Sailing: Briton to be only female in gruelling yacht race

A British yachtswoman will be the only female to enter this year's Around Alone, a solo round-the-world race billed as the sport's hardest challenge.

Emma Richards, 28, hopes the 28,000-mile journey will allow her to surpass Ellen MacArthur's achievement in last year's Vendee Globe. "It will work out to be longer than [her] round-the-world because I am doing more coastal sailing," Ms Richards said.

In addition to being the only woman, she is also younger than the 18 other competitors in the nine-month event.

Ms Richards, who started professional sailing with the skipper Tracy Edwards shortly after leaving Glasgow University, was the youngest crew member on Ms Edwards' unsuccessful attempt in 1998 to win the Jules Verne trophy, which is awarded for sailing around the world in the fastest time.

She launched her professional sailing career as a skipper in 1999 and broke the all-female speed record around Britain and Ireland in 2000.

She was brought up among a family of sailing enthusiasts in Helensburgh, west of Glasgow, but admits that she finds solo racing difficult.

"I'm an incredibly sociable person and I even get twitchy when I'm in the house alone for the afternoon," Ms Richards said. She will set sail aboard the 60ft monohull yacht Pindar next month from Plymouth for the qualifying leg to Newport, Rhode Island, on the east coast of America.