The Ocean Globe Race proved to be rich in trials and tribulations. Yet it was the dominance of female skippers and crew which stole the headlines – as Barry Pickthall reports. Photos PPL
I would have liked to record that the last bastion of male chauvinism within our sport had been blown away at the finish of the Ocean Globe Race at Cowes in April by cannon fire from the heart of male dominance – The Royal Yacht Squadron. But health and safety rules preclude any sort of gunfire after sunset. The first five finishers, led by Marie Tabarly’s 73ft destroyer of a yacht, Pen Duick VI all finished at night.
It was left to Heather Thomas and her all-girl Maiden crew to shine daylight on the issue, finishing at a more ladylike1052 to take the crown for handicap honours. Even then, Squadron members were noticeable by their absence on the castle parapets, perhaps hiding behind their morning papers, hoping the issue might pass them by.
For the rest of us, standing on Cowes Parade, close to the still silent row of cannon, Maiden’s return was an emotional moment, especially for reformed male chauvinists like myself who had to eat our words 34 years ago when Tracy Edwards and her all girl crew returned to a victorious welcome up Southampton Water to finish 2nd in class in the 1989/90 Whitbread race, having won two of the legs outright.
Twenty-seven-year-old Heather Thomas and her second generation ‘Maidenettes’ went one further than Tracy’s crew, by winning this new race, marking the 50th anniversary of the first Whitbread back in 1973, outright. They had to wait four days for confirmation, but within 24 hours, the outcome became a foregone conclusion. The wind gods had turned off the fans, leaving Triana, the French favourite which had set off from Punta del Este, the third stopover in this race, with a seven day lead on handicap, stuck in fickle head winds. Her crew, led by Jean d’Arthuys finally reached the Squadron finish line two days out of time.
Back in Tracy’s day, we newspaper hacks had perhaps been a tad uncharitable about their prospects after the original all-girl crew failed to shine in warm-up races and lost their most experienced crew person a short time before the start.
The late great Bob Fisher described Maiden in these pages as ‘a tin-full of tarts’. He had to change his tone in Auckland when Tracy won that leg on handicap, resulting in her being voted British Yachtsman of
