantastic. We hadn't won. We've come second, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that because second is nowhere in racing. But as Claire says in the film - you know, and she's very right - there was a bigger picture, and the bigger picture was what we had achieved.

The other thing, I think, that happens to you as you finish a race of that length is you suddenly realize that this family of people that you have been with for three years is suddenly going to disappear. And that is - it's quite shocking and can be depressing.

DAVIES: Right. That's three years total, I guess - what? - nine months or so on the ocean, pretty much.

DAVIES: Right. When you arrived in England, when you're sailing in, you knew that you weren't going to be there first. You did get a reception of sorts. You want to describe this?

EDWARDS: Well, it was quite - just extraordinary. We finished on Bank Holiday Monday, which - a good day to finish. And as we were coming up towards the needles, which we hadn't seen for nine months, it was sunrise. There wasn't really that much wind, and we were so close to - you know, this is it - the final stretch.

And as we were going up Southampton Water, hundreds of boats came out to meet us. And they would come towards us, turn around, then start sailing with us. So the final two hours of the boat was two hours I will never forget as long as I live - surrounded by thousands of people on hundreds of boats, throwing flowers and cheering. And it was absolutely amazing.

And crossing the finishing line, we knew, OK, we hadn't won, but we had sailed into the history books. And we are first, and you can't beat being first to do something. So - and then coming into Ocean Village, where 50,000 people were waiting for us, was just phenomenal - most amazing, extraordinary experience.

DAVIES: You know, we wouldn't have this documentary if there weren't a lot of film taken - or video, I guess - taken on the boat itself. This is real footage done on the voyage in 1989. How did that happen?

EDWARDS: Well, the Whitbread's organizers wanted some of the boats to take cameras, and most of the guys' boats were far too important and busy to take cameras and film. So you know, we stuck our hands up and said, we'll film. And so they gave us a camera.

And then we said, oh, who's - who is going to film? And Jo, who was the cook and my school friend - she said, well, I'd love to film. I'm doing - I'm the cooking. I'm - you know, I don't do a watch. So we packed her off to the BBC with a camera for four days. Four days - I mean, just extraordinary. And then she came back to the boat.

And, you know, we practiced before we went, which, again, is something the guys' boats didn't really do, even if they had cameras. We worked out that we needed a camera fixed on the radar mast for emergency situations when Jo couldn't film because we needed her on the deck as a crew member. And Jo has an amazing emotional intelligence. And her connection with her subjects, which is us, is what makes this whole film so completely unique. And Alex says, without her footage, he wouldn't have been able to make the documentary he made.

DAVIES: When the Maiden arrived back in England, you were named yachtsman of the year - still yachtsman, not...

DAVIES: Yeah. You were named yachtsman of the year - quite an honor. And you were a national celebrity - I mean, at age - what? - 27. What were your plans from that? I mean, you accomplished this remarkable thing.

EDWARDS: Well, I didn't have any plans, and that's unfortunately - did not go well. So the girls will disappear quite quickly. They'd been made job offers. And I said, rather gallantly and stupidly, I will - I'll stay here, and I'll write the book. And I'll do the interviews, and I'll, you know, sort of keep the story going.

And I fell off a cliff, really. And within, I would have to say - how long? - within nine months of the race finishing, I'd had a nervous breakdown. And if you'd have asked me this question even two years ago, I would not have told you that. But we're talking a lot about mental health in the U.K. and about well-being and caring for ourselves.

And I didn't ask for help, and I was struggling badly without my teammates around me. And so I disappeared off down to Wales, and I stayed there for two years and really became a recluse to - really, to the point where the whole saying, well, wonder where the hell I'd gone - before reappearing in 1994 with a new sailing project.

DAVIES: Right. I'm curious how you look back on that crisis. I mean, it - as I hear the story - I mean, you'd gone a long time without a real family, and then you found it with this crew. And then, suddenly, they were gone.

EDWARDS: It was very hard saying goodbye to everyone. And I still get emotional when I talk about it today, really. It was a time when I - I mean, I - my lesson that I learned from that was really to ask help when - ask for help when you need it. And you know, there's nothing big about pretending to be brave. That's just stupid.

So the lesson I learned on the race was that friendship and teamwork are the two most important things. And the thing I learned after the race was, if you have that teamwork and that friendship, ask for help (laughter).

DAVIES: Well, it's been great talking to you. Tracy Edwards, thanks so much.

EDWARDS: Thank you.

GROSS: Tracy Edwards spoke with FRESH AIR's Dave Davies. Edwards and her all-women crew that competed in the 1989 Whitbread Round The World Race are the subject of the new documentary "Maiden," which opens in theaters tomorrow.

After we take a short break, Justin Chang will review the new movie "Yesterday" that imagines a world in which the Beatles were erased from cultural memory, with the exception of one aspiring singer-songwriter who starts performing Beatles songs. This is FRESH AIR.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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Yachting World

• Digital Edition

Legendary yachts set off on ‘retro’ round the world race as Ocean Globe Race starts

• Helen Fretter
• September 10, 2023

Fourteen teams, racing on iconic yachts such as Maiden and Pen Duick VI, start the crewed ‘retro’ around the world race, the Ocean Globe Race

Amost exactly 50 years to the day since the first Whitbread Round the World Race, the latest ‘retro’ race, the Ocean Globe Race , set off today from Cowes, UK.

Fourteen teams racing in three classes set off on a single start from the famous Royal Yacht Squadron line, with fluky conditions in the Solent granting the fleet a brief window of 10-15 knot breezes to get over the line and make for spectacular scenes, though shortly after the breeze faded to zephyrs as the fleet made their way west.

The Ocean Globe Race fleet, with Pen Duick VI nearest camera, shortly after starting from the Royal Yacht Squadron in Cowes

The Ocean Globe Race is the latest ‘retro’ race to pay homage to the ground-breaking ocean and offshore races of yesteryear, this one a crewed around the world with-stops, which is intended to capture the spirit of the first Whitbread Round the World Race, and is organised by Don McIntyre, who is also the man behind the Golden Globe Race modern editions.

This week marked the 50th anniversary of the Whitbread Round the World Race, which first set out from Portsmouth, UK on 8 September 1973.

Thanks to an anonymous donor, the support of MDL Marinas, and a lot of tireless work behind the scenes, the Ocean Globe Race (unlike the Golden Globe Race, which moved to France for its reincarnation) started once again from the Solent, with the race village hosted in Ocean Village, Southampton, before the fleet set off from the Royal Yacht Squadron line off Cowes today.

A busy pre-start for the Ocean Globe Race fleet leaving Cowes, UK

Despite some unforcast rain shortly before the start, an impressive and eclectic spectator flotilla gathered to see the fleet off, with a slightly authentic Whitbread-era air of chaos as the 14 race yachts milled around pre-start amongst RIBS, race yachts, classics, spectator ferries, and a vintage steam ship.

