yacht race documentary

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

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.

• Subscribe Now
• Digital Editions

Top 10 must-see sailing documentaries

• Stef Bottinelli

From Deep Water to Maidentrip, these must-see sailing documentaries will keep you glued to the screen. Watch the trailers here

Released in 2008 and nominated for a prestigious Cesar Award for Best Documentary Film, Tabarly is based on the life of  French yachtsman Eric Tabarly who lost his life after falling overboard from his Pen Duick boat off the coast of Wales in June 1998. He was en route to the Fife regatta in Scotland.

Released in 2013, Maidentrip tells the story of New Zealand-born Dutch teen Laura Dekker, who set out to become the youngest person to sail around the world single-handedly. Dekker had to fight a Dutch court to be allowed to pursue her dream at such a young age. Finally, in August 2010, she set sail on her epic journey onboard her two-masted ketch and arrived, 5,600 nautical miles later, at Simpson Bay on St Maarten in January 2012 – breaking the world record. She was only 16 years and four months of age.

Racing Around the World Alone

This exhilarating 2010 documentary follows 30 hopeful skippers who take part in the 2008/2009 Vendée Globe race, the single-handed, non stop race around the world without assistance.

Red Dot on the Ocean: The Matt Rutherford Story

This inspiring 2014 documentary tells the story of Matt Rutherford, once a rebellious youth, who bought a sailing boat on the internet without inspecting it first, learnt to sail by himself and at the age of 21 attempted the dangerous voyage to become the first person to sail alone and nonstop around North and South America. Matt’s adventure started in Annapolis, Maryland, where he returned having achieved his goal 309 days later. The documentary is available to buy on Amazon Prime, Vimeo and Apple iTunes.

Robin Knox-Johnston: A Force of Nature

This BBC documentary was broadcast in June 2018 to mark 50 years since  Sir Robin Knox-Johnston set sail from Falmouth to win the original Golden Globe Race thus becoming the first person to sail single-handed and non-stop around the world half a century before. With interviews and original footage, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston: A Force of Nature is a fantastic documentary about one of the most legendary British sailors of all times. 

Jean Du Sud Around The World

1984 film Jean Du Sud Around the World tells the story of sailor Yves Gélinas’s solo 28,000 miles circumnavigation aboard his Alberg 30 sloop, Jean-du-Sud. He sails from France to Quebec via the Roaring Forties of the Southern Ocean and Cape Horn.Gélinas shot the 16 mm film in order to share his experience with fellow sailors, especially the use of his self-steering gear. The film was awarded the Palme D’Or twice and has now been re-released in HD.

Taking Flight: Britain’s America’s Cup Challenge

Sir Ben Ainslie wants to bring the America’s Cup to Britain. Credit: Lloyd Images

The documentary, shown on the BBC on 23 July 2016, follows Sir Ben Ainslie and his Land Rover BAR team as they prepare to try and win sport’s oldest international trophy – the America’s Cup . Narrated by presenter Clare Balding, the screening of the documentary coincided with the America’s Cup World Series Portsmouth on 22-24 July.

Narrated by Tilda Swinton and using original 16mm footage, tape recordings and interviews this brilliant 2006 documentary recounts the story of Donald Crowhurst and his fatal attempt to win the first Golden Globe Race in 1968.

Not a skilled yachtsman, Crowhurst entered the race with his boat Teignmouth Electron,  intending to use the prize money to support his failing business. As the weeks went on, he eventually abandoned the race and reported false positions to race organisers, leading everyone to believe he was winning the race, when really he was in last place. His yacht   was later found drifting and recovered logbooks indicate that he’d suffered a mental breakdown due to the pressure and the sailor had jumped overboard. The race was eventually won by Robin Knox-Johnston who donated the prize money to Crowhurst’s widow. Available on YouTube and Amazon Prime.

