Respond to these rapid questions in our Maiden quiz and we will tell you which Maiden character you are. Play it now.
A voice tells us at the beginning of Alex Holmes’ moving documentary, “Maiden,” that “first and foremost, you have to be a little crazy” in order to sail around the world. “You have to be a little bit different than the average bloke.” Because they are the first all-female team to enter a boat in the Whitbread Around the World Challenge, Holmes’ subjects are certainly different from the average bloke on the street. When it comes to firsts, the struggle to be taken seriously can seem almost as insurmountable as completing the actual task. Moreover, sailing the Whitbread is no easy task; the voyage will cover 33,000 nautical miles in total, the majority of which will be spent battling the ocean, the world’s most abundant and irritated natural resource.
When we first see the boat that gives the film its title, she embodies both Webster’s definitions of scrappy: she’s in a state of advanced disrepair as a result of years of use, but she has a tenacity about her that suggests she’s not quite ready to give up the ghost just yet. In spite of the fact that skipper Tracy Edwards chose the ship Maiden for budgetary reasons, she and her crew immediately set about restoring it to her former glory and then attempting to inscribe an even greater victory upon her. No female skipper had ever led a ship to victory in the Whitbread simply because female skippers were not permitted to enter the competition. The best they could do was serve as the vessel’s cook, a position held by Edwards during the previous Whitbread expedition. Even at that point, however, the idea was met with strong reservations and opposition.
As is the case with everything that is considered a “boys’ club,” the general consensus is that women have no place in these establishments. Either she serves as a visual distraction, or she is a clumsy weak link who lacks skill, or she serves as both. These kinds of broad generalizations are rarely supported by evidence because the powers that be are quick to dismiss any opportunity to disprove them rather than provide it. Edwards has no trouble finding a crew of women who share her enthusiasm and skill set for sailing, demonstrating that there is a market and an interest in sailing that her male counterparts are unwilling to acknowledge or acknowledge. One of Edwards’ most difficult challenges will be locating a sponsor for her entry into the Whitbread. Alternatively, the companies she approaches either dismiss the idea of an all-female competitor as absurd, or they embrace the concept but do not believe there will be a return on their investment in her proposal. The Maiden is able to compete in the nine-month race in September 1989 thanks to the generosity of an unexpected benefactor.
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Edwards is the first person we see in “Maiden,” as well as the first person who hears her voice. During a series of terrifying waves that would make even the Beach Boys tremble, she narrates, “The ocean is always trying to kill you.” “It doesn’t take a break,” says the author. Edwards then appears in promotional footage from the 1989 race, which was shot just before the start of the race. Currently, she is preoccupied with introducing herself as skipper of the Maiden. She has dark hair and a youthful glint in her eye, and she reeks of the piss and vinegar that is supposed to be reserved only for men in the prime of their lives. She’s been told to smile over and over again, like far too many other women.
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Not because Edwards is clearly older, but because she still has that same youthful spark that hasn’t faded with the passage of time, it’s jarring when the current incarnation of Edwards appears shortly afterward. Throughout the film, we see this spark in the eyes of each and every woman who is interviewed in the present day; the back and forth editing constantly switches between boat footage shot by Edwards’ childhood friend and crewmate, Jo Gooding, in 1989 and Holmes’ current-day talking heads, as if the two versions of the Maiden crew are conversing across time. This method is not only effective, but it is also motivating and inspiring. When the elder Edwards breaks down during a scene that we have just witnessed, we can’t help but be drawn into the same emotions that he is experiencing.
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In many ways, Edwards is a character as rich as one would find in a great seafaring novel, though, as we learned in English class, those stories were predominantly, if not entirely, about men at sea. While her parents encouraged Edwards to be self-sufficient, her mother’s unconventional interests served as the influential stereotype busters that would eventually underpin Edwards’ determination to compete in the Whitbread competition. She witnessed the first major instance of the patriarchy’s far-reaching effect on female independence when her entrepreneur father died when she was 10 years old, when her mother was forced out of the family speaker business by male competitors who did not want to risk losing face by being bested by a woman.
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Skippers Bruno Dubois and Skip Novak (the latter of whom was in command of a rival English boat) expressed their concerns about the Maiden’s lack of strength and cohesion in 1989, and this fear of losing to women bled directly into the Whitbread race. We also see those two, as well as journalists Bob Fisher and Barry Pickthall, in the present, as we do with everyone else. However, while the skippers’ remarks could be construed as trash-talking, the journalists’ comments were far more vicious, brutal, and damaging to Edwards and her crew. In the public eye, Pickthall and Fisher shaped the narrative, and their mockery was unwavering. Even though one of the two journalists admits that he wasn’t quite as misogynistic as the other, the two of them appear to be amused by the sexist material that they produced together.
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However, even though “Maiden” is far more concerned with portraying the Maiden crew’s strengths and accomplishments, it can’t help but notice male ego issues every time it casts its gaze to the horizon. The questions posed to Edwards and her crew are completely different from those posed to their male counterparts. The reporters discuss their work with Novak and Dubois. With Edwards, Gooding, and the rest of the cast, the topics of conversation include makeup, fashion, gossip, and the possibility of catfights. Even when the Maiden outperforms expectations, it is written off as pure luck; only failure results in discussions about skill-based performance. In this regard, little has changed in the intervening thirty years.
I’m not going to tell you whether the Maiden wins or loses because I don’t know the outcome myself. The message of this film, rather than the outcome of the race, is conveyed through the influence of the Maiden’s voyage, which I do not believe to be a spoiler in a documentary. The fact that the ocean, with its overarching command of death, is the only equal-opportunity proponent in the Whitbread is not lost on the filmmakers who made the film. Irony, to be sure, but one that helps to temper the sweet taste of victory. Despite the fact that “Maiden” is a suspenseful sports story and a record of a historic first, the film’s greatest strength is its in-depth character study of the Maiden crew. After the credits have rolled, it’s impossible not to feel seen, moved, and empowered.
For more personality quizzes check this: The Beach Bum Quiz.
