Interview – Heather Thomas
When Maiden crossed the finish line off the Royal Yacht Squadron, Cowes, accompanied by a flotilla of well wishers, it was hard not to reminisce over her finish of the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race – a race which catapulted her and her then-skipper, Tracy Edwards MBE, into the history books.
Fast forward some 35 years to 16 April 2024, and this was another moment for the history books and a not dissimilar race: the Ocean Globe Race, brainchild of Don McIntyre, conceived as ‘a fully crewed retro race for ordinary sailors in normal yachts’ – with no modern tech allowed.
Far from being ‘ordinary’, Maiden and her multinational all-female crew have proven themselves quite extraordinary, sailing 27,000nm via Cape Town, Auckland and Punta del Este, Uruguay, fending off competition from 13 other yachts to take the overall race victory after 153d 2h 16m of racing around the world.
Their stated mission was to “show women what women can do” and they have achieved precisely that (mercifully, no swimsuit photo stunts needed to grab attention this time!) with a string of firsts including not only the first all-female crew to win a round the world race, but the first female British skipper and the first fully crewed British boat to
