Wind force six on the Solent. Heavy rain lashes down, clouds chase low in the grey sky - not unusual weather for a day on the last weekend in November. And it doesn't bother the nine women on board the "Maiden", who are setting off on a unique project in 2018.
The boat has already circumnavigated the world several times before. The "Maiden" already took part in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Race under skipper and owner Tracy Edwards, with only women on board at the time: a first in the history of long-distance ocean sailing - and highly controversial at the time.
Although this time Edwards remains on land, it was she who initiated the new project called "The Maiden Factor". This essentially pursues two goals: To make it easier for women to access the sport of regatta racing and to support women's aid projects around the world. For a year and a half, Edwards tirelessly drove the project forward, from the rediscovery of the ship to its extensive refit and eventual relaunch in August 2018. Afterwards, however, she said: "I am consciously taking a step back from the project."
"The Maiden Factor" is brought to life
Near Southampton, in the lounge of the Royal Southern Yacht Club on the Hamble, where the "Maiden" had found a berth in the meantime, Tracy Edwards explains that she is not the centre of attention in this matter: "It's about the new women of the 'Maiden'. It's their boat now, and I really want them to feel that way." She then adds that the crew are great. So why should she interfere any further? All the girls on board are just marvellous. I don't want to look over their shoulders. I just want to be here and say: 'Bravo, well done!"
That sounds unusual for someone who has been used to setting the course for many years. And yet it is exactly what the "Maiden" project stands for: empowering young women, handing over the reins to the next generation. Tracy Edwards is just as strong in this as she was back then.
"Just like over 30 years ago, it is still just as difficult for girls to get on a boat today. That's why I give Mark Turner credit for getting teams to finally include women in their crews in the 2014/2015 Volvo Ocean Race. His incentive system to reward mixed crews on board was a stroke of genius," says Edwards, full of praise for the head of the round-the-world regatta who stepped down in 2017.
Nevertheless, the fight for equal rights in sailing is far from over. "We need to be more positive about girls on boats; we're tired of having to fight the same old battles." This is also why her Maiden Factor project is so important.
"Maiden" takes part in the 1989/90 Whitbread as an all-female crew
Tracy Edwards knows exactly what she is talking about - and what she is still angry about to this day. With her legendary Whitbread campaign over 30 years ago, she impressively proved that women can certainly compete with men in yachting. Her idea of sending an all-female crew into the toughest stage race around the world met with enormous resistance at the time.
The then 23-year-old had to fight many battles to be taken seriously. These included personal hostility and even the refusal of her yacht club to grant her crew temporary membership. Her request for a sponsorship contract was simply turned down by 350 British companies - no one wanted to support a women's team. Edwards eventually had to mortgage her house to buy the "Disque d'Or", designed by Bruce Farr in 1979, for the race. The boat had already taken part in the 1981/82 Whitbread Race under the then Swiss ocean racing hero Pierre Fehlmann.
Ultimately, a chance meeting with King Hussein of Jordan gave Edwards her breakthrough, and he funded her Whitbread campaign with 800,000 pounds sterling. Even though this was a paltry sum compared to the budgets of the other large and established teams, it enabled her to realise her dream.
And it didn't just consist of sailing after the men. Quite the opposite: with their yacht renamed "Maiden GB" - a play on words for "Made in Great Britain" - they quickly put the fear of God into the competition. The sailors on "Maiden GB" won the second and also longest and toughest leg of the regatta from Uruguay to Australia with an impressive 30-hour lead. As if that wasn't enough, another leg win immediately followed in the third, more tactical leg of the race from Australia to New Zealand. This finally took the wind out of the sails of the last doubters who had dismissed the previous success as a fluke.
Tracy Edwards makes history
Even then, Edwards used the publicity to thoroughly dispel outdated clichés. During a stopover in Australia, she said in a television interview: "If you're a woman, you're told what you should and shouldn't do, what you should and shouldn't buy, who and how you should be. And then we sail into the Southern Ocean and there's no one left to tell us what to do. We're on board for 28 days, we don't have to wash properly or dress properly, let alone style our hair. It was all a great experience for us!"
More importantly, however, there was never any power struggles, egotistical behaviour or communication problems in her female crew. "On the contrary, we looked out for each other very intensively. I've never experienced that in a male crew."
During the remaining three stages of the Whitbread, the women were forced to drop back, but in the end it was enough for a remarkable second place overall. This was the best result for a British team since 1979, and no other sailing team from the island has been as successful in the Whitbread or the Volvo Ocean Race that followed it.
Tracy Edwards was voted Yachtsman of the Year and, alongside Paul Gascoigne, BBC Sports Personality of the Year. By the age of 28, she had made history and inspired an entire generation of women.
Skipper makes little talk of herself
In the following years, however, Edwards' luck ran out. In 1998, she took part in a Jules Verne record attempt around the world on the 92-foot catamaran "Royal & Sun Alliance" (formerly "Enza"). The voyage came to an abrupt end when the yacht lost its mast 2,000 miles off the coast of Chile. Nevertheless, many of the all-female crew members went on to have successful careers, such as Emma Richards, Sam Davies, Miranda Merron and Sharon Ferris.
Edwards, who had a daughter shortly afterwards, made a name for herself again when she organised the Oryx Quest race around the world, which started from Qatar and was also supposed to end there. However, it actually ended in disaster when the local sports organisation refused to pay the promised sponsorship money and Edwards was declared bankrupt with eight million pounds in debt.
