Maiden is the story of how Tracy Edwards, a 24-year-old cook in charter boats, became the skipper of the first ever all-female crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989. Tracy’s inspirational dream was opposed on all sides: her male competitors thought an all-women crew would never make it, the chauvinistic yachting press took bets on her failure, and potential sponsors rejected her, fearing they would die at sea and generate bad publicity. But Tracy refused to give up: she remortgaged her home and bought a secondhand boat, putting everything on the line to ensure the team made it to the start line. Although blessed with tremendous self-belief Tracy was beset by crippling doubts and was only able to make it through with the support of her remarkable crew. With their help she went on to shock the sport world and prove that women are very much the equal of men.
A time bomb is ticking for a huge swath of the boating public — the generation that ranges 35 and younger — that will be required, starting Jan. 1, to have a California Boaters Card before operating a boat.
Over the weekend at Shasta Lake, California’s No. 1 recreation lake, sheriffs on boat patrols were handing out a safety booklet with the test in the back, provided free from the Division of Boating and Waterways.
“Families are … More
What happens when skipper Alex Thomson, onboard his IMOCA 60 HUGO BOSS race boat, goes up against two of the world’s best kitesurfers, Slingshot’s Sam Light and Fred Hope?