Maiden (yacht)

The 58 foot (18 m)[2][3] aluminium-hulled racing yacht was commissioned by the Swiss Ocean Racing Club. Designed by Bruce Farr and named Disque D'Or 3 (or Disque D'Or III) in 1979, she came fourth in the 1981–82 Whitbread Round the World Race, skippered by Swiss sailor Pierre Fehlmann. She was renamed Stabilo Boss for the 1986–87 BOC single-handed challenge, and came seventh, skippered by South African Bertie Reed.[4]

Whitbread race route in 1989-90

1989 Maiden crew

The boat, then named Prestige, was bought by Tracy Edwards in 1987 with the intention of entering the first all-female Whitbread crew in the 1989–90 Whitbread Round the World Race; in the previous race, only five women had been among the 200 sailors. Edwards remortgaged her house to buy the boat, and was supported by King Hussein of Jordan and sponsorship from Royal Jordanian Airlines.[5] Edwards recruited a 12-woman crew; the boat nearly sank in the River Hamble on the way to the boatyard,[6] but they rebuilt the boat from scratch in 1988. She was christened Maiden by Sarah, Duchess of York. The 1989 Fastnet race was intended to be a warm-up for Maiden and crew, but was abandoned after the start owing to an injury to crewperson Jo Gooding.[7][8] In the Whitbread race, Maiden finished second in her class (which included Rucanor Sport (BEL), Esprit de Liberté (FRA) and La Poste (FRA)),[9] and was winner in Division D on two out of six individual legs of the race (including the longest leg, the iceberg strewn 7,260 nmi leg in the Southern Ocean),[10] the best finish by a British boat for 17 years. Edwards was awarded the Yachtsman of the Year Trophy, the first woman to receive it, and made an MBE.[11][12]

The crew (not all for the whole race) were Tracy Edwards (skipper), Mandi Swan (Amanda Swan Neal), Mikaela Von Koskull, Claire Warren, Michele Paret, Tanja Visser, Sally Creaser, Dawn Riley, Nancy Hill, Jeni Mundy, Jo Gooding (from Leg 2), Sarah Davies (reserve), Kristin Harris (Leg 1)[13] and Angela Farrell.[14][15]

Having taken out loans to buy the boat, Edwards sold her after the race. In 1990 Edwards published an account in Maiden, co-authored with Tim Madge.[16] There were several subsequent owners. In 1996/97 she was chartered by Stuart Bowen Davies and skippered by John Bankart and was successfully campaigned in the Hong Kong Round the World yacht Race which was organized by Jimmy Cornell. The last of this series of owners abandoned the yacht in a marina in the Seychelles. The marina seized the boat and offered it to Edwards, who was reunited with the boat after a break of 27 years and was shocked at her condition.[17] Nevertheless, the intention, after fundraising and some restoration work in Cape Town, was to sail her back to England with original crew members and use her for fundraising to promote girls' education under the banner "Maiden Rescue".[18] In the event, the yacht, considered unfit to be sailed, left Cape Town on 26 March 2017 by cargo ship.[2] The shipping was arranged by Peters and May, who had worked with the Maiden team in the Whitbread race.[19]

Maiden arrived in Southampton in April 2017[20] and the original crew reunited.[13] The yacht was refitted by Hamble Yacht Services[21] in Hamble, near Southampton,[22] in the same shed where she had been refitted in 1988.[11] She was re-rigged by Ocean Yacht Systems, the same firm that had rigged her in the 1980s.[23]