What an inspiring story! Tracy Edwards was the trail-blazer for women in sailing in the 1980s and when I watched this documentary I was so impressed, I quickly bought and devoured a copy of her book.

Here were a bunch of women my age who had taken on the world in their 20s. In my 20s, I had no aims, ambition or idea of what I wanted to do – yet here were a crew of women tackling the most prestigious yachting race of the day, and winning the toughest leg through the southern ocean! All led by 27 year-old, Tracy.

The story is one of perseverance, courage and an absolute determination to not be under-estimated, dismissed, or in any way seen as lesser, simply because of gender.

As I have sailed on relatively calm seas on Novara, I have often thought about specific aspects of this book. One of the things that comes to mind, is the comment that by the end of the journey, the crew hardly needed to talk to each other about what they were doing, because they were so practiced at working together, they knew perfectly each other’s role.

Another is that when Maiden left the UK, the sailing media described them as ‘A tin full of tarts’. When the Maiden crew won the long and most difficult leg across the southern ocean and came into Auckland, the New Zealand media described them as ‘A tin full of fast, smart tarts’. Thinking about that makes me chuckle.

Despite the leadership people like Tracy Edwards have displayed in proving women can be excellent sailors – we still have a male bias in this sport.  One of my agendas on board Novara is to (as much as possible) have a gender balance onboard. We can all play our part in making the world a more equitable place.