Nevertheless, all fourteen got away cleanly without incident and were swiftly demonstrating some old-school boat handling skills: Galiana WithSecure hoisting her blooper sail shortly after the downwind start, while L’Esprit d’Équipe demonstrated a twin-pole gybe.

Iconic Ocean Globe Race entries

The Ocean Globe Race has attracted some truly legendary yachts. Most famous on this side of the Channel – and certainly attracting the greatest spectator flotilla – is Tracy Edwards ’ Maiden . The Bruce Farr-designed 58-footer, which twice competed in the Whitbread Round the World Race, is the only all-female team in the race, repeating the history of Tracy Edwards’ famous 1989 race, and is skippered by Heather Thomas.

After falling into near total disrepair, Maiden was rescued by Edwards and had a major refit in 2017/18 ahead of a world tour to raise funds and awareness for girls’ education. In order to bring her back into race trim additional bunks have been added, as Maiden will race with a crew of 12, a new sail wardrobe, additional heating for the Southern Ocean stages.

Thomas said: “We’ve really pitched her towards winning the race, performance wise we’ve got four different headsails, four different spinnakers, so we’re really going to be pushing her to her limit to try and beat Marie [Taberly] and Pen Duick , and Neptune and Translated and all of them! So we’re really trying to push as hard as we can.”

Whilst Maiden has broken many glass ceilings, an all-female team has never won a crewed around the world race, so that is the team’s ultimate goal.

The iconic Ocean Globe Race yacht Pen Duick VI, skippered by Marie Tabarly, is one of the hardest raced entrants in recent years, here competing in the Rolex Fastnet Race. Credit: Kurt Arrigo/Rolex

Maiden is racing in the highly competitive Flyer class, which also includes the iconic French yacht Pen Duick VI , led by Marie Taberly, daughter of French sailing legend, Éric Tabarly. Like Maiden , Pen Duick VI had been on a world tour, the Elemen’Terre project, raising awareness of environmental and social issues through activities including art and performance.

At 73ft Pen Duick VI was designed by André Mauric and built for the 1973/4 Whitbread Round the World Race and had a major refit ahead in 2011/12 as well as updates for her round the world project. It has retained many of its original features, including industrial hatches, coffee grinders, and twin cockpits.

Also in the Flyer class is another Mauric design, the 1977 Neptune , which raced in the 1977-78 Whitbread Race to 8th place. The French team includes Bertrand Delhom, who aims to become the first sailor with Parkinson’s disease to race around the world.

Translated 9, previously raced in the 1977 Whitbread Round the World Race as ADC Accutrac by British skipper, Clare Francis, training ahead of the 2023 Ocean Globe Race.

Another famous British woman skipper’s yacht is now racing as Translated 9 in the Flyer class, having originally sailed as ADC Accutrac , skippered by Clare Francis, to 5th place in the 1977/78 Whitbread Round the World Race.

Translated is a Swan 65 which has been impressively refitted with a lengthy build up campaign to the race, and is likely to be a strong contender. The crew is primarily made up of amateur sailors who applied to take part, but includes experienced Italian skipper/owner Marco Trombetti and his son Nico as First Mate. It also includes 2022 Golden Globe Race veteran, Simon Curwen, who took line honours in the race and was first in the Chichester Class.

The fifth boat to make up the Flyer class is another Whitbread class winner, the Briand-designed L’Esprit d’Équipe , which won class in the 1985/86 edition of the race. L’Esprit d’Équipe is skippered by pro racer and boat builder Lionel Regnier.

The 14 Ocean Globe Race yachts, including seven former Whitbread entrants, assembled in Ocean Village, Southampton. Credit: Aida Valceanu / OGR2023

Adventurous entrants

Nine other teams are competing in the Adventure Class (for yachts 47ft-56ft) and Sayula class (56-66ft). They include the Baltic 55, Outlaw , another Whitbread Race veteran, having raced in the 1985-86 edition as Equity and Law ; the sole American entry, a Swan 51, Godspeed , which is crewed by US military veterans; the Olin Stephens designed Explorer , which is skippered by by 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe Race veteran, Australian Mark Sinclair ; and Evrika , the Swan 65 formerly owned by Pink Floyd’s Rick Wright. Evrika is now skippered by French sailor and boat builder Dominique Dubois after the yacht he originally entered, a Swan 651 called Futuro , was blown from its cradle during Storm Gérard in February this year and written off.

The smallest yacht in the fleet is Galiana , the 1970 Swan 55 skippered by Golden Globe Race veteran Tapio Lehtinen . Lehtinen has a young crew that he carefully selected over several years of trials, as one of his key goals is to bring on young Finnish sailors, having himself competed in the 1981-82 Whitbread Race at the age of 23.

Lehtinen is well known as a classic yacht aficionado and Galiana has been lovingly restored, but was dismasted at the start of this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race. The team worked swiftly to preserve all the sails and hardware, and Galiana has a fully repaired – though less aesthetically pleasing – rig.

The Ocean Globe Race fleet heading west out of the Solent, Galiana (far right) flying a blooper downwind.

Down below the refit for the Ocean Globe Race took inspiration from yachts such as Kialoa 3 , with classic white panelling where new bunks have been added, and practical touches including air-dryers for wet kit and boots. The aft companionway was also closed off to create a drier entranceway to the living quarters and nav station, while the main saloon now has a smaller table from Lehtinen’s previous boat, his Gaia 36 Asteria – which famously sank in the Southern Indian Ocean last November.

However, it’s Galiana’s sail plan which is most remarkable, including a traditional blooper. Lehtinen admits that while it might not help her rating, he had to choose an authentic sail wardrobe from the ‘70s “Because I’m a romantic.”

Follow the Ocean Globe Race at oceangloberace.com

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How the Female-Crewed Yacht Maiden Beat the Male-Dominated Sport of Sailing

The all-female crew and ship were once referred to as a “tin full of tarts” – until they won.

By Don Riddell and George Ramsay, CNN

(CNN) – More than three decades since its pioneering, round-the-world voyage, the Maiden racing yacht is again sailing the high seas -- and changing the lives of young women in the process.

Skippered by British sailor Tracy Edwards, Maiden became the first all-female crew to sail around the world in 1990 – a landmark moment for a sport that was slow to welcome women into the fold.

“It’s hard to remember that people were pretty aggressive about not wanting us to race around the world,” Edwards tells CNN Sport's Don Riddell . “It was the real last bastion of male dominance in a sport.”

The crew ended up winning two of the six legs of the Whitbread Round the World Race – now known as the Volvo Ocean Race – and placed second overall in its class, defying the sexist attitudes that pervaded sailing at the time.

“One of the headlines, which has to be my favorite, was: ‘Maiden is just a tin full of tarts,’” says Edwards, adding that the same journalist later referred to the crew as “a tin full of smart, fast tarts.”

