Skipper of first female round the world sailing crew reunited with yacht she was forced to sell after 27 years

Nearly thirty years after it steered the first all-female crew around the world’s oceans, one of Britain’s most famous yachts, Maiden, is finally returning home after being rescued from a mouldering shipyard in the Indian Ocean. First captained by decorated yachtswoman Tracy Edwards to a second place finish in the 1989 Whitebread Round the World Yacht Race, the vessel was plucked from the clutches of a scrap merchant after falling into disrepair whilst moored in a small marina in The Seychelles. Edwards, who was forced to sell the yacht due to financial difficulties, first learned of its location after the marina’s owners contacted her to say they were preparing to sell it as scrap. Desperate to save the vessel from ruin, she flew out to Mahe, a small island that forms part of the East African archipelago, where she repurchased it from the Eden Island Marina with the help of the Jordanian royal family - one of the yacht’s original sponsors. Since then, Edwards, who became the first woman to be awarded the Yachtsman of the Year award following the race, has transported the vessel south across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town, South Africa, where it is currently being restored to its former glory. Now raising funds to bring the yacht back to the UK - she was forced to declare bankruptcy in 2005 after her Qatari sponsors failed to honour their funding agreement for a four-year sailing project - Edwards hopes to sail it home to Southampton harbour, where it first set sail 27 years ago. “I’d heard she had been in a poor state, but I wasn’t expecting it to have been that bad,” she said. “There was a real physical pain in my heart when I saw it. I guess it must have been building up because I didn’t think it would have been so emotional. “The boat was the 13th member of our crew and she looked after us and made sure we got home safely - so the bond is immense.” Once back in British waters, the vessel will be chartered for corporate events in order to raise money on behalf of Edwards’ numerous charitable commitments as a woman ambassador for United Nations. It will then complete a world tour in 2018, again captained by Edwards, in order to promote the UN’s Women gender equality programme alongside the charity I Am Girl. “It will help empower young girls so that they can go out and achieve their dreams,” Edwards added. “ My 17-year- old daughter and her generation cannot imagine what it was like back then and I’m glad they can’t because that is a sign of what we’ve achieved. “Maiden is an icon and has proved what women can do. She showed me that we are all able to do much more than we think, providing we just have someone to show us the way.”