Maritime Madams: Tracy Edwards

Tracy Edwards (1962 - Present), MBE skippered the first-ever all-female crew in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. She is the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year trophy and has created many sailing crews to battle gender prejudice on the ocean.

For Further Reading: 

• Tracy Edwards Website
• Girl Power Talk, Interview with Tracy Edwards
• The Overview, “After the Maiden.”

This month, we’re talking about Maritime Madams. Whether through scientific study, aquatic exploration, or legendary prowess, they harnessed the power of the bodies of waters that cover our earth. 

History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.

Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hello from Wonder Media Network. I'm Jenny Kaplan and this
is Womanica. This month we're talking about maritime madams. Whether
through scientific study, aquatic exploration, or legendary prowess, these women
harness the power of the bodies of water that cover
our earth. Today's Womanicuan found her calling out on the
seas among other maritime women like herself. Aboard her vessel

(00:39):
The Maiden, she raced across the ocean, charting her course
with the first ever all female crew in one of
the world's biggest boat races. Let's meet Tracy Edwards. Tracy
was born in nineteen sixty two in Berkshire, England. Her
father died of a heart attack when Tracy was ten
years old, and her mother remarried. Alcoholic Tracy grew into

(01:03):
a rebellious team, stealing a car on one occasion, getting
arrested on another, and finally getting expelled from school. Tracy
knew she wanted to leave her troubled childhood behind, and
when she turned sixteen years old, she did just that.
Without a diploma, Tracy set her sights on grease. She backpacked,
worked at bars, and eventually got a job as a stewardess.

(01:25):
On a charter yacht. Standing on the deck watching the
ocean take over the horizon, Tracy felt exhilarated, like she'd
never returned to solid ground. As she later said, the
ocean is the beginning of everything, and the land is
the end. After her second sailing trip, the yacht skipper

(01:45):
asked Tracy if she would one day steer a ship.
Tracy had left school at the age of fifteen, so
she wasn't exactly up to date on her navigation skills,
But in just two days, Tracy had learned to use
the boat's navigational tools and secured a spot on a
new yacht, the Atlantic privateer. Granted Tracy was going to
work as the privateer's cook, but just being on the

(02:07):
yacht was a thrilling opportunity. The privateer was set to
race in the nineteen eighty five Whitbread Round the World Race.
For months, day and night, yacht crews raced across the
seas to be the first to circumnavigate the globe and
claim victory. The crews were almost all male. Out of
the entire two hundred and sixty person fleet, Tracy was

(02:30):
one of just four women. She had to fight for
her place on the yacht, but after the privateer won
the race's second leg, her fellow crew members started calling
Tracy their lucky charm. The privateer didn't come in first place,
but Tracy's race around the world lit a new fire
in her. She wanted to sail. When Tracy's request to

(02:51):
move above deck was met with resistance, she said she
had the most profound thought of my life. I realized
no man would ever let me be the navigator during
my lifetime. So Tracy decided to strike out on her own.
She refinanced her house to buy a worse for wear
boat to use for racing. She also secured additional financial

(03:12):
backing from an unexpected ally, King Hussain of Jordan. Tracy
first met him as a client on one of the
yachts she worked on. They formed a friendship, and the
King encouraged her ultimate vision an all female crew. Tracy
refurbished the boat, called it Maiden, gathered her crew, and
they set off at the start of the nineteen eighty
nine with Red Race. At first, Tracy put together Maiden

(03:36):
out of her personal desire to navigate, but she later
reflected Maiden was more than me. It was about anyone
who was told they were not good enough. If I failed,
my future would be their burden to bear. Sure enough,
Maiden's crew turned heads. A male journalist started out the
race referring to them as a tin full of tarts.
By the end of the race, they'd become a tin

(03:57):
full of smart, fast tarts. Life among the women on
Maiden was a return to the freedom Tracy had felt
that first time she set out to see The men
on the privateer hardly ever made conversation with each other,
but on Maiden, Tracy said, we always talked and we
didn't have a single argument the whole trip. We had
feisty discussions about which sales should be up because I

(04:20):
didn't have a team of sheep. Maiden won two legs
of the race and came second in class overall. It
was the best result for a British boat in more
than a decade. Tracy was awarded a Member of the
Order of the British Empire for her accomplishment and became
the first woman to be awarded the Yachtsman of the
Year trophy. But life after the race was difficult. Tracy

(04:45):
had to sell Maiden to pay off its cost. The
team dissipated, Tracy was doing speaking tours, attending events, publishing
a book, but her mental health and finances weren't doing well.
When she was forty three years old, she lost her
home in Bank Krupsy. She was helping her aging mother
and raising her daughter as a single parent, and yet

(05:06):
Tracy got back up, returning to school for a psychology
degree and eventually getting back out onto the ocean. In
nineteen ninety eight, Tracy put together the first all female
crew to sail around the world NonStop, but after breaking
five world records, their ship was wrecked off the coast
of Chile. In two thousand and two, she created one

(05:26):
of the first mixed gender teams to race in a
boat called Maiden two. Today, Tracy continues advocacy work for
women and young people to sail. In the mid twenty tens,
when Maiden was found rotting in the Seychelles, Tracy and
her crew raised money to buy the boat back and
restore it again, with some help, this time from Princess
Hayah King Hussain's daughter. On a suggestion from her own daughter,

(05:51):
Tracy started sailing Maiden around the world in a project
to advocate for girls' education. She also returned her old
boat to the racing world. In twenty twenty four, Tracy
watched a new generation of Maiden crew finish first in
the Ocean Globe Race, becoming the first all female crew
to win an around the World yacht race. All month,

(06:12):
we're talking about maritime Madams. For more information, find us
on Facebook and Instagram at Wamanica Podcast special thanks to
Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co creator. Talk to
you tomorrow.