Fast forward 33 years ago and Maiden continues to represent “the empowerment of women, the strength of women, and what women are capable of,” according to Edwards.

Having been restored to its former glory, the yacht has been touring around the world since 2018, recently completing a journey from Dakar, Senegal, to Cape Town, South Africa.

The aim of the tour is to raise funds and awareness for girls' education, trying – particularly in the developing world – to keep them in education until they are 18.

Making Maiden seaworthy once more was no easy feat. In 2014, Edwards was told that the vessel had fallen into disrepair and was rotting away in the Seychelles.

That prompted the original crew from the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race to start a fundraiser. Along with support from Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, the daughter of the late King Hussein of Jordan, they were able to bring Maiden back to the UK and begin a restoration project.

“The Maiden Factor” – the name given to the not-for-profit organization – forms part of the legacy of the original crew.

Between 2021 and 2024, Maiden intends to sail 90,000 nautical miles, visiting 60 destinations in more than 40 different countries.

“I’m seeing people getting to dream more and understanding that we are limitless as human beings,” says Lungi Mchunu, a member of the current Maiden crew.

“I just want them to be able to dream and know that they can try and do anything. If it doesn't work for you, that’s fine; you keep moving, you find something that’s more suited for you.”

A South African native, Mchunu used to work as a banker and was terrified of the sea before she discovered sailing in 2017. Since then, she has not only conquered her fear, but has also become the first African woman to sail to the Arctic.

“For some odd reason, I feel at home even when the waves are like five or eight meters,” says Mchunu.

“I feel the most comfortable at sea ... Even when I was rescued in the Arctic, it was not scary. I was just okay, I guess ... I'm getting to know a side of myself that I never knew existed.”

Mchunu’s ultimate dream is to sail solo around the world, and Maiden – as it has with so many other women before – is empowering her to achieve that goal.

The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

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Maiden announces her participation in the 2023 Ocean Global Race

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Published on February 20th, 2023 | by Editor

Maiden returns to where it all began

Published on February 20th, 2023 by Editor -->

Tracy Edwards MBE has entered the iconic 58-foot yacht Maiden which will compete with an all-female crew in the 2023-24 Ocean Global Race (OGR).

Edwards led the first all-female crew on Maiden in the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race, with the yacht returning to this retro-themed race as part of the Flyer Class with other historic Whitbread boats from the 1970s onwards.

The OGR celebrates the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race, marking the 50th Anniversary of the original event. Starting in Europe on September 10, the 27,000 nm course is divided into three classes and four legs with stop-overs in Cape Town, South Africa; Auckland, New Zealand; and Punta del Este, Uruguay before returning to Europe in April 2024.

Maiden has been on world tour which began in September 2021, having covered nearly 30,000 nm visiting 20 destinations and engaging with schools, charities and organizations as part of a mission to educate, empower and elevate girls, increasing their life and career choices and also raising money to fund girls’ educational projects around the world.

The OGR will provide a great opportunity to amplify Maiden’s mission and the importance of educating all girls for better futures for all.

Currently in Cape Town, SA, Maiden will sail back to the UK for final preparations for the start, once again with a young female skipper and crew of up-and-coming sailors from around the world, who will no doubt inspire another generation of women and girls to follow their dreams.

“We are very excited to take part in the 2023 Ocean Global Race, over 30 years since Maiden and the first all-female crew defied the odds in the 89-90 Whitbread race,” said Edwards. “Since then, Maiden has become a Global Ambassador for empowerment of girls through education and we have a young skipper and crew who will have the experience of a lifetime, just as we did all those years ago.”

Details: www.themaidenfactor.org

Event information – Race rules – Entry list

The 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is a fully crewed, retro race, in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race, marking the 50th Anniversary of the original event. Starting in Europe on September 10, the OGR is a 27,000-mile sprint around the Globe, divided into four legs that passes south of the three great Capes. The fleet is divided in three classes with stop-overs in Cape Town, South Africa; Auckland, New Zealand; and Punta del Este, Uruguay before returning to Europe in April 2024.

Tags: Maiden , Ocean Globe Race , Tracy Edwards

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N.B. to be only Canadian stop for legendary yacht with all-female crew

Three-year mission to educate and empower girls will include a visit to saint john.

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It's an epic journey, in every sense of the word.

The Maiden, a U.K. racing yacht helmed by an all-female crew, is on a three-year world tour that will see it cover 90,000 nautical miles, visit more than 60 destinations in 20 countries and encourage countless girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering or math.

It set sail from Dubai in January and is now crossing the Atlantic Ocean toward southern U.S., where it will then work its way up the Eastern Seaboard.

In early August, it will make its first and only Canadian stop this year — in the port of Saint John.

As a waterborne ambassador for the Maiden Factor Foundation, Maiden's mission is a lofty one: work with, raise funds for and support communities to help girls access education, and empower them to see their education and career goals through to the finish line.

And it has a backstory that makes it uniquely suited to its mission.

A symbol of female empowerment

"Maiden herself was originally a symbol of female empowerment in the sailing community," Paula Copeland, director of engagement and sustainability for Port Saint John, said in an interview.

"And it was quite well-known for that."

In 1989, Tracy Edwards, then 26 and a former cook on charter boats, became the skipper of the first all-female crew to enter the notoriously difficult Whitbread Round the World race.

Edwards and her team won two of the toughest legs on the course and came second overall, a landmark moment that opened the door to competitive female sailing.

Edwards sold Maiden at the end of the race, but later, in 2014, she learned the yacht had been abandoned and was rotting in the Seychelles.

She raised money to buy it and bring it back to the U.K., where it underwent an extensive restoration and inspired Edwards to set up The Maiden Factor charitable foundation.

After 48 hours of full on <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/sailing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#sailing</a> in all conditions, including squalls, rain, a very small moment of flat water and no wind, to slamming upwind for the last 6 hours, <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Maiden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Maiden</a>'s crew have surfed safety into Port Almerimar to wait until conditions improve! <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thursdaymorning?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#thursdaymorning</a> <a href="https://t.co/cUvfNQqqmO">pic.twitter.com/cUvfNQqqmO</a> &mdash; @maidenfactor

"We were told we couldn't do it," the London-based Edwards says on the foundation's website.

"But we showed how sailing is a level playing field. Now, I'm making it my mission to advocate for girls' education around the world."

Buzz already being felt locally

Edwards's story is a legend among sailors and racers, including in Saint John, where Copeland said the community was determined to get Maiden to pay a visit. 

The fact that Maiden is sponsored by multinational logistics company DP World, which is one of Port Saint John's major terminal operators, bolstered their case.

"It made perfect sense to some of the local people when they heard about it," Copeland said.

"So they banded together and pitched to DP World corporate that [Maiden] come here."

