All woman team to enter Volvo round the world race

A Swedish-based all woman team is the first to announce an entry for the next Volvo round the world race in 2014/15.

It will be backed by the hygiene and forest company SCA and will also be one of the first to take delivery of the new 65-foot yacht which will be used by all the teams taking part.

Because of being an all-woman team the crew limit will be increased by two to 10 plus a media reporter with Volvo Ocean race claiming that the new design - which is also meant to reduce overall campaign costs by €10m to less than €15m. - "puts less of a premium on physical strength."

"I am very pleased to see a women's team back in the race," said race ceo Knut Frostad. "The lack of women in the last few editions of the race has meant we haven't been representing half the population of the human race."

The team is being organised by the Swedish group Atlant Ocean Racing, which has a history of putting together two winning teams. Manager Richard Brisius said that details of the process for crew selection "will be released in the near future."

In San Francisco, Ben Ainslie and his new PJ Morgan BAR team will join 10 others from Wednesday onwards for the latest in the world series warm-ups for the America's Cup. There have already been some capsizes on a breezy San Francsico Bay, keeping repair crews busy repairing damage to the wings of the 45-foot catamarans.

London 2012 silver medallist Hannah Mills will join a Welsh entry for the Extreme Sailing regatta in Cardiff next week and 2008 gold medallist Anna Tnnicliffe, born in Doncaster but sailing for the U.S,, is expected to sail with the British-based, Swedish-backed Team GAC Pindar.