It was Tracy Edwards’s mother—a globe-trotting ballerina and burlesque dancer whose career-ending diagnosis of multiple sclerosis inspired a return to her first love of motorbikes—who served as a role model for her daughter. She also supported Edwards after she was expelled from school, and encouraged her to travel to Greece, where a family friend resided. Trouble with Edwards’s stepfather had made home a painful place. Greece was a realm of freedom and possibility. She took odd jobs on boats. She faced intense sexism from some men, but many others acted as mentors, showing her the ropes, so to speak.
Ultimately captaining an all-female crew, and fitting in, aboard a sailboat named Maiden in the famously difficult 1989–1990 Whitbread, a 32,000 nautical mile race from England to Uruguay to Australia to New Zealand and back, with a stop in America, she chronicles an intense 167 days at sea. The crew of 14 women went on to win two legs of the race in its division, and Edwards became the first woman in Whitbread history to be named Yachtsman of the Year. (Mary Alice Miller - Vanity Fair HWD) https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2019/06/maiden-documentary-tracy-edwards-sailing-interview
Tracy Edward's groundbreaking journey is captured in the new documentary Maiden.
