CNN —
More than 3 decades since its pioneering, round-the-world voyage, the Maiden racing yacht is again sailing the precocious seas – and changing the lives of young women successful the process.
Skippered by British sailor Tracy Edwards, Maiden became the archetypal all-female unit to sail astir the satellite successful 1990 – a landmark infinitesimal for a athletics that was dilatory to invited women into the fold.
“It’s hard to retrieve that radical were beauteous assertive astir not wanting america to contention astir the world,” Edwards tells CNN Sport’s Don Riddell. “It was the existent past bastion of antheral dominance successful a sport.”
The unit ended up winning 2 of the six legs of the Whitbread Round the World Race – present known arsenic the Volvo Ocean Race – and placed 2nd wide successful its class, defying the sexist attitudes that pervaded sailing astatine the time.
“One of the headlines, which has to beryllium my favorite, was: ‘Maiden is conscionable a tin afloat of tarts,’” says Edwards, adding that the aforesaid writer aboriginal referred to the unit arsenic “a tin afloat of smart, accelerated tarts.”
Fast guardant 33 years agone and Maiden continues to correspond “the empowerment of women, the spot of women, and what women are susceptible of,” according to Edwards.
Having been restored to its erstwhile glory, the yacht has been touring astir the satellite since 2018, precocious completing a travel from Dakar, Senegal, to Cape Town, South Africa.
The purpose of the circuit is to rise funds and consciousness for girls’ education, trying – peculiarly successful the processing satellite – to support them successful acquisition until they are 18.
Making Maiden seaworthy erstwhile much was nary casual feat. In 2014, Edwards was told that the vas had fallen into disrepair and was rotting distant successful the Seychelles.
That prompted the archetypal unit from the 1989-90 Whitbread Round the World Race to commencement a fundraiser. Along with enactment from Princess Haya Bint al-Hussein, the girl of the precocious King Hussein of Jordan, they were capable to bring Maiden backmost to the UK and statesman a restoration project.
“The Maiden Factor” – the sanction fixed to the not-for-profit enactment – forms portion of the bequest of the archetypal crew.
Between 2021 and 2024, Maiden intends to sail 90,000 nautical miles, visiting 60 destinations successful much than 40 antithetic countries.
“I’m seeing radical getting to imagination much and knowing that we are limitless arsenic quality beings,” says Lungi Mchunu, a subordinate of the existent Maiden crew.
“I conscionable privation them to beryllium capable to imagination and cognize that they tin effort and bash anything. If it doesn’t enactment for you, that’s fine; you support moving, you find thing that’s much suited for you.”
A South African native, Mchunu utilized to enactment arsenic a banker and was terrified of the oversea earlier she discovered sailing successful 2017. Since then, she has not lone conquered her fear, but has besides go the archetypal African pistillate to sail to the Arctic.
“For immoderate unusual reason, I consciousness astatine location adjacent erstwhile the waves are similar 5 oregon 8 meters,” says Mchunu.
“I consciousness the astir comfy astatine oversea … Even erstwhile I was rescued successful the Arctic, it was not scary. I was conscionable okay, I conjecture … I’m getting to cognize a broadside of myself that I ne'er knew existed.”
Mchunu’s eventual imagination is to sail solo astir the world, and Maiden – arsenic it has with truthful galore different women earlier – is empowering her to execute that goal.
English (US) ·