After that, she fell silent on the sailing scene. Edwards studied psychology and worked for charities and children's aid organisations. She was also involved in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 2009. In short, it seemed as if she had finished sailing.
History repeats itself
But then, in 2014, Edwards received the news that someone had found her beloved "Maiden GB". The ship was rotting away abandoned in a harbour in the Seychelles. There was no doubt in the British woman's mind that she had to act immediately. "I couldn't just leave the ship there to its fate," she explains. "Not only do I have close emotional ties to the 'Maiden', she is also a piece of our British yachting history."
With the help of a successful crowdfunding campaign, money was raised to buy the boat. Subsequently finding the funds to transport it to the UK and refit it was another matter. 30 years on from her successful Whitbread campaign, Edwards faced exactly the same institutional hostility as back then.
"The companies said it's a great idea, but we'd rather invest in football this year. And this at a time when we were approaching the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage and the MeToo debate was on everyone's lips. It should have been child's play to find sponsors for the reorganisation of the 'Maiden'. But it wasn't. It was an arduous search."
And a search with a similar outcome as three decades earlier: once again, the Jordanian royal family helped out. King Hussein's daughter Princess Haya agreed to support the yacht restoration in memory of her father. The princess also supported the idea of using the finished boat for a social project that is also close to her heart: the right of girls to an education.
Edwards and Princess Haya launched the Maiden Factor Foundation. In future, the foundation will support charitable organisations around the world that are already working in the field of equal rights for girls and women.
Modifications to "Maiden"
Meanwhile, the completely refurbished "Maiden" with her striking grey hull, her elongated transom and her towering rigging is as unmistakable as ever. Nevertheless, there are clear differences to the original ship. "The focus is no longer so much on the racing characteristics. The yacht is now more geared towards moderate long-distance sailing," explains Allie Smith, who has overseen the refit over the past few months. Smith herself is a veteran of the 1992 British Steel Challenge.
Tony Castro realised the ship's new design. For example, he gave the rig swept spreaders and did away with the backstays that were previously present. Smaller, non-overlapping headsails are now used as well as an asymmetrical spinnaker on a bowsprit. The boom is wider at the top so that it can better accommodate the main when the sail is hoisted. And the slide rail splits in the lower mast area so that the furled main does not protrude so much at the luff. New carbon spars also replace the old aluminium ones.
Below deck, the crew also benefit from significantly more comfort than was available to the women in 1989. There is now heating - even for the wet locker - and air conditioning, as well as two freezers, a refrigerator, an electric hob and an oven. In addition, the number of berths was reduced from twelve to nine. And to meet today's safety requirements, three more bulkheads have been added to the existing two. Last but not least, a bow thruster now helps with manoeuvring in the harbour.
Different skippers guide the boat around the world
A number of female skippers were available for the tour around the world, as well as four female sailors who were there for the entire trip. Hundreds of female sailors applied for their positions. In addition, two female sailors who wanted to gain experience and nautical miles were invited to take part in each leg. And finally, there was room for two crew members each who were prepared to pay to sail with them. Incidentally, these could also be male.
When selecting the skippers and crew, Tracy Edwards was less concerned with sailing experience or even success; instead, it was important to her that the women were wholeheartedly behind the Maiden Factor project. One of them is Dee Caffari from the UK. She says: "When you hear how emotionally Tracy talks about the boat and its history, you just get goosebumps. Without pioneers like her, my career wouldn't have been possible," she assures, "so now I'm doing my humble bit to hopefully inspire other young women to sail." The sport is so dominated by men that women have to show a great deal of skill and perseverance to gain an equal place. "The outdated gender roles are gradually disappearing in sailing too, but it takes much longer and is much more difficult than it needs to be."
The guest skipper on the first leg of the 2018 tour, which travelled from Southampton through the Mediterranean and Red Sea to Beypore in India, was Nikki Henderson, who was also the youngest skipper in the Clipper Round the World Race 2017/18. She says: "It's great that the boat is sailing around the world to raise money for the education of young girls." It gives women a chance to take control of their own lives.
"Maiden" takes part in the OGR
Like so many sailing projects, the Maiden's world tour was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic. Wherever she had stopped so far, she had been greeted with great cheers. The boat has been on a mission again since September 2021 and already had 30,000 nautical miles in her wake when her participation in the Ocean Globe Race was announced to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race.
"It seems only fitting that the many beautiful yachts that took part in the various Whitbread regattas are being sailed around the world again after being rescued and restored. This is of course also the case with "Maiden"," says Tracy Edwards. Taking part in the regatta is also seen as a great opportunity to spread the message of the project. Naturally, this race will also be contested by an all-female crew under skipper Heather Thomas. After two sailed legs, "Maiden" is currently in third place in the overall standings.
More information about the project:
About the Ocean Globe Race
The Retro race around the world is being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race. On 10 September 2023, 14 crews set off from Southampton on the 27,000-mile voyage, which is divided into four stages and leads through the Southern Ocean and around the three large capes.
The stopovers are in Cape Town in South Africa, Auckland in New Zealand and Punta del Este in Uruguay, before the circumnavigation ends back in the UK in April 2024.
Technical data of the "Maiden"
- Design/year of construction: Bruce Farr/1979
- Refit: Tony Castro/2018
- Lüa (torso length): 15,24 m
- Total length: 17,71 m
- Width: 5,02 m
- Depth: 3,20 m
- Weight: 21,8 t
- Sail area (on/before wind): 132/281 m2
This article first appeared in YACHT issue 12/2019 and has been edited for this online version.
