A few weeks ago, a dear friend and I went to see a documentary called Maiden. It was the story of the first ever, all-female crew of a boat in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race. This friend is excellent at always being prepared, and to get us ready for the movie, she found this great interview with the skipper of the boat Maiden, Tracy Edwards, on NPR.
The Whitbread, now called the Volvo Ocean Challenge, is a yacht race that happens every three years. It began in 1972 when the Whitbread company and the British Royal Naval Sailing Association agreed to sponsor a regatta that circled the globe as a sort of tribute to Brittan’s maritime legacy. The original course followed routes of 19th century square riggers and began and ended in England until Volvo became the title sponsor in 2001. A major leg of the race takes place in the Southern Ocean, usually leaving from South America somewhere and winding up in Australia (that is a long stretch of rough and icy water my friends).
Tracy Edwards did not set out to crush the patriarchy. One of the clips in the film is an interview where she is mortified by the reporter’s asking if she is a feminist. She was a young girl, with a rough childhood, who discovered and fell in love with yachting. She first participated in the 1985-86 Whitbread as a cook, the only crew position that she could get. After proving herself in that capacity, she was determined to find a sailing position on a crew. No one would hire her. Because she was a girl. So, she did what any girl with a dream of competing in a man’s world would do, she put together her own program. Now, saying that yacht racing is an elite sport is putting it mildly and this was not a girl of means. But she was scrappy and frankly, I don’t think that it occurred to her that she shouldn’t be able to compete – from either a status or gender perspective. I’ll tell you what, in 1989 (and probably the entire 1990’s for that matter) it never occurred to me that any of the challenges that I faced were based on my gender, I really had grown up thinking that women had achieved equality (what a precious, naïve little thing I was). I get the sense that Tracy Edwards and the crew of intrepid women who she put together all shared that perspective at that time as well.
Maiden finished the race second in their class, an outstanding accomplishment considering all of the obstacles the crew had to overcome (like taking on water) but a bittersweet ending for this highly competitive crew who weren’t just hoping to finish, they were in it to win it. They also won two of the legs of the race outright, including the brutal Southern Ocean crossing (I think in the film they said that they were at sea for five weeks). Tracy, the skipper, received the “Yachtsman of the Year” trophy (the first woman to do so).
And then the story ends the way that things did in those days – not with a bang, but a whimper. They competed and they succeeded and what was next? Um…the crew of Maiden went their separate ways. These days, there would be a whole media machine waiting at the dock for those gals to make land – interviews, merchandise, speaking engagements, a foundation dedicated to developing sailing programs for girls, a Netflix original series inspired by…you name it. But it was a different time. Tracy did write a book, which was published in 1990 and now has a career as a motivational speaker.
I fully expected that I would be boo-hoo sobbing by the end of the film (like I was at the RBG documentary), but I left that theatre feeling pretty pumped up. Like if I had a big enough vision, all I’d have to do is bring together the right group of women and we could go out there and just freaking crush it.
I’ll let you know if/when I come up with something, but if anyone reading this has a BHAG that I can sign up to crew for, let me know!