All-female team to sail in Volvo Ocean Race Legends Regatta

Tracy Edwards will be reunited with her all-female crew from the 1989-1990 Whitbread Race at the Volvo Ocean Race Legends Regatta later this year.

The two-day regatta will be before the start of the 2011-2012 Ocean Race in Alicante in November.

More than 12 racing crews that either won the round-the-world race or caused a major change in the sport will participate in the regatta.

And Edwards (pictured above) is adamant that her team aboard Maiden was one such crew. She said: ‘Maiden transcended sailing because it wasn’t just about getting girls on the water. It was much more than that – it was about breaking moulds and proving that anything was possible.

‘It encouraged more girls to get out on the water and there was a flurry of all female crews entering the race after that though it seems to have gone backwards now that the race is no longer a Corinthian event.’

Sir Chay Blyth’s Great Britain II, line honours victor in 1973-1974, will also appear at the regatta. Lawrie Smith’s Rothmans, one of Maiden’s rivals from 1989-1990, is signed up and it is hoped that winner of that race, Sir Peter Blake’s Steinlager 2, will also attend.

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