Tracy Edwards
Round-the-world sailor, women’s empowerment campaigner
Tracy won international fame in 1990 as the skipper of the first all-woman crew to sail around the world in her yacht Maiden when they raced in the 1989/90 Whitbread Round The World Race, winning two legs and coming second overall. Tracy was awarded an MBE and became the first woman in its 34-year history to be awarded the Yachtsman of the Year trophy.
In 1998 she skippered the first all-female crew to attempt the Jules Verne non-stop round the world record. During their attempt Tracy and her team broke seven world records. In 2000 she created and managed the world’s first mixed-sex professional racing crew with Maiden II and the team broke the 24-hour speed record.
In 2017 she carried out a complete restoration of Maiden and so began a 90,000-mile three-year world tour raising funds and awareness for girls’ education. In April 2024 Maiden completed her racing career by carrying the first all-female crew to win an around-the-world race. Maiden raced with the first black female crew and the first Afghan to ever sail or race around the world.
Tracy currently runs her charity with the focus on getting girls into education with the ultimate aim of financial independence and empowerment.
“I know that sex is binary and immutable and it should not take courage to say so. I am committed to women’s rights being protected in every day life, sport, schools, toilets, changing rooms, gyms, single sex spaces, prison, rape crises centres and anywhere women are seeing their hard won rights actively and purposefully eroded by gender identity and self ID via the back door. I am also committed to protecting children from this dangerous and harmful ideology. I want to see the Equality Act 2010 clarified to make it clear that our rights are sex based.”