Tracy Edwards MBE and DP World, title sponsor of The Maiden Factor World Tour, have announced that the iconic yacht Maiden and her all-female crew will enter the 2023 Ocean Global Race.
The news confirms the commitment Edwards made in 2019 when the event was announced as a tribute to mark the 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread Round the World Race in 1973.
Maiden will take a break from her world tour, which began in September 2021, to take part in the race which sets out from a European port on 10 September, just 200 days away.
Edwards and crew have covered nearly 30,000 nautical miles visiting 20 destinations and engaging with schools, charities and organisations as part of her mission to educate, empower and elevate girls, increasing their life and career choices and also raising money to fund girls’ educational projects around the world.
And she believes the OGR will provide a great opportunity to amplify Maiden’s mission and the importance of educating all girls for better futures for all.
Maiden is currently in Cape Town, South Africa and will sail back to the UK for final preparations for the September start, once again with a young female skipper and crew of up-and-coming sailors from around the world, who will no doubt inspire another generation of women and girls to follow their dreams.
In 1989 Edwards made history as the skipper of the first ever all-female crew — among them Irish sailor Angela Farrell — to enter the Whitbread Round the World Race, now The Ocean Race. Their achievement is celebrated in the 2019 documentary Maiden.
The yacht later changed hands several times and her whereabouts were lost until 2014, when Edwards tracked her down to an island in the Indian Ocean. Despite being in serious disrepair, Maiden was eventually restored to her former racing glory.
