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Wednesday 17 April 2024

British sailors complete global race as part of all-female international crew


 

The 13-strong crew, made up of international sailors, five of them Britons and skippered by Heather Thomas, from Otley, West Yorkshire, completed the Ocean Globe Race aboard their yacht, Maiden, at 10.52am on Tuesday.


Ms Thomas said: “It really is testament to how amazing these women are that even when things weren’t going to plan, we still stayed together as a team and we still got the boat back safely.


“It was really phenomenal to have all of those boats and people come and see us. The first person we saw was Tracy, of course. That was amazing and we’ve had an amazing welcome back here on land.”


Tracy Edwards, skipper of the boat in the 1989-90 race and director of The Maiden Factor Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the education of women and girls, said: “We are so proud of this talented and courageous, international all-female crew who have battled extremely unusual weather conditions around the world with only a sextant and paper charts!”


The 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race, which marks the 50th anniversary of the first edition of the Whitbread Round the World Race, featured 14 boats representing eight countries.


Maiden was part of this year’s Ocean Globe Race’s Flyer Class, for yachts previously entered in the 1973, 1977 or 1981 Whitbread Round the World Race, or of ‘relevant’ historic significance.


In 1989 Maiden became the first boat with an all-female crew to participate in the Whitbread Round the World Race – the predecessor to the Ocean Globe Race, which was staged every four years until 1997-98.


This year’s competition has preserved the spirit of the historic races, with crews circumnavigating the globe without the use of satellites, GPS or computers.


Instead, they used sextants, paper maps and celestial navigation to complete the journey, with four boats forced to retire over the course of the seven months.


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