In the meantime, many are following the voyage on Maiden Factor's Twitter account or on The Maiden Factor blog, where skippers and crew post updates such as this one, posted earlier this week:

"We are currently off Gibraltar gybing downwind ... There are ships just everywhere and I am very happy to be here in daylight as it's a special part of the world. This 14nm channel feeds all of the Mediterranean. 

We have been joined by dolphins dancing by our side for hours, beautiful! 14 [nautical miles] before we say goodbye to land for a few weeks."

And though it will be almost four months before Maiden sails into the port, the buzz is already being felt, Copeland said.

"The local sail community is quite excited because the Maiden and the original story of the female crew that raced her ... is quite well known" to them, Copeland said.

"Many local female sailors have already offered to help with hosting the crew while they're in Saint John," taking them on tours of the local yacht clubs and working with local youth charity groups, "which we're very happy about."  

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marie Sutherland is a web writer with CBC News based in Saint John. You can reach her at [email protected].

• Follow Marie on Twitter

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Practical Boat Owner

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Ocean Globe Race 2023: everything you need to know

• Katy Stickland
• August 23, 2023

The Ocean Globe Race will see 14 boats and their crews circumnavigating the world without the use of modern equipment, in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Race

All 14 teams taking part in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race will be racing with similar gear and boats as those who raced in the Whitbread Races of old. Credit: Philip McDonald Credit: Philip McDonald

What is unique about the Ocean Globe Race?

The Ocean Globe Race is a round-the-world yacht race, held to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973.

The Whitbread Round the World was the forerunner of The Volvo Ocean Race and The Ocean Race.

The first edition in 1973 started from Portsmouth and was the first fully crewed round the world yacht race.

Ramón Carlin, who skippered the Swan 65, Sayula II to victory in the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973-74. Credit: Getty

It followed the route of the great Clipper ships.

18 yachts – between 45ft-74ft- crossed the start line.

The 1973 Whitbread Race was won by the standard production Swan 65 yacht, Sayula II , skippered by Mexican Ramón Carlin. The yacht was crewed by family and friends, not professional sailors; this helped make yacht racing not just for the elite, but for the ordinary sailor.

What is the Ocean Globe Race?

The 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race is a 27,000-mile round the world yacht race with no assistance and without the use of modern technology.

This means the teams can’t use GPS , chartplotters , electric winches , spinnaker socks, Code 0 furling, electric autopilots, mobile phones,  computers, iPads or use synthetic materials like Spectra, Kevlar or Vectron.

Navigation will be done by sextant , paper charts and the stars.

Their only means of communication is via registered, licensed maritime-approved HF Single Side Band (SSB) Radio . HAM Radio transmission is banned.

Navigation is by sextant only. Here, the skipper of Outlaw, and the oldest entrant in the race, Campbell Mackie, 73,  and Outlaw’s crew, British sailor, India Syms take sights. Credit: OGR 2023/Outlaw/Spirit of Adelaide

Weather forecasts will be received via the radio or stand-alone paper print HF Radio weather fax.

Each boat can only carry no more than 11 sails (sloop) or 13 sails (ketch). Teams will be subject to a time penalty if they have to use replacement sails.

Approved items include desalinators, refrigeration, non-GPS digital cameras, electric clocks and headsail furling .

Teams will be penalised for using replacement sails during the 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race. Credit: Translated 9

The teams will also carry emergency gear, including a GPS chartplotter/AIS MOB plotting and locating system with a sealed screen for emergency use only by authorized crew, AIS Transponder and Alarm, Radar transponder and Alarm, Two SOLAS liferafts (200% crew capacity).

Every week, the team needs to run the boat’s engine for 30 minutes, with the prop turning.

Each boat should also carry standard operating procedures documents for man overboard (MOB), fire, dismasting, steering loss , grounding , serious injury, jury rig and other emergencies. Each team will have already carried out an MOB jury rig and emergency steering trials.

Where does the race start and finish, and what is the route?

The Ocean Globe Race 2023 will start at 1300 on 10 September 2023 from the Royal Yacht Squadron start line at Cowes, Isle of Wight.

The route of the 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race. Credit: OGR 23

It will have four legs.

The first leg – 6,650 miles – is from Southampton to Cape Town . The first boats are expected to finish between 9-21 October 2023.

The second leg – 6,650 miles – is from Cape Town to Auckland, New Zealand . It starts on 5 November 2023. The first boats are expected to finish between 14-23 December 2023

The third leg – 8,370 miles – is from Auckland, New Zealand to Punta del Este, Uruguay . It starts on 14 January 2024. The first boats are expected to finish between 9-18 February 2024.

The fourth leg – 5,430 miles – is from Punta del Este, Uruguay to Southampton . The first boats to cross the finish line are expected 1-10 April 2024.

Each team must reach port no later than 48 hours after the restart of the next leg or will be disqualified. A minimum stop of three days is mandatory, but the clock starts with the gun.

Which teams are taking part in the Ocean Globe Race?

218 sailors – 65 women and 153 men – will sail from Southampton. The teams are made of 23 nationalities including 96 crew from France, 31 from Finland, 18 from the UK, 18 from the USA, 11 from Italy and 6 from South Africa.

Tracy Edwards’s Maiden is the only all-female crew taking part. This was the case in the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race.

Just in 1989-90, Maiden will be the only yacht racing with an all female crew. Credit: The Maiden Factor/OGR 2023

The captain, chief mate or one designated Ocean Yachtmaster must sail the entire race.

All entrants – who have to undergo a medical examination and have completed an approved medical/survival training course – must have onboard for each leg:

• 1 Ocean Yachtmaster
• 1 Yachtmaster
• 1 under 24 year old
• Maximum 70% crew swap at any stopover
• Maximum 33% professional crew ( 24-70 year old, paid to go sailing)

70% of the crew (including the Yachtmaster Ocean and Yachtmaster) registered for the start leg must complete a 1,500-mile non-stop ocean voyage all together in the entered yacht, after March 2023

The Ocean Globe Race has three classes:

• Adventure Class (47ft-56ft) is limited to 12 places, with a minimum crew of seven;
• Sayula Class (56.1ft-66ft) is limited to eight places, with a minimum crew of eight;
• Flyer Class is limited to eight places for yachts previously entered in the 1973, 1977 or 1981 Whitbread, or ‘relevant’ historic significance and ‘approved’ production-built, ocean-certified, sail-training yachts generally 55ft to 68ft LOA.

Adventure Class

There are 5 teams in this class.

Triana – France

The core of the Triana crew. Credit: Projet Triana/OGR2023

Led by Franch media entrepreneur, Jean d’Arthuys, the crew of Triana includes professional French sailor, Sébastien Audigane, who has sailed six roundings of Cape Horn and is a double holder of the Jules Verne Trophy – in 2017 on IDEC with Francis Joyon, and 2005 on Orange 2 with Bruno Peyron.

