in 1989 tracy edwards and her all—female crew we re tracy edwards and her all—female crew were openlyre openly mocked as girls doing a man'sjob when crew were openly mocked as girls doing a man's job when they took pa rt doing a man's job when they took part in the wet read round the world challenge. —— whitbread. maiden, the film named after their racing boat, is that story. painstakingly pieced together from archive footage, but it relates the story of the boat's skipper, a young woman it relates the story of the boat's skippei’. a young woman working it relates the story of the boat's skipper, a young woman working on yachts who learned —— yarns to race. why did you decide to put together a all—female crew? why did you decide to put together a all-female crew? any woman on a boat could never be proven —— never be good enough if we could prove that an all—female crew would be the only way to prove once and for all. the triumph of maiden as a sporting first might have gone undocumented, not the tracy edwards giving a talk in london which director alex holmes attended with his daughte

in 1989 tracy edwards and her all—female crew were openly mocked as girls doing a man's job when theyaiden, the film named after their racing boat, is the story of that voyage. painstakingly pieced together from archive footage, but it traces the personaljourney of the boat's skipper, a young woman working on yachts who yearned to race. why did you decide to put together an all—female crew? for any woman going on a boat she could never be good enough unless we could prove that a project put together by women, for women, to sail around the world with an all—female crew would be the only way to prove once and for all. the triumph of maiden as a sporting first might have gone undocumented, were it not for tracy edwards giving a talk in london, which director alex holmes attended with his daughter. the story she told seemed to me, listening to it in the presence of my 11—year—old daughter, to be as relevant today as it was all those years ago in 1989. i have neverfelt that i had to encourage my son to be more ambitious, but i still felt like i still had to encourage my daughter to do that

the triumph of maiden as a sporting first, might have gone undocumented were it not for tracy edwardsnded with his daughter. the story she told, seemed to me, listening to it in the presence of my 11—year—old daughter to be as relevant today as it was all those years ago in 1989. i had never felt i had to encourage my son to be more ambitious but i still felt i had to encourage my daughter to do that. that was a shock to me, that prejudice and those expectations were still present in the world we live in today. a very well known journalist referred to us as a tinful of tarts. the further we got the nastier the stuff would get. but maiden isn'tjust a narrative on a sporting underdog, it's a powerful commentary on how until recently, media depicted and interviewed sportswoman. waves of chauvinism battered the crew from all sides. i think what i found most frustrating was that we were putting our heart and soul into it and the navigation, tactics and training, and the fitness, and you know, we were a truly professional racing team, still getting asked the questions like, how do you go to