On the road again

In part one of this interview Tracy Edwards talks to James Boyd about sailing with a mixed crew

It was with the grin of a Cheshire cat, that Tracy Edwards yesterday announced her plans to get her record breaking team back on the water. To do this she has purchased Grant Dalton's Club Med and the 110ft catamaran has been rechristened Maiden II until such time as Edwards secures sponsorship for the project.

One of the principle objectives of Edwards' three year program is to break the Jules Verne Trophy with her all-female team, following unfinished business from her Royal & SunAlliance attempt four years ago when her catamaran was dismasted in the Southern Ocean en route to Cape Horn. Edwards also plans to enter the second running of The Race in February 2004 but in a significant departure from her previous campaigns, this will be with a mixed crew.

"We felt that we wanted to close the circle," explains Edwards of this new turn. "We started on Maiden to prove that women could race around the world. We introduced a lot of great women sailors to the world of sailing. For us it was a means to an end, it was a way of getting girls onto the best boats in the best crews with the best sponsorship, which is what they're out there doing now.

"The final thing which an all-female crew hasn't done is to race around the world non-stop. Plus it's a nice close: because we did the first one with stops, now we'll do the final one without stopping. And what we wanted was a situation where we don't want to become something which we accused the male crews of being. The Jules Verne is one thing, but when it comes to doing The Race, Miranda won't be there, because she's doing the Vendee Globe and there's three or four crewmembers - if not more - that won't be able to do it. But we'll have a good core team, so we said why don't we throw it open and finally do what we've been moaning about all the time and put our money where our mouth is [and invite some boys on board]. It's a nice evolution."

Edwards has spent the last years campaigning for equality of the sexes in sailing and although the plight of women's sailing is considerably better than it was, ironically this could prove to be a double edged sword for her. In an impressive display of loyalty all of her crew from Royal & SunAlliance are down on the list as being part of the Maiden II team, but many now have their own successful sailing careers and are having to undergo major wrangles with their existing projects in order to be part of her team.

At the press conference yesterday were Emma Richards, Miranda Merron and Sharon Ferris all of whom are currently taking part in the Volvo Ocean Race on Amer Sports Too. One of Lisa McDonald's watch captains, Emma Westmacott, (formerly a watch leader on Royal & SunAlliance) has also signed up for Maiden II.

Taking part will prove a particularly interesting challenge for Richards and Merron, both of whom in addition to Amer Sports Too and Maiden II, have their own projects on the boil, Richards with Pindar and Merron with her French sponsor, Un Univers de Services. With the Route du Rhum coming up in November there will be little breathing space for either of them this year.

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