Audigane is the First Mate onboard  Triana, a 1987-built Swan 53, designed by German Friers.

Sterna – South Africa

The crew of Sterna have completed several Atlantic crossings on the Swan 53; the team are pictured in Martinique, ahead of their second transatlantic crossing. Credit: Allspice Yachting

Allspice Yachting entered the Ocean Globe Race in December 2019 after founder Gerrit Louw was inspired by the 2018 Golden Globe Race.

The Swan 53, Sterna of Allspice Yachting will be skippered by professional South African sailor, Rufus Brand, who hopes the race will allow him to fulfil his dream of circumnavigating the world.

The First Mate and navigator is South African Melissa Du Toit.

Sterna of Allspice Yachting is a modified Swan 53, built in 1988. Some of the yacht’s unique features include a custom keel with an improved righting movement, a 135hp engine (instead of the normal 85hp engine) and expanded water and diesel tanks for offshore sailing .

Allspice Yachting bought the yacht in 2021 for the Ocean Globe Race, and a crew sailed her from Grenada to the boat’s home port of Cape Town to prepare Sterna for the race.

Galiana WithSecure – Finland

The skipper of Galiana WithSecure , Tapio Lehtinen hopes the Ocean Globe Race will result in a new generation of offshore Finnish yacht racers. Credit: Sanoma Media Finland Kaikki oikeudet/Juhani Niiranen/HS

The Swan 55 will be skippered by the 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe Race veteran, Finnish sailor, Tapio Lehtinen. First mate is Ville Norra, who has a history of sailing keelboats and offshore.

The Galiana WithSecure team is one of the youngest taking part in the Ocean Globe Race , with the majority of those on board under 30 years of age; only two members of the team have ‘strong racing DNA’, while the others come from Optimist, Sea Scout or other sailing backgrounds.

Lehtinen is a veteran of the 1981-82 Whitbread Race when at the age of 23, he earned a place as watch captain on Skopbank Finland , a C&C Baltic 51 skippered by Kenneth Gahmberg.

His motivation for entering the Ocean Globe Race with a young team is to encourage young Finnish sailors into ocean sailing; Lehtinen also wants to raise awareness of the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans and has only partnered with companies and organisations which promote solutions to this global problem.

Outlaw – Australia

Some members of the Outlaw crew. Credit: Aïda Valceanu/ OGR2023

The Baltic 55, Outlaw , is a Whitbread Race veteran, having raced in the 1985-86 edition as Equity and Law .

Built in 1984 to Lloyds of London specifications, the Douglas Peterson-designed Outlaw will be skippered by Campbell Mackie.

The Australian sailor has 70,000 ocean miles under his belt, having taken part in the 2015-16 Clipper Round the World Race and the 2017-18 edition, where he was First Mate on Sanya , the winning boat.

First Mate is Dutch professional sailor, Rinze Vallinga.

Godspeed – USA

The crew of Godspeed is made up of American military veterans. Credit: Skeleton Crew

The Swan 51, Godspeed is the only American boat to enter the race.

The skipper is Taylor Grieger, a former US Navy veteran, who has assembled a crew made up of representatives from the US military services.

Grieger suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after years spent as a US Navy rescue swimmer. Along with friend, Stephen O’Shea, he sailed a leaking 1983 Watkins 36CC from Pensacola, Florida, through the Panama Canal and down the South American coast to Cape Horn . The film of their voyage – Hell or High Seas – has been released.

Following this, Grieger set up Skeleton Crew Adventures, to help other veterans to recover from PTSD through sailing.

Sayula Class

There are four entries in this class.

Explorer – Australia

The crew of Explorer, skippered by Mark Sinclair. Credit: Don McIntyre/ OGR2023

Explorer was designed by Olin Stephens and was launched in 1977. The boat is owned by the founder of the Ocean Globe Race, Don McIntyre.

The yacht will be skippered by 2018 and 2022 Golden Globe Race veteran, UK-born Australian Mark Sinclair , who has circumnavigated the world with one stop.

The Yachtmaster Offshore, a former Royal Australian Navy Commander, has over 60,000 sailing miles under his belt.

Explorer ‘s Chief Mate is Terry Kavanagh, a liveboard sailor from Ireland who was circumnavigating the world aboard his yacht when he decided to take part in the race. He also has experience sailing in Arctic Norway.

White Shadow – Spain

Crew training aboard White Shadow in the Mediterranean. Credit: OGR/ White Shadow

The only Spanish entry in the Ocean Globe Race, White Shadow is a Swan 57, built in 1978.

The yacht will be skippered by owner French offshore racer, Jean-Christophe Petit, who has also completed four Atlantic crossings .

The mixed crew  – from France, Italy, Turkey, Spain, Argentina, Belgium and Colombia – are aged from 20 to 57.

Evrika – France

The Swan 65, Evrika . At the time, the Swan 65 was the largest GRP construction yacht , and was one of the designs that led the racing circuit in the 70s-80s. Credit: Sophie Dingwall

Previously owned by Pink Floyd’s Rick Wright, who lived aboard her in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, Evrika also has strong racing credentials, having won the Swan Cup in the 1980s.

The Swan 65 was built in 1982 with a ketch rig ; the yacht has been extensively restored for the race including a new teak deck, and remodelling down below, including layout changes in the forward cabin. Nearly all changes were in keeping with the yacht’s original style and materials.

Evrika will be skippered by French sailor and boat builder Dominique Dubois.

Originally the team was to race the Swan 651, Futuro , but in February 2023, the boat was blown from its cradle during Storm Gérard; the damage cost more than the value of the boat.

Dubois then bought Evrika from Brit Richard Little, who had entered the Ocean Globe Race, but later withdrew.

Spirit of Helsinki – Finland

The crew of Spirit of Helsinki prepare to leave Finland for the race start in Southampton. Credit: OGR2023 / Team Spirit of Helsinki

Designed by German Frers and built by Nautor in 1984, the Swan 651 sloop, Spirit of Helsinki was built specifically for the Whitbread Round the World Race and was raced to third place in the 1986 edition under the name Fazer Finland .

The all Finnish crew is led by hotel entrepreneur and amateur sailor and racer, Jussi Paavoseppä.

First Mate is professional sea captain Pasi Palmu, who has worked as a full-time racing sailor and sailing coach for over 15 years.

Flyer Class

There are 5 entries in this class.

Maiden – UK

The Maiden crew: Skipper: Heather Thomas (UK), First Mate: Rachel Burgess (UK) Crew: Willow Bland (UK) Lana Coomes (USA), Payal Gupta (India), Ami Hopkins (UK), Vuyisile Jaca (South Africa), Junella King (Antigua), Molly Lapointe (Porto Rico/USA), Kate Legard (UK), Najiba Noori (Afghanistan), Flavia Onore (Italy), Dhanya A Pilo (India). Credit: The Maiden Factor-Kaia Bint Savage

Maiden is the only UK entry in the race.

