{"id":8102,"date":"2019-08-01T07:13:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-01T11:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8102"},"modified":"2019-09-04T07:03:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-04T11:03:14","slug":"maiden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8102","title":{"rendered":"Maiden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Twelve times since 1973, an international set of racing yachts\nhas taken to the ocean for a Round the World Yacht Race (first sponsored by\nWhitbread brewery and now called the Volvo Ocean Race, under its new sponsor).\nIt\u2019s dangerous work, with crews pitted against each other, the weather, and the\nimplacable seas. Until 1989, ocean racing was a man\u2019s game, with women\nunwelcome even in the galley. Only five of the 200 crew members on boats in the\nrace before 1989 were women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But in that year, everything changed, as shown in the\nriveting new documentary written and directed by Alex Holmes detailing the\nvoyage of the Maiden<\/em> (trailer<\/a>). Using 30-year-old\nfootage it includes film of the trip, comments by other captains, and excepts\nfrom upbeat interviews with the Maiden<\/em>\u2019s\ncaptain, Tracy Edwards. Interviews with her today reveal how frightened she\nwas. For a very long time, she couldn\u2019t get a sponsor for the expensive venture;\neven running the race was costly, with a land crew to meet and help them at\nevery stop. A lot was riding on her boat\u2019s success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No one expected them to do well against the 22 other boats\nin the race. Everyone knew \u201cgirls\u201d couldn\u2019t sail such a demanding course. The\nlocal Portsmouth punters took bets on how far they\u2019d get\u2014out of the harbor,\nthen back? the Canary Islands? No one expected them to finish the race\u2019s first\nleg, across the Atlantic to Uruguay, much less the entire race. The dismissive yachting\njournalists and rival captains reinterviewed today have vivid memories of how\nEdwards scuttled their assumptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maiden<\/em> won the\nmost grueling leg of the race, across the far south latitudes, icebergs and\nall, to reach Australia, then the shortest, around to a stop in New Zealand,\nwhich required precision boat-handling. It wasn\u2019t just the physical challenge\nof controlling a 58-foot boat in heavy seas. It was a mental and endurance\nchallenge as well, especially for Edwards, who served as skipper and navigator.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For every member of the crew then and now, this experience\nwas the adventure of a lifetime. An uplifting journey for viewers too. Says Adam\nGraham<\/a> in the Detroit News<\/em>, Maiden<\/em> \u201c tells a story whose tidal waves\nwere felt far beyond the deck of her ship.\u201d And you stay dry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rotten\nTomatoes<\/a> critics\u2019 rating: 98%; audiences: 98%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Twelve times since 1973, an international set of racing yachts has taken to the ocean for a Round the World Yacht Race (first sponsored by Whitbread brewery and now called the Volvo Ocean Race, under its new sponsor). It\u2019s dangerous … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Maiden - modern adventure on the high seas when an all-female crew takes on the challenge of an around the world yacht race. ","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[440,58,266,1172,104],"tags":[1611,1612],"class_list":["post-8102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-documentaries","category-history","category-sports","category-the-morgue","tag-maiden","tag-tracy-edwards"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Maiden.jpg?fit=500%2C282&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-maiden","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8102"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8102\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8103,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8102\/revisions\/8103"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}