Round the world Emma

Pindar girl Emma Richards announces her latest venture

Hot news and some that will be very very welcome for race organisers Clipper Ventures - Emma Richards is to take part in Around Alone. Not only will Richards be the only woman in the September's singlehanded round the world race with stops - but in particular will be the only British entry, thereby making some sense of the race's new route which takes in a UK stopover in the Devonshire port of Brixham.

The 27 year-old Hamble-based Scot came to the fore as part of Tracy Edwards' crew on the maxi cat Royal & SunAlliance, which lost its rig while making an attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy in 1998. From being the nipper on the cat, Richards teamed up with fellow Royal & SunAlliance crewwoman Miranda Merron and took part in several two handed races including the Figaro class' Transat AG2R and the Transat Jacques Vabre backed by her long term sponsors, Pindar, the Scarborough-based print and electronic media company.

Having fastidiously avoided singlehanding, Richards found herself entered in the 2000 Europe One New Man STAR. But at the finish of the British singlehanded transatlantic race, the media furore surrounding Ellen MacArthur's extraordinary overall monohull win outshone Richards' victory in the 50ft class sailing Pete Goss' Vendee Globe steed, Aqua Quorum.

Last autumn Richards did a rather slow Transat Jacques Vabre on Steve Fossett's old Lakota trimaran with Mikaela von Koskull before sailing from New Zealand to Miami on the Volvo Ocean Race as part of Lisa McDonald's Amer Sports Too crew. Within days of leaving Amer Too Richards was on board Tracy Edwards' Maiden II preparing to make an attempt on a transatlantic record. And if you are out of breath now, this is just the beginning...

Richards' entry in Around Alone came about following considerable head scratching with her new Team Manager Robin Grey and sponsor Andrew Pindar. "It was Robin Grey' s idea back in April," Richards told madfor sailing. "We were talking about the Route du Rhum, it was like for all that work and for about twice the cost, we could do a 12 month project and finish it all off with the Daimler Chrysler next year which seems like an ideal way to bring the boat back."

One gets the impression that Richards might have preferred to do the Route du Rhum - it is shorter, it ends up in the Caribbean, you can come home for Christmas - but the hassle involved in preparing and re-equipping the boat just didn't make sense: "You just start getting to know the boat well and then you hand the boat back. Because we decided not to buy a boat at this stage, it ends up being very wearing to put so much time and effort into getting to know the boat, improving the boat and getting to know yourself with the boat and suddenly you hand it all back and your start from square one again."

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