The Bruce-Farr 58ft yacht will be skippered by British sailor, Heather Thomas, 26 and her crew will be all female – just as in the 1989-90 Whitbread Race when the boat was skippered by Tracy Edwards.

Thomas, who was previously a watch leader on the training vessel James Cook, run by the Ocean Youth Trust North, has previously sailed the Pacific leg of the 2015-16 Clipper Round the World Race with the Da Nang Viet Nam team, after winning a place onboard.

The yacht was skippered by Wendy Tuck, who went on to become the first woman to win a round the world yacht race when she led her Sanya Serenity Coast team to victory in the 2017-18 edition of the Clipper Race .

The Maiden team ranges in age from 18 to 42, with the majority of the crew competing in all four legs of the race.

Previously to the Ocean Globe Race, Maide n has been sailing around the world to promote education for girls through The Maiden Factor.

Pen Duick VI – France

Marie Tabarly has sailed Pen Duick VI since she was a child. Credit: James Tomlinsen

Led by the daughter of French sailing legend, Éric Tabarly, the Pen Duick VI team’s goal is not just the race, but to raise awareness of the Elemen’Terre project, which looks at environmental and social global issues.

Marie Tabarly is one of two female skippers in the race (the other is Maiden ‘s skipper, Heather Thomas).

The professional racing sailor, who competed in the 15th Transat Jacques Vabre with Louis Duc aboard the IMOCA 60, Kostum Lantana Paysage , has extensive offshore experience, having sailed Pen Duick VI since childhood. She has also recently completed a circumnavigation of the world with Pen Duick VI .

At 73ft LOA, Pen Duick VI is the largest yacht taking part in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race

The 73ft Pen Duick VI was built specifically by Éric Tabarly for the 1973-74 Whitbread Race.

The yacht dismasted twice in the race – during the 1st and 3rd legs, but she was repaired and went on to win the 1974 Bermuda-Plymouth race, the 1976 Atlantic Triangle Race and the 1976 OSTAR.

Renamed Euromarché, the yacht came 5th in the 1981-82 Whitbread Race.

Neptune – France

Designed by André Mauric, Neptune was launched in July 1977, before racing in the 1977-78 Whitbread Race to 8th place.

The 60ft aluminium sloop will be skippered by professional ophthalmologist Tanneguy Raffray, who is one of France’s most successful International 8 metre class racers, aboard Hispania IV , which he restored.

Neptune racing in the 1977 Whitbread Race. Credit: Ocean Frontiers OGR/ GGR/CG580

The refit of Neptune for the Ocean Globe Race was overseen by Finot-Conq naval architect, Erwan Gourdon, who is also part of the crew, and included four watertight bulkheads, furling headsails and a new sail plan.

The team also includes French sailor, Bertrand Delhom, who aims to become the first sailor with Parkinson’s disease to race around the world.

Translated 9 – Italy

The Translated 9 crew has a party in Rome ahead of leaving for the start village in Southampton, UK. Credit: Antonio Masiello

The first edition of the Whitbread Round the World Race was won in 1974 by the family and friends of Mexican Ramón Carlin, who skippered the Swan 65 yacht, Sayula II.

The Translated 9 team is following in their wake; 1,000 amateurs, new to ocean sailing, applied for a position on the 13-strong crew.

The Swan 65 is being skippered by owner Marco Trombetti and professional racer and boat designer Vittorio Malingri , who was the first Italian to race in a Vendée Globe (1993) and was part of Giovanni Soldini’s crew on the TIM trimaran.

British skipper Clare Francis and the crew of ADC Accutrac together in 1977 Whitbread. They’re looking forward to meeting the crew of Translated 9 at the Whitbread Reunion on 5 September. Credit: Dr Nick Milligan

Malingri’s son Nico is First Mate and has also previously sailed with Giovanni Soldini

With Nico, Malingri also holds the Dakar to Guadeloupe 20ft Performance record, having sailed 2,551nm in 11 days, 1 hour, 9 minutes and 30 seconds.

The crew also includes 2022 Golden Globe Race veteran, Simon Curwen, who took line honours in the race and was first in the Chichester Class.

The Sparkman and Stephens’s designed Translated 9 was originally ADC Accutrac , which was raced to 5th place by British skipper, Clare Francis in the 1977 Whitbread Around the World Race.

L’Esprit d’Equipe – France

The L’Esprit d’Équipe team. Credit: Team L’Esprit d’Équipe

The Philippe Briand-designed 58ft yacht was built by Dufour and has strong Whitbread Race roots.

It is the only boat in the Ocean Globe Race to have won at Whitbread Race (in the 1985-86 edition, skippered by Lionel Péan; it was the smallest boat in this edition. Modifications to save weight included shortening the boat’s rear arch, moving the keel further back and installing a 27m mast)

The French team is led by professional boat builder and sailor, Lionel Regnier, a seasoned racer, who won the OSTAR in 2005 and has taken part in three Mini Transats, and numerous Class 40 races, including the 2006 and 2014 Route du Rhum

His First Mate is Pierre-Yves, who has project managed most of Lionel’s races since 2003 and has raced in the Transat Jacques Vabre.

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Which boats will be raced during the Ocean Globe Race?

L’Esprit d’Équipe is the only boat in the Ocean Globe Race to have won at Whitbread Race (in the 1985-86 edition. Credit: RORC / James Mitchell / James Tomlinson

All boats in the Adventure and Sayula classes must be ocean-going GRP production yachts designed before 1988 and from an approved design list which includes the Swan 47, Swan 47, Swan 48, Swan 51, Swan 53, Swan 55, Swan 57, Swan 59, Swan 61, Swan 65, Swan 651, Nicholson 55, Baltic 51, Baltic 55, Baltic 64, Oyster 48 and Grand Soleil 52.

The Baltic 55, Outlaw was previously raced in the 1985-86 Whitbread Race. Credit: Outlaw Team

All yachts must be fitted with a bow crash bulkhead. A main watertight bulkhead and watertight door are recommended immediately forward of the saloon along with a second watertight bulkhead forward of the rudder post.

Severn former Whitbread Race boats will be taking part in the Ocean Globe Race:

• Maiden (previously Disque D’Or 3 , 1981-82 Whitbread; raced as Maiden in 1989-90 Whitbread)
• Pen Duick VI (1973-74 Whitbread; raced as Euromarché in the 1981-82 Whitbread)
• Translated 9 (previously ADC Accutrac , 1977-78 Whitbread)
• Neptune (1977-78 Whitbread)
• L’Esprit d’Equipe (previously 33 Export , 1981-82 Whitbread; L’Esprit d’Equipe , 1985-86 Whitbread; Esprit de Liberté , 1989-90 Whitbread)
• Outlaw (previously Equity and Law , 1985-86 Whitbread)
• Spirit of Helsinki (previously Fazer, Finland , 1985-86 Whitbread)

How can I follow the Ocean Globe Race?

