THE ORGANISER of an environmental scientific sailing expedition has announced a famous sailor as its patron.

Jim McNeill and his wife Sam, who run global expeditions from Princetown, said: ‘We are hugely excited and honoured to announce that round-the-world yachtswoman Tracy Edwards is the patron of the new Ocean Warrior voyage.

‘In 1989 she bloodied the nose of the sailing world which was male dominated and chauvinistic. She captained the first all-female crew in the Whitbread Round-the-World Yacht Race.

‘Up against huge downright aggressive opposition she showed the world women were equals, if not betters, than male sailors.’

She sailed 33,000 miles in the world’s toughest oceans over nine months and beat the men in the toughest leg, the Southern Ocean. He added: ‘This was incredible and aptly displays her tenacious and doggedly determined nature.

’I see this as a true milestone in the development of Ocean Warrior — to have such esteemed backing augurs so well for our future. Thank you so much Tracy from all the team.’

Tracy said: ‘The oceans have been my life since I was a teenager. I love the awesome beauty, the serenity, the frenetic chaos and the overwhelming power. We as humans have taken advantage of and abused our oceans to the point of serious damage - it’s horrifying. Which is why I was honoured to be asked to be patron of this critically important project.’

Ocean Warrior is training ordinary people to be citizen scientists to measure, and monitor the enviroment for partner scientific organisations.

She added: ‘They will do this by the power of wind, also teaching citizen scientists to sail.

‘This is an extraordinary endeavour and I’m so delighted to help them in any way I can.’