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Tracy Edwards
Tracy Edwards has gone from the heights of international fame and recognition through bankruptcy and back up again. She speaks candidly about her experiences and is an inspirational speaker for all audiences
First Female Round the World
Tracy Edwards won international fame in 1989 as the skipper of the first all female crew to sail around the world in the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race. The boat won two legs and came second overall in her class. The best result for a British boat since 1977. In 1990 Tracy was awarded Sportswoman of the Year and an MBE. She was the first woman to achieve acceptance by the British yachting community and paved the way for other women, notably Dawn Riley and Ellen MacArthur to follow.
Best Selling Author
Tracy wrote the story of her record-breaking Whitbread voyage, and the book Maiden was published in 1990 and remained at number one in the book chart for 19 weeks. Tracy's second book was her self-penned autobiography, Living Every Second that was released in 2001.
The amazing story of her recent time in Qatar, the Oryx Quest 2005 round the- world yacht race and the true story surrounding her recent bankruptcy, will form the basis of a book and major TV documentary.
In The Beginning
Tracy Edwards came into sailing by an nconventional route. Her father died when she was young and her mother travelled the world as a ballet dancer. Tracy, born in Reading, attended the famous specialist arts school ‘Arts Educational’ where she studied ballet and drama and later when her family moved to Wales, she attended Gowerton Comprehensive. She was expelled from that school at 15 and began sailing as an on-board cook. Tracy overcame chronic seasickness to become a professional sailor in 1980 and embarked on her first Whitbread Round The World Race 1985-86 as a crewmember on "Atlantic Privateer” which came 1st on the Cape Town -Auckland leg.
Record Breaking Feat
Following her groundbreaking success with Maiden, Tracy set to consolidate her position as one of the world’s top sailors by entering Trophy Jules Verne in 1998 with the Royal SunAlliance boat, again with an all-female crew. This yachting trophy is for the fastest circumnavigation around the world with no stopping and no outside assistance. Tracy and her crew broke seven world records during their two-year programme. One of these, the Channel Record was the fastest ocean record in the world for three years. She was well on
course for the record for more than half of their route, but was thwarted by treacherous seas off the coast of Chile and her mast snapped in two. Tracy and her crew managed to sail the stricken yacht to Chile. It took 16 days to cover some 2000 miles to shore, with no outside assistance.
Tracy retired from round-the-world sailing two years later when pregnant with her now six-year-old daughter Mackenna, and decided to turn her attention to managing sailing projects for her team. In 2001 she acquired Maiden II, the fastest catamaran in the world and she and her team set about breaking records, including the Everest of sailing records, the 24-hour record, and their own Channel record. Realising that big multihulls needed a race circuit to make it easier for teams to find sponsorship, she began organising round the world sailing events.
Consultancy and Business
She initiated and then worked with the other owners and skippers of these giant multihulls to develop a formal governing body for the sport with championship tables and rules. In 2003 she set up Quest International Sports Events after agreeing a £6 million deal with the crown prince of Qatar to create and run two round-the world races in a four-year £38million sailing programme. Edwards raised a further £3 million from HSBC and negotiated a £20million sponsorship deal for the entrants. Edwards also brokered negotiations between the Crown Prince and HSBC for the development of the first major marina complex in Doha, the capital city of Qatar.
The first of the two races was the Oryx Quest 2005, which was a huge success and created $46 million worth of media coverage for the gulf state in their key target markets but disaster struck when the sponsorship money was withheld and Quest went into receivership and Tracy was forced into bankruptcy in September 2005. Alongside her sailing business Tracy works as a motivational speaker for some of the biggest global companies and before moving to Qatar was in the £200,000-a-year engagement bracket. She has been in the top list of motivational speakers for the past ten years.
Charity Work
She regularly gives her time for charity work and is a patron of the following organisations - The Prince's Trust, Lady Taverners, NCH and Sport Aid. Tracy's tumultuous childhood has given her a unique way to contribute to such organisations as The Prince's Trust. She is passionately committed to giving youngsters a second chance and hope of a future and is able to interact with young people on a personal level. Tracy supports The Lady
Taverners vision of giving kids a sporting chance and believes that all youngsters should have access to sport. Sailing gave Tracy a second chance at a life and she gives a huge amount of her time to help those that help others.
In addition to her other numerous life achievements, Tracy has also successfully turned her hand to television, presenting shows such as: 'The Science of Sailing' and 'On the Crest of a Wave' for the National Geographic Channel, 'The Southampton Boat Show' for ITV, ‘Buoys and Girls’ for BBC1 and 'The Whitbread Round the World Race 93/94' for ITV. She co-wrote and presented a documentary for Channel 4 about the Falmouth Maritime Museum and appeared in a TV commercial for Royal SunAlliance. She has also written numerous articles for newspapers and recently wrote a weekly life-guide column for a leading woman's website.
For further information or to book Tracy Edwards, call us on 020 8866 8967 or email info@speakerscorner.co.uk