All 14 boats taking part in the 2023 Ocean Globe Race can be seen at the Ocean Village Marina in Southampton from 29 August 2023. Credit: Ocean Frontiers OGR/ GGR/CG580/Pic suppliers

The Ocean Globe Race village at Ocean Village, Southampton will open to the public from 29 August 2023 until the race start. It is free to enter.

Daily events will include celestial navigation demonstrations (2-4, 6 September from 14:00 hrs), as well as a chance to see the 14 boats and meet their crews.

Tours will take place every day from 29 August between 13:o0 hrs and 17:00 hrs and can be booked via Eventbrite in advance or on the day ( https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ocean-globe-race-2023-pontoon-access-tickets-700811284417 ).

Visitors taking a tour will have the option to make a small charitable donation before the tour which will go to support the Blue Marine Foundation, Ocean Youth Trust (South) and The Maiden Factor Foundation.

Tuesday 29 August, 11:00 hrs – Official Ribbon Cutting Friday 1 September, 13:30 hrs – A Welcome from the City of Southampton Friday 1 September, 18:30 hrs – MDL Captain’s Dinner and Charity Auction Saturday, 2 September, 13;00 hrs – Writer and broadcaster, Paul Heiney talks about his tales of sailing the Atlantic single-handed Tuesday 5 September, 17:30 hrs – Whitbread Veterans Reunion Thursday 7 September, 10 hrs – OGR Final Press Conference Friday 8 September, 18:00 hrs – MDL Whitbread 50th Anniversary Farewell Hog Roast Party Saturday 9 September, 14:00 hrs – OGR Teams’ Public Farewell presentation Sunday 10 September, 09:00 hrs – Full Teams parade of honour from MDL Race Village to their yachts 13:00 hrs – RACE START – Royal Yacht Squadron start line, Cowes, UK. Viewing of the start line can be seen from the beaches in Gurnard, Isle of Wight or Lepe Beach in the New Forest.

The race can be followed via the Ocean Globe Race website and Facebook page .

The teams can also be followed via YB Tracking .

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Legendary sailor Tracy Edwards and her historic yacht Maiden have arrived in Brooklyn

She's on a world tour to raise funds for girls' education, june 3, 2022 mary frost.

Celebrated sailor Tracy Edwards and her racing yacht Maiden arrived in Brooklyn on Wednesday, greeted by an armada that included a FDNY fireboat pumping celebratory jets of water into the air as she passed the Statue of Liberty.

Edwards led the first all-female sailing team to compete in the grueling, 33,000-mile Whitbread Round the World Race (now known as The Ocean Race) in 1989/1990. Braving treacherous seas and overcoming rampant sexism, Tracy and her teammates came in second, smashing the gender barrier for competitive sailing along the way.

“We defied the skeptics and not only ‘survived’ but won two legs and came in second overall,” Edwards told the Brooklyn Eagle.

Edwards’ accomplishment (her results were the best for a British boat since 1977) earned her an MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire), and she was the first woman to receive the ‘Yachtsman of the Year’ trophy. Her exploits — from her rebellious teen years to her lifelong friendship with her mentor, King Hussein of Jordan — were immortalized in the Sony film MAIDEN, available on Amazon. (See trailer here .)

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Winning the Whitbread carried no cash prize, and Edwards was forced to sell Maiden at its conclusion.

“I found her again in 2014 and raised the funds to rescue her and ship her back to the UK where we restored her to her former glory,” Edwards said. Maiden is now on a three-year world tour with a new mission: The Maiden Factor Foundation works with, raises funds for and supports communities to enable girls’ education.

The goal is “a world where every girl has access to 12 years of quality education, empowering them to choose their future and fulfill their dreams,” Edwards said.

The Eagle joined Edwards and a group of fellow sailors and supporters on the yacht Full Moon to greet Maiden and her all-female crew as she sailed into Brooklyn. The sailors of the Maiden gracefully crisscrossed the harbor all the way to the marina, where Edwards hopped from the Full Moon to hug the beaming crew.

Maiden is currently docked at ONE°15 Brooklyn Marina in Brooklyn Bridge Park, where Edwards and the crew will be doing community events at local schools and youth groups.

“We’re so thrilled to be hosting a sailing legend like Tracy and the whole team from Maiden,” said Sam Barrett Cotter, the marina’s dockmaster. “Anyone who hasn’t seen the Maiden documentary needs to drop what they’re doing, get on Amazon prime and give it a watch. It’s an incredibly inspiring story not just about woman smashing the gender barrier in world sailing, but about people facing immense adversity as they conquer the most dangerous seas on the planet. For them to stop here in Brooklyn is an honor and a privilege.”

ONE°15 is hosting a fundraising event at Estuary Restaurant on Monday, June 6 where Edwards will be speaking. “Guests will meet her and the crew and even get to tour the boat they sailed around the world. Our Chef Dennis is roasting a suckling pig Hawaiian style – it’s going to be an awesome event,” Barrett Cotter said. (Sign up with EventBrite ).

Other events: On June 9 from 5 – 7 p.m., a flotilla will escort Maiden from Brooklyn up the Hudson to Hudson River Maritime Museum in Kingston.

Maiden will be visiting PortSide NewYork in Red Hook on Wednesday, June 22 from 9 a.m. to roughly 1 p.m. She will be alongside the historic ship Mary A. Whalen. 

Supporters greet Maiden

Among those on hand to greet the Maiden were Wendy Lin, Sadia Zaman and Kaitlin Cho, graduates of Hudson River Community Sailing program’s Sail Academy Youth Development Program.

“I watched the documentary MAIDEN and I thought it was absolutely fantastic,” Cho said. “I was given the opportunity to interview her as well and ask her about her experience working with the crew, and eventually I also got to work with one of her other crew members, Dawn Riley.”

The young women were accompanied by the organization’s Director of Communications and Development Maeve Gately.

“We work with local public middle and high school students who learn how to sail and build wooden boats,” Gately said. “They learn STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Math] through sailing — like the physics of how a sail works or the marine life of the Hudson River.”

World-class sailors Paul Wilson and Brita Siepker introduced each other and explained why they are Maiden enthusiasts.

“Brita quit her job and sailed around the world, and is extraordinarily into women’s empowerment,” Wilson said about Siepker. “She did all sorts of things on her journeys to help children, especially girls. She is a massive fan of what Maiden is doing.”

About Wilson, Siepker said, “Paul is a U.S. National Championship sailor. He saw the movie for the first time with me and became a huge supporter as well. He is well known for always having women on the boat. In several U.S. National Championships he’s had a full female crew — he’s another woman empowerer.”

