Club Med, winner of the regattThe Race
She is considered the modern pioneer of offshore women's sailing par excellence: the 40-year-old Tracy Edwards, born in Reading, England and mother of one child. She led the first all-women crew as a skipper in the Whitbread race in 1989.
With the D-Maxi “Maiden” she won several stages in her class and announced her plan when she was just 22 years old. Her sea experience until then: several Whitbread stages - as a cook. But Edwards' project came about. In 1989 there was hardly a sailing project that received more media attention than “Maiden”. For her accomplishments in the Whitbread Race, Edwards was awarded the British Order of Merit "Member of the British Empire". On "Maiden" (which Edwards navigated himself) sailed for the first time in the international spotlight by now well-known women like the American Dawn Riley (skippered a Whitbread 60 and ran an America's Cup campaign) and the Finn Mikealvon Koskull (sailed on all offshore Orbits of the world). After the Whitbread it was quiet around Edwards for a long time, while her former fellow sailors continued to work in high-profile campaigns. In 1998 Edwards returned to the international stage. This time she had bought the maxi-cat "ENZA" from Sir Peter Blake and Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, renamed it "Royal and Sun Alliance" and equipped it for another hunt for the Jules Verne trophy, with an all-women crew Of course (which incidentally also included the current “Amer Sports Too” sailors MirandMerron, EmmRichards and LisMcDonald). However, a broken mast in the Southern Ocean put an end to the much-noticed record run. Now Edwards wants to move out again to break this record. Her tool this time: the “Club Med”, winner of the millennium regattThe Race under skipper Grant Dalton. The speculation about the near future of the sailing monster has come to an end with Edwards' announcement. To prepare for the non-stop trip around the globe, Edwards wants to cross the Atlantic a few more times and target a few records. Nevertheless, about three million British pounds are still missing to secure the financing of the project. Therefore, Edwards has not yet announced the name of a sponsor. The salary for a replacement skipper should also be paid from the money. Because Edwards wants to stay ashore this time with the project with the former “Club Med”. The well-known solo skipper Ellen MacArthur (25) has similar plans, but for her own account. Her sponsor Kingfisher has announced another four-year cooperation with the Briton, which also includes a fight for the coveted Jules Verne trophy. The only possible boat for this would be a Kat of the new The Race generation. Which boat it will be (and “Club Med” has just been sold) is still in the stars.