Tracy Edwards MBE (born 5 September 1962) is a British sailor. In 1989 she 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 and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire. She is also a best-selling author.
Video Tracy Edwards
Biography
Edwards spent her early years in Pangbourne with dreams of becoming a ballet dancer like her mother, but began to get into trouble after the death of her father when she was 10 and her subsequent relocation with her mother and stepfather to Wales. Sent backpacking across Europe at the age of 16 after her expulsion from school to get her away from negative peer influence, she signed on as a stewardess of a yacht in Piraeus and found a new passion. With the help of her friend HM King Hussein I of Jordan, who told her 'With faith, honour and courage, anything is possible' and provided funding from Royal Jordanian Airlines, she persisted. Tracy recruited a 12-woman crew and bought a second hand, 10-year-old 58-foot yacht, which became the iconic Maiden. She finished second in her class.
Edwards wound up serving several positions, including deckhand and first mate, before entering her first Whitbread in the 1985-1986 competition. She began with the Norsk Data GB and in the second leg became cook aboard the Atlantic Privateer. Based on the small ratio of women in the crew-five out of 200-she determined to enter in 1989 with an entirely female crew. In a 2006 interview, she told The Guardian that she encountered considerable resistance, but persisted in recruiting a 12-woman crew, and her 10-year-old 58-foot yacht, Maiden, finished second in its class, winning two out of six individual legs of the race. Edwards, who had taken out loans to buy the boat, sold it after the race. In 1990, she detailed her story in the Simon & Schuster book, Maiden, co-authored with Tim Madge. Her effort to better the Whitbread accomplishment in a female-crew bid for the Jules Verne trophy in 1998 ended when bad weather broke the mast of her ship near Chile.
Thereafter, Edwards started a family and began managing sailing programs, beginning with Maiden II in 2000 and the Oryx Quest in 2005 in Qatar. This was the first time a round-the-world race has started and finished in the Middle East based in Doha. After the successful event, which saw four of the fastest multihulls race around the world, Edwards was forced into bankruptcy when the Qatari sponsor dissolved their company and refused payment. She had personally borrowed £8m from the bank to help fund the event. She left sailing and went to work for the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) as Project Manager for their International Youth Advisory Congress. Upon completion she attended Roehampton University and took a degree (2:1) in psychology. She continued with her motivational speaking and became a life coach. In 2013, she began teaching Internet Safety and Online Reputation to children and parents and works in schools and with youth groups. In 2014, Edwards discovered that Maiden was abandoned in poor condition in a marina in the Indian Ocean. She launched a successful public bid for funding to save the ship, with the intent to re-enact its Whitbread run before putting it in charitable use and displaying it in British maritime museums. Maiden returned to Southampton aboard a cargo ship, the Roll Dock Sky, on 24 April 2017. Tracy Edwards and four of her Whitbread campaign crewmates were present to be reunited with their old boat and take her into Hamble where she will be restored. Tracy Edwards and her crew who took a round-the-world sailing trip were the subject of the Radio Four series "The Reunion" in August 2017. When HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein heard that Tracy had rescued Maiden she vowed to help, in honour of her father, and it is through her generosity that Maiden is currently being restored in Hamble, Southampton. During 2017 Tracy founded The Maiden Factor which will utilise Maiden to raise funds and awareness for Girls' Education . Maiden will be launched in the summer of 2018 and on 15th September 2018 she will depart from Southampton Boat Show with a new crew of women, on a three year world tour . The Maiden Factor Foundation (charity) will receive funds raised during the world tour and will work with Partner Charities to help overcome the barriers that prevent girls all over the world from receiving 12 years of education .
Maps Tracy Edwards
Bibliography
Maiden. Simon & Schuster, 13 September 1990. ISBN 978-0671710279
Living Every Second Hodder & Stoughton, 4 October 2001. ISBN 978-0340770436
References
Further reading
- Maiden voyage: help Tracy Edwards rescue her record-breaking boat, Virgin.com.
- Brief history of Maiden and the 89/90 race
- Tracy Edwards' project to restore Maiden and champion education for girls around the world
Source of article : Wikipedia
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