I'm afraid I have more sympathy for the various people she apparently owes money to. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-1655848,00.html - http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,4041-1655848,00.html  

Quite.

My impression is that her difficulties pre-date the Oryx Quest. These two stories are from "Scuttlebutt". I doubt anyone who is not close to the situation will ever understand exactly what happened.

TRACY EDWARDS (Oct 11 2004)
Tracy Edwards' travails will intensify today in the High Court in
London, when the first of two actions brought by her former financial
director will be heard. The second is due before an Employment Tribunal
in Croydon on Wednesday. A fortnight ago, Edwards was confident that she
had put her personal financial difficulties behind her, announcing in
Doha that she had sold her 110 foot catamaran, the purchase loans for
which had created her debt, and that her Oryx Quest round-the-world
multihull race would start on Feb 5 with Tony Bullimore, Loick Peyron
and Olivier de Kersauson as firm entrants.

The new actions brought by Gregory Browne are believed to relate to the
time he was financial director of Quest International Sports Events Ltd,
the company organizing the race. Browne is a one third owner of QISE,
with Edwards and Mike Noel-Smith also holding a third share each.
Edwards is already involved in three other actions: two in the UK with
Andrew Pindar and one in France where she and Bruno Peyron, organiser of
The Race, are suing each other. - Excerpts from a story by Tim Jeffery
in The Daily Telegraph, full story: http://tinyurl.com/4jbxw - http://tinyurl.com/4jbxw

OUT OF DEBT
December 3, 2004, Doha, Qatar - Quest International Sports Events (QISE)
today confirmed that Tracy Edwards has sold the multihull Maiden II and
is repaying all her agreed outstanding personal debts with the proceeds
of this sale and additional funds she raised from a personal sponsorship
deal. Maiden II has been sold to an undisclosed owner for an undisclosed
sum, but QISE can verify that sponsorship monies received for the Oryx
Quest 2005 are not linked to Tracy's debt repayment in any way.

"It goes without saying, that I am absolutely delighted and relieved
that I can now pay back all the wonderful people who have kept us going
for the past two years, especially the crew of Maiden II. I am also glad
that the very few financial disputes are being solved," said QISE CEO
Tracy Edwards MBE. "I would like to thank each of my creditors for their
continued support and patience throughout this difficult period. I can
now finally focus all my efforts on QISE and the successful promotion of
the Oryx Quest 2005 that starts in Qatar on 5 th February 2005."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4215446.stm - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/berkshire/4215446.stm  is today's story.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09/05/ntracy105.xml - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/09 /05/ntracy105.xml  is an interesting read.

From that link:

"A prizegiving ceremony was held in June, but no money was handed over."

Oh blimey #1.  The publicity machine didn't mention that.

Miss Edwards claimed that this was because £1.7 million in sponsorship promised by Qatar Sports International was never paid.

Oh blimey #2.

However, a contract had not been signed with the organisation."

Oh blimey #3.

The whole Qatar thing seemed pretty fishy from the outset.  It seemd to me prior to the race that the stitch-up was more in the other direction in that someone had been persuaded by a PR machine to put up huge sums of money for a race that was likely to be a bit of a farce (and a farce it turned out to be).  A bit daft (to say the least) not to have a signed contract though, and surely an indication that she really believed it would be a success.

Well this thread is more intereesting than the race was..

That must have been the 2nd most boring sailing event ever. The first being the other big waste of money The Americas Cup.

i dont think the Am. Cup is all that boring to be honest, the new format makes it just ike one big dinghy travellers circuit

I agree with contender. Although this is the only sailing on TV now ( from the other banter thread) it is not the most intersting thing to watch and doesnt give the best perception of sailing.