From left, Tracy Edwards and Mikaela Von Koskull in Maiden (Tracy Edwards/Sony Pictures Classics)

 This exciting documentary captures the white-knuckle thrills of the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race (which is now called the Ocean Race) and is an inspiring portrait of Tracy Edwards, who in 1989 captained the first all-female team to compete.

The earliest scenes go back to her childhood years in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Following the tragic death of Edwards’ father while she was still a young girl, she received her first lesson in how a traditionally male-dominated world could be unwelcome, if not outright hostile, toward women as her mother attempted to take over the family’s hi-fi stereo business, only to be forced into bankruptcy.

The arc of the Edwards’s formative years is one of an angry, rebellious youth whose instinct to run away led her to sailing and the Whitbread race, the latter of which represented arguably the most dramatic escape from civilization at the time. Initially rejected for a sailor’s job, she persisted to become a crew member with help from a most unlikely source: King Hussein I of Jordan, whom she met entirely by chance while working as a hostess. Eventually hired as a cook, she was among only four women participating in the 1985–1986 race, compared to 200-plus male competitors.

The initial racing experience would spur her to go around the world again in the next race. However, her goal was to do so as a sailor and with an all-female crew. The film counts down the years, months, and days leading up to it, during which she goes about recruiting a crew and raising money. What Edwards discovers is that there is no shortage of capable women out in the world tired of merely serving as cooks onboard vessels. Indeed, when director Alex Holmes interviews the crew today, their eyes still light up with excitement when they recall hearing about the opportunity for the first time.

Director Alex Holmes constantly toggles back to the behind-the-scenes drama involving Edwards’s relationship with her crew, which becomes increasingly tense as she hits repeated roadblocks to gain sponsorship. The film doesn’t hesitate to present Edwards in an unflattering light; several crew members admit that the pressures around making the team a reality made her incredibly unpleasant to be around. But there is also no denying her determination, as at one point Edwards mortgaged her own home in order to help purchase what would become the Maiden, a secondhand yacht that the crew refurbished by hand to make it shipshape.

The days leading up to the race have no shortage of drama as tensions reach their boiling point, and once the race begins, it is thrilling. Indeed, across the estimated nine months that the crew spends at sea, there are shots of the women putting their bodies on the line, which is especially true during an icy leg in the Southern Ocean, the footage of which captures them in a constant battle against the elements, including taking turns hanging onto the mast against the freezing wind.

In addition, Edwards and her crew evolved from human-interest story into a cause that captured the public imagination, so that the crowds greeting them at port became larger and more raucous as the race progressed. Tellingly, the women talk about how the bittersweet ending of the race left them feeling gutted emotionally, but from the perspective of the racing-beat reporters—and even some of the male yachters who took part in the same race—what the women accomplished was nothing short of a great triumph. In the archived footage of Edwards and crew in the moment, they appear completely unaware of the paradigm shifting around them.

Of course, what is also satisfying is seeing how Edwards changes over the course of the voyage. She grows as a sailor, leader, and tactician. The most charming and humorous sequence involves her and the crew breaking out swimsuits and razors and making themselves appear decidedly more femme than the waiting journalists expected from women who just spent nearly a year out at sea. While it may seem as if Edwards and company were allowing themselves to be objectified, the move helped them to wrest back control of their narrative at a key moment. The bottom line is Maiden features a terrific balance of interpersonal drama and visceral thrills and ultimately sinks or swims based on its subjects’ resilience.