School teacher Dee Caffari and Spanish veterinarian Anna Corbella join forces in fulfilling the dream of a lifetime: becoming professional sailors. Beyond 360 documents their story as they team up to compete in the Barcelona World Race 2010. Available on Amazon Prime.

Released on 8 March 2019 to coincide with International Women’s Day, Maiden  is a feature length documentary on Tracy Edwards.

The film tells the story of 24 year-old Edwards, a cook on charter boats, who became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989.

Tracy Edwards had her first Whitbread Round the World Race experience working in the galley of the boat Atlantic Privateer. She enjoyed the experience so much that she decided to take part as a skipper and three years later she bought the 58ft yacht Maiden. Edwards put together an all – and first – female crew and entered the race. The crew went on to win two of the Whitbread legs and came second in class overall.

Tracy Edwards documentary ‘Maiden’ to be released nationwide on International Women’s Day

'Maiden' tells the story of Tracy Edwards and her all-women sailing crew racing in the Whitbread Round the World Race…

13 Top female sailors

Here's our pick of some of the most inspiring yachtswomen. Who's your inspiration?

Top 10 best boat-themed films of the 1980s

In no particular order, we've pulled together some of the best sailing and boat-themed films of the 1980s. Vote, and…

Top 10 Sailing and boating TV programmes

Howards' Way, The Onedin Line and The River...YBW brings you the pick of sailing and boating TV programmes over the…

A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race is streaming now on Eurosport

The race documentary is an all-access, behind the scenes look at The Ocean Race...

A three-part documentary featuring a deep dive into the lives of the sailors and teams competing in The Ocean Race 2022-23 will be released on Friday 3rd November on Eurosport. It will also be distributed within the USA on Max at a future date, with further global distribution to come.

“A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race”, produced by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), follows key sailors from the five IMOCA teams racing around the world, including the skipper of the winning 11th Hour Racing Team, the American sailor Charlie Enright.

Viewers are taken behind the scenes and given ‘all access’ to live the drama of the toughest fully-crewed race in the world, experiencing all of the highs and lows as the best sailors in the world take on this iconic offshore challenge.

Watch the preview video here

“This year was the first WBD took on the role as host broadcaster, content creator and news distribution partner of endurance sailing’s pinnacle event, which gave us unprecedented access to the crews and athletes competing,” said Scott Young, SVP Content & Production at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe.

“Our objective beyond the live coverage was to create the human story within the race. We have taken fans on the journey, to meet the people who have a passion for their sport that is matched with their commitment. Our cameras were permitted access on board and on shore to places they couldn’t ordinarily reach, telling the stories of the athletes competing to capture a more authentic experience of what the crews face during their inimitable six-month challenge. There is no better testament to this than our new A Voyage of Discovery documentary.”

All five race teams feature in the documentary, which takes a close look at the event through the lived experience of four sailors:

Charlie Enright – Skipper of 11th Hour Racing Team Annie Lush – Crew member on GUYOT environnement – Team Europe Paul Meilhat – Skipper of Biotherm Rosalin Kuiper – Co-skipper of Team Malizia

“I’m super excited about the documentary,” said Rosie Kuiper, co-skipper on Team Malizia. “It was very special to be part of it and I shared my feelings and thoughts with the producers like I would with my family and that was special. I'm excited to see it as I had no filter and really shared everything from my heart. It’s a really cool way to go behind the scenes and dive into a sailor’s brain. I hope we can continue this in the future, to allow us to show the human adventure in addition to the sporting side.”

“A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race” is the latest television output from the 50th anniversary edition of The Ocean Race, which started in Alicante, Spain on 15 January, 2023 and finished at the Grand Finale in Genova, Italy on 30 June.

“We’re proud to have a long-term partnership with The Ocean Race which enables us to further elevate the level of storytelling possible from this incredible sport, helping sailing reach new audiences between Olympic cycles,” Young concluded. “By investing in unprecedented levels of production and bringing its stars to centre stage, we are confident we can continue to support the growth of the sport beyond a traditional sailing audience.”

