British sailors complete global race as part of all-female international crew

An all-female crew skippered by a British sailor has completed a race around the world after crossing the finish line at the Isle of Wight.

The 13-strong crew, made up of international sailors, five of them Britons and skippered by Heather Thomas, from Otley, West Yorkshire, completed the Ocean Globe Race aboard their yacht, Maiden, at 10.52am on Tuesday.

Tracy Edwards, skipper of the boat in the 1989-90 race and director of The Maiden Factor Foundation, a foundation dedicated to the education of women and girls, said: “We are so proud of this talented and courageous, international all-female crew who have battled extremely unusual weather conditions around the world with only a sextant and paper charts!”

Maiden skipper Heather Thomas and former skipper Tracy Edwards MBE (Kaia Bint Savage/The Maiden Factor/PA)

The 2023-24 Ocean Globe Race, which marks the 50th anniversary of the first edition of the Whitbread Round the World Race, featured 14 boats representing eight countries.

Setting sail from Cowes in September last year, crews travelled over 27,000 nautical miles – as far as Auckland, New Zealand – and stopped in three continents, all without the use of modern technology.

The Ocean Globe Race comprised four legs, with boats racing from Cowes to Cape Town, Auckland, and Punta del Este, Uruguay, before returning to the UK.

The event marks a break in Maiden’s world tour which began in September 2021, having covered 30,000 nautical miles and visiting 20 destinations as part of The Maiden Factor’s mission to educate, empower and elevate girls, including raising money to fund girls’ educational projects around the world.

Some of Maiden’s original crew met the new Maiden crew before the start of the race (Kaia Bint Savage/The Maiden Factor/PA)

Maiden was part of this year’s Ocean Globe Race’s Flyer Class, for yachts previously entered in the 1973, 1977 or 1981 Whitbread Round the World Race, or of ‘relevant’ historic significance.

In 1989 Maiden became the first boat with an all-female crew to participate in the Whitbread Round the World Race – the predecessor to the Ocean Globe Race, which was staged every four years until 1997-98.

This year’s competition has preserved the spirit of the historic races, with crews circumnavigating the globe without the use of satellites, GPS or computers.

Instead, they used sextants, paper maps and celestial navigation to complete the journey, with four boats forced to retire over the course of the seven months.