Yachtswoman, author and activist Tracy Edwards, MBE, gained international fame in 1990 as the skipper of the first all-female crew to compete in the world’s toughest yacht race, the 33,000-mile Whitbread Round the World Race (now known as The Ocean Race). Her yacht, Maiden, won two legs of the competition and came in second overall in her class. For this feat, Tracy was awarded an MBE and became the first woman to receive the Yachtsman of the Year trophy.

In 2014, when Maiden was discovered in the Seychelles in a state of disrepair, Tracy raised funds to bring Maiden back home to the UK. And after she was restored to her former glory, the iconic yacht embarked on a three-year world tour in 2018 as a fundraising campaign for The Maiden Factor Foundation, a nonprofit organization founded by Tracy in an effort to promote the education of millions of girls all over the world.