“A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race” will be aired exclusively in three parts by WBD across Europe at 21:00-22:00 CET on Friday 3, Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 November on Eurosport’s channels. Streaming of all three episodes will also be available on discovery+ and the Eurosport App in Europe, and Eurosport Extra in Poland. A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race will also be available on Max in the USA at a future date.

The three-part series was produced and directed by Robert Bevan and edited by Steven Douglas Blake.

In 2022, Warner Bros. Discovery agreed a ground-breaking production, live coverage and distribution partnership with The Ocean Race to further expand its audience by harnessing the full scale of WBD’s portfolio of global brands, channels and platforms. The organisation’s passion for storytelling across all aspects of the Race, including the natural world, ocean health, sustainability, technology, science and world-class sport, have contributed to coverage of the race, the climate and ocean health throughout 2023.

A Voyage of Discovery: The Ocean Race

Starting in Spain, the five teams face some of the most extreme conditions on the planet as they cross the equator towards Cape Town.

The next leg of the race begins in Cape Town as the teams take on a 12,750 nautical mile passage to Brazil, the longest leg in the race's history.

The five teams cross the North Atlantic Ocean and are plagued by ferocious storms, leaving two boats badly damaged and stranded at sea.

Information

Copyright © 2024 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.

Internet Service Terms Apple TV & Privacy Cookie Policy Support

Film Review: ‘Maiden’

An all-women crew’s entry in a fabled around-the-world yacht race gets a lively retelling in this exciting, inspiring documentary.

By Dennis Harvey

Dennis Harvey

Film Critic

• ‘The Bones’ Review: It’s Paleontologists vs. Profit in Entertaining Look at the Fossil Trade 2 weeks ago
• ‘5lbs of Pressure’ Review: Forgiveness Comes Hard for an Ex-Con in This Unconvincing Crime Drama 4 weeks ago
• ‘Stopmotion’ Review: Art Infects Rather Than Imitates Life in IFC’s Partly Animated Creepshow 1 month ago

Shattering a glass ceiling has rarely been more engrossing — or grueling — than it is in “Maiden,” named after the ship that was the first crewed by an all-female team to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Condescendingly little was expected of the “girls” who dared to crash this particular boys’ club nearly three decades ago, but their respectable showing during the intense nine-month race changed the sport’s hitherto extreme gender bias for good. Alex Holmes ’ documentary has more than enough human interest to grip viewers with no prior interest in sailing. Its potential as a non-fiction commercial breakout got Sony Pictures Classics’ attention at the Toronto festival, with their theatrical release (and doubtless awards campaigning) plans as yet TBA.

The main protagonist here is Tracy Edwards, the Maiden’s English skipper and the driving force behind its fabled run. Her path to sailing was unorthodox: A problem child after her father’s death, she ran away from home as a teen and landed in a seaside town where she eventually talked her way into jobs on yachts.

Holmes might’ve spent at least a little time detailing how Edwards accumulated the sailing experience that allowed her to even consider entering a major race. As is, the film suggests by omission that she practically went from cook to captain in one fell swoop. But understandably, the director is in a hurry to get to the Maiden, whose saga is full of drama. In the mid-’80s, Edwards decided the Whitbread contest would only begin to lose its participatory imbalance (less than 3% of crew at the time were women) with the involvement of a high-profile, first-ever all-female ship. She set that plan into motion three years ahead of the 1989-’90 event, drafting a multinational crew and overseeing their DIY refurbishment of a beat-up old vessel to approved specifications.

Even then, the Whitbread (which since 2005 has been redubbed the Volvo Ocean Race) was a hugely expensive undertaking. Sponsors proved resistant — none wanted association with what was expected to be a pathetic or tragic distaff showing. In desperation, Edwards finally begged assistance from King Hussein of Jordan, whom she’d befriended while a lowly deckhand some years before. With funding in place, the Maiden could actually commit to racing.

