MAIDEN- A Must See Documentary by Alex Holmes
Filmmaker Alex Holmes brings us “MAIDEN,” a documentary film that will inspire you to never give up on your dream. It is about forging ahead, and with hard work and perseverance, anything is possible.
MAIDEN tells the story about 24-year-old Tracy Edwards, a female cook on a charter boat who became the skipper of the first ever all female-crew to enter the Whitbread Round the World in 1989.
Tracy dealt with the chauvinistic yachting press which predicted their failure and sponsors who rejected her fearing that the women would die at sea and would incur bad publicity, none of which deterred Tracy from forging ahead to prove them all wrong.
Young Tracy sacrificed everything to pursue her dream, mortgaging her home, and buying a second-hand boat; she rallied her female friends and pushed on with the vision. With their help, she went on to shock the sports world and prove them wrong; women were capable of achieving greatness against all the odds.
It’s stories like Tracy’s that needs to be told, and director Alex Holmes understands the importance of storytelling to bring her story to life. But this is not just Tracy’s tale; it is a story about the bonding of women coming to together with passion and purpose to change the course of history.
Left to right: Tracy Edwards, Dawn Riley, Sally Hunter, Angela Heath, Mikaela Von Koskull, Amanda Swan Neal, Tanja Visser, Jo Gooding Courtesy of Tracy Edwards and Sony Pictures Classics
From Alex Holmes
“I’m the first to admit,” says Holmes, “I went to the school evening with a slightly heavy heart as I’ve sat through many such evenings with my older kids. But this year they had a guest speaker—Tracy. I was immediately struck by the power and resonance of her story. It got me thinking that things were still different for my son compared to my two daughters—that I still felt I needed to remind my girls that they shouldn’t feel in any way limited by the world around them, that it’s theirs for the taking if they choose. Tracy’s story still felt as relevant now as it did back then. Not only was Tracy an amazing character—you can tell that straight off the bat—not only was this a very powerful and positive emotional story, but it was an important story. And now was the time to tell it.”
The Whitbread Round, the World Race, began in 1973, sponsored by Britain’s Whitbread, a brewery that evolved into a hotel and hospitality chain. The race, held every three years, switched sponsors in 2001 and is now known as the Volvo Ocean Race.
Maiden competed in the 5th WRTWR which comprised several classes of different boat sizes and six legs totaling 32,000 nautical miles. In more recent years, smaller yachts such as Tracy Edwards’ 58-foot Maiden no longer run the Volvo Ocean Race, which is dominated by bigger yachts racing more and shorter legs.
Maiden won two of the legs, the longest and shortest, in the 5th WRTWR and came in second overall in her class, the best result for a British boat in 17 years, and remains the best result ever for an all-female crew.
MAIDEN will open in Los Angeles and New York Friday, June 28th, 2019