“I’m here because I love Tracy and I love to support her mission and her passion for wanting to help young women and women in general, and I love being on water,” said Jeanne Andlinger, a former owner of the superyacht P2 . “I just want to be part of them coming in and supporting them.”

Andlinger’s friend Lee Robb accompanied her on the trip to greet Maiden.

“I love boats,” she said. “I lived in the British Virgin Islands for years and so this is a wonderful opportunity to be on the water.” She added, “This is the first I’m hearing about the Tracy story. This is so exciting.”

“I’m here because Tracy was kind enough to make available an opportunity to donate to the cause and as well as honor my aunt who passed away a few years ago,” said John Ebbert. “She was a big sailor from the Great Lakes.”

“I’m a friend of a group of women called Women Who Sail on Facebook. We are also inclusive of non-binary folk,” said Anne Bryant, a resident of Brooklin, Maine, who sails a 27-foot wooden sloop. “In the late summer of 2020 we did a series of talks on Mondays called Maiden Mondays — there were five in a row, and we helped with the big fundraising push.”

“The documentary was the first time I was introduced,” Bryant said. “I didn’t know that Tracy had been already doing work on my behalf in the sailing world to make sure that I would have a place in the water.”

Mack Edwards-Mair, Tracy’s daughter, quietly oversaw the event. Though inspired by the ship and crew, she doesn’t sail herself, she said. Instead, she is the events manager for The Maiden Factor, flying from stop to stop. “I’m based wherever the boat is.”

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Ocean Globe Race 2023

Join the voyage for girls' education.

Maiden and her all female crew are on a remarkable journey, not just racing in the Ocean Global Race (OGR) showing what a girl can achieve, but also sailing with the mission of supporting girls’ education around the world, so they too can follow their dreams. For the crew, each leg of the Ocean Globe Race 2023 isn't just a nautical challenge but a voyage of hope, determination, action and progress and we invite you to join us!

There are so many reasons why girls cannot and do not access education; on each leg of the race we will highlight one of those reasons and raise money for charities in that relevant field working to change girls’ lives through education.

As we embark on Leg Four of the Ocean Globe Race, our collective efforts so far have laid a strong foundation for change. In Leg One, we tackled forced and early marriage, protecting girls' rights to their childhoods and futures. Leg Two saw us championing access to education for those girls banned from school in countries like Afghanistan, thanks to your unwavering support. Most recently, in Leg Three, we focused on providing single-sex toilets for girls in schools, a crucial step towards ensuring their safety, dignity, and uninterrupted education. For Leg Four, we are focusing on securing access to clean water for girls, to further remove barriers to education for girls.

Denying girls an education perpetuates gender inequality and hinders the potential for girls to have better futures such as a job; to earn higher incomes; make their own decisions; participate in society or the opportunity to fulfil their potential.

Our goal is straightforward: to remove the barrier that lack of access to clean water poses to girls' education. Across the globe, the burden of collecting water often falls on girls, keeping them out of school and limiting their futures. By ensuring access to clean water, we aim to free up their time for education, enabling them to focus on learning and personal growth.

The absence of clean water forces girls around the globe to choose between schooling and collecting water - a choice no child should face. We will support efforts that seek to eliminate this dilemma by providing sustainable water solutions to communities in need. This is about more than just water; it's about enabling education and opening up opportunities for girls.

This situation is further exacerbated during periods of drought, which have become increasingly common due to climate change. The drought that began in October 2020, for example, has led to the drying up or contamination of water sources, leaving at least 11.6 million people in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia without sufficient access to safe water. The scarcity of water not only makes the physical journey for these girls more challenging but also has a ripple effect on their ability to maintain hygiene, especially during menstruation, often leading to school absenteeism or complete dropout (wateraid, 2022).

Your contributions will help us remove barriers and support access to safe water sources, reducing the need for long, unsafe journeys to collect water and allowing more girls to stay in school. With your help, we can make a difference in the lives of girls, one step at a time, ensuring their journey is towards education. Your support can transform futures.

Sponsor a Mile, Ignite a Dream

Please consider sponsoring a mile of Maiden's third leg in the OGR and stand with us in our mission to ensure that every girl has the right to an education. We will work with charities who break down the barriers for girls to access education and achieve their dreams to shape their futures and contribute to their communities and society. By supporting our cause, you play a pivotal role in paving the way for equality. Your donations enable us to champion the right to education, establish safe learning environments for girls and provide opportunities that will transform their lives.

You have the power to become a beacon of change in a girl's life. Rally behind our cause by sponsoring a mile of this incredible voyage. The third leg of our journey spans an impressive 5,889 nautical miles, and your sponsorship can be tailored to your generosity, ranging from 1p to 10p per mile, or even a fixed donation amount per leg.

Every mile sponsored fuels the winds of change. Join our crew of changemakers today and let's sail towards a world where every girl can rise above adversity and claim her right to education.

* Note: In the unforeseen event that Maiden is unable to complete the leg, your donation will be returned

Thank you so much for your support

Clicking the below Donate link will take you to a secure page hosted by our payment service provider, Stripe.

Meet our fearless all-female crew, taking on the stormy seas to support girls' education:

"The Ocean Globe Race is the ultimate adventure and test of courage, strength and determination.

To go back to basics and sail the world without modern technology especially GPS is such a cool opportunity. In 1989 Tracy and the crew of Maiden proved to the world that it could be done, now I want to show young women around the world what they themselves are capable of with hard work and determination.

With the Maiden Factor's following and modern-world social media, we have a really unique platform to inspire young girls and women around the world to dream big!"

Heather Thomas, Skipper

Leg four ogr crew.

Leg Three OGR Crew

Leg Two OGR Crew

Leg One OGR Crew

What is the history behind the OGR?

The Ocean Globe Race (OGR) is a fully crewed retro race in the spirit of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. It marks the the 50th anniversary of the original event.

It's an eight-month adventure around the world for ordinary sailors on normal yachts. Racing ocean-going GRP production yachts designed before 1988, there will be no computers, no satellites, no GPS, and no high-tech materials. Sextants, team spirit and raw determination alone in the great traditions of ocean racing are allowed on this truly human endeavor.

These will be real heroes pushing each other to the limit and beyond – in a real race!

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Tucked away in beautiful Point Loma, the San Diego Yacht Club is consistently ranked among the top 5 yacht clubs in the Nation and is recognized by the  Club Leadership Forum  as one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world.

Throughout its existence, the San Diego Yacht Club has evolved from a small gathering of boating enthusiasts joining together in 1886 to a world-renowned yachting community recognized for its success in bay sailing, ocean racing, predicted log racing, cruising, angling, and its support of youth programs at all levels. Competitions have ranged from Major National and World Championships to the Lipton Cup, from Junior Regattas to the Olympics, and from Classic yachts to the America’s Cup. Training and racing programs are available for adults as well as juniors.

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