Nevertheless, the press persisted in treating the team as a novelty at best, and ludicrous stunt at worst. The seriousness with which other crews were interviewed about their technical factors and challenges was entirely absent from coverage dwelling on the “ladies’” looks, emotions, and assumed in-fighting. (In fact, Edwards did have a power struggle with her most highly qualified personnel, Marie-Claude Heys, resulting in the latter’s early departure.) Few expected them even to finish the first of six trip legs. But they did — then they placed first within their class for the next two, which included the particularly arduous and dangerous stretch from Uruguay to Australia. Under brutal conditions that included temperatures down to -20 ° , that passage cost another boat one crew member’s life.

While our protagonists suffered enough setbacks later in the 33,000-mile voyage to disappoint themselves with their finishing status, they were surprised to be greeted at the terminus as conquering heroines. Their effort had ceased being popularly trivialized months before, earned grudging respect from the sport’s establishment, and was now treated as a triumph for women in general.

There’s a great deal of archival footage, both of the you-are-there and in-port sports-network type, that makes this journey’s perils quite visceral for the viewer. The Maiden’s gobs are all still around to comment on the experience decades later, as are various journalists and experts (some of whom still reek a bit of sexist ‘tude). But it’s the plentiful on-board material, excitingly structured and paced by doc veteran Holmes with editor Katie Bryer, that lends “Maiden” great immediacy, suspense, and rooting value. Other assembly elements are straightforwardly pro.

Reviewed at Toronto Film Festival (TIFF Docs), Sept. 12, 2018. Running time: 93 MIN.

• Production: (Documentary — U.K.) A Sony Pictures Classics release (U.S.) of a Dogwoof presentation of a New Black Films production. (Int'l sales: Dogwoof, London.) Producers: Victoria Gregory, Alex Holmes. Executive producers: James Erskine, Oil Harbottle, Anna Godas.
• Crew: Director, writer: Alex Holmes. Camera (color, HD): Chris Openshaw. Editor: Katie Bryer. Music: Rob Manning, Samuel Sim.
• With: Tracy Edwards, Sally Creaser, Angela Farrell, Jo Gooding, Nancy Hill, Jeni Mundy, Michelle Paret, Claire Russell, Dawn Riley, Tanja Visser, Mikaela von Koskull, Mandi Swan, Marie-Claude Heys.

More From Our Brands

On fiji’s vomo island, warm vibes precede a slice of local life (and luxury), heesen’s most powerful superyacht yet comes with a remote-controlled rescue buoy, acc to earn the most of any conference from march madness, the best loofahs and body scrubbers, according to dermatologists, parish premiere: giancarlo esposito exorcises his demons for a story he ‘needed to tell’, verify it's you, please log in.

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Alone at Sea

"Alone at sea" is a first feature-length documentary tracing Eric Bellion's psychological journey during his race on the Vendée Globe 2016-2017, a yacht race around the globe, single-handed ... Read all "Alone at sea" is a first feature-length documentary tracing Eric Bellion's psychological journey during his race on the Vendée Globe 2016-2017, a yacht race around the globe, single-handed and without assistance. Eric Bellion filmed himself during the 99 days of his race. He has... Read all "Alone at sea" is a first feature-length documentary tracing Eric Bellion's psychological journey during his race on the Vendée Globe 2016-2017, a yacht race around the globe, single-handed and without assistance. Eric Bellion filmed himself during the 99 days of his race. He has never sailed solo for more than 6 days. This is an unprecedented immersive document of a ... Read all

• Eric Bellion
• 1 User review

User reviews 1

• FrenchEddieFelson
• Feb 25, 2019
• February 13, 2019 (France)
• Official site
• Comme un seul homme
• Films du Cap, Les
• Appel pour la Différence
• See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 22 minutes

Related news

Contribute to this page.

• See more gaps
• Learn more about contributing

More to explore

Recently viewed