The Queen hailed the record-breaking crew of The Maiden as “brilliant” as she welcomed them to Clarence House to celebrate their unprecedented victory in the Ocean Globe Race.
They became the first ever all-female crew to win an around-the-world yacht race, setting sail last September and crossing the finish line on April 16 after spending 153 days at sea and raising funds and awareness for girls’ education.
Thanking them for coming, Her Majesty said: "I think you are doing a brilliant job. Keep on doing it, it’s really important."
As she greeted veteran sailor Tracy Edwards, who founded The Maiden Factor, which promotes girls’ education through the Yacht, Camilla said: "You’ve brought the warm weather with you. It’s rather warmer than Scotland, where I’ve just come from, which was absolutely freezing!"
Before the crew set sail last year, the Queen sent a message to say: "You are all much in my thoughts today, as you cross the start line of the Ocean Globe Race for Maiden’s final race. I do hope that each one of you is proud to be part of such a special crew, bringing Messages of Hope to girls across the world. I wish you fair winds and following seas! - Camilla R."
Today, as they gathered at the King and Queen’s London residence over tea, sandwiches, cake and Champagne, the crew were introduced to Her Majesty, who joked that "everybody looks younger and younger."
Hailing the winning crew’s skipper Heather Thomas, Tracy told the Queen: "She's happy, she has a glass of Champagne in her hand."
“Quite right!” replied Camilla.
Turning to Heather, 27, she said: “You are a very young skipper!”
"I'm the same age that Tracy was when she did the race."
The crew’s success comes three decades after celebrated yachtswoman Tracy and her all-female crew finished second in the 1989 to 90 Whitbread Round the World Race aboard the 58ft Maiden, becoming the first all-female team to take part in an around-the-world race.
© GettyAsked by the Queen how she became a sailor, Heather replied: “I used to sail dinghies with my dad and then..."
"A bit of a bigger Dinghy!" joked the Queen
Heather went on: "I come from Yorkshire, we’re pretty landlocked. I went on a boat called James Cook which is run by the Ocean’s Trust up in Newcastle and takes disadvantaged kids on trips in the North East and I loved it. I came back and volunteered and at 18 I decided that’s what I wanted to do."
The 2023-24 retro-style race, which took place 50 years after the 1973 Whitbread Round the World Race, saw the crew ditch computers, GPS, and other high-tech tools for sextants and paper charts.
© GettyThe Queen giggled as she was told how crew members were allowed to play cassette tapes during the voyage and had to be shown how to re-spool tape using a pencil.
"You learned a lot of new skills!" she laughed.
Sailors on board 14 boats raced over four legs across 27,000 nautical miles, taking in stops in South Africa, New Zealand and Uruguay. This year's crew was waved off by Tracy as the most diverse professional sailing crew ever to sail the world.
Members come from the UK, Antigua, USA, South Africa, Puerto Rico, Italy, France and Afghanistan and include the first Black and Middle Eastern female crew members to take part in such a race.
The Queen was introduced to Najiba Noori, a former AFP camerawoman who fled Afghanistan nearly three years ago and was recruited to film aboard the Maiden during the race.
She told Camilla: "I grew up in the mountains, I had never been at sea."
Speaking afterwards, she said: "It was a little bit scary, especially when there were big waves and wind, but slowly, slowly, it was okay.”
She said of her escape from the Taliban: "The day I left Afghanistan, that was the toughest day of my life and the toughest decision I’ve made. I had just five minutes to decide should I leave or stay. But I knew that if I stayed I would be a prisoner."
© GettyNajiba, who now lives in France, said of her meeting with the Queen: "I would never imagine to sail around the world and.. win the race and after that to meet the Queen. It was very nice to talk to her and tell her a little bit of my story.
"She told me 'It’s very important that you were part of this race', sailing on Maiden, which has a very important message for the world about girls’ education. That was the reason that I decided that I wanted to do this race for the women and girls of Afghanistan."
Najiba, who celebrated her 29th birthday at sea, added: "I decided to do it just to bring a little bit of hope for the girls and for the women of my country."
The Maiden was repurposed in 2018 to raise funds and awareness around girls’ education and the-then Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall visited her, accompanied by Princess Haya of Jordan, whose father King Abdullah funded the yacht and who helped to fund its refurbishment.
The Queen met 13 crew members and another six on-shore team members, along with Tracy. They included three other members of the original 1989 to 90 team – Marie-Claude Heys, former First Mate for training, Sally Hunter, crew member and Howard Gibbons, who served as an on-shore project manager.
Before leaving, Tracy presented the Queen with a framed, gift-wrapped photograph of The Maiden, which features a spinnaker designed by school girls and hand-painted by the crew and bearing the words: "Respect, Peace, Dignity."
© GettySpeaking afterwards, Tracy said: "It’s the perfect bookend to the project we've just done. Her Majesty Queen Camilla actually launched Maiden in September 2018. Since then we’ve been around the world twice, had a pandemic and raced around the world with a new young all female crew – the most diverse female crew that's ever been on a professional sailing team. And they have become the first all-female crew to win an around the world. And then she's invited us here today. It's the perfect circle."
Tracy said of the Maiden’s victory: “For me it's the end of a 45 year fight for the equality of women within sailing sports generally."
She said of the diverse crew: "Sailing is described as male, pale and stale. So with maiden in 1989 we dealt with the male and stale bit, we didn't deal with the pale bit."
She went on: "When Whoopi Goldberg became our patron, she looked me square in the eye and when she went, 'Change it', I went, 'Ok!' So we did.” She said it was vital to keep the sport “evolving”, adding “we’ve got to keep changing our sport or it will die."
She said of Queen Camilla: "We are so lucky to have her as our Queen. I remember meeting her when she launched Maiden and she was talking about the empowerment of women. I don’t think people realise how much she does in that sphere."
Asked about Najiba's story, Tracy said: "We wanted to highlight what was going on in Afghanistan. 130 million girls didn’t have an education before the pandemic and the Taliban… that number has increased."
Skipper Heather Thomas described the Queen's support as "massively important," adding: "We're a British vessel, we've got a lot of history in this country so to have the support of the monarchy is really important to us."
She said: "It was amazing to bring the team and to show them off to the Queen and to get them to see the Queen and be recognised for what they've done."
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