Students preparing to achieve sailing success have received an inspirational visit from a pioneer in the sport.

British sailor Tracy Edwards talked to Sixth Formers and Year 10 ;pupils at Greig City Academy in Haringey about her career.

She was skipper of the first all-female crew to sail around the world in 1989 and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year and made an MBE the following year.

Greig City Academy is hoping to get hundreds of its pupils involved in sailing by organising weekend training trips to Poole in Dorset.

The young people will be mooring and sailing a 22ft boat and completing Royal Yachting Association qualifications in dinghy and keel boat sailing.

Several have already completed their Level 1 and will move to Level 2 later this year.

The school also owns two sailing dinghys, two catamarans and a mirror dinghy.

Mrs Edwards described how she never gave up on her dream of sailing despite facing seasickness, not being able to swim, and negativity towards all-women crews.

Mrs Edwards told the students: “I think what you achieving here is awesome. You are walking the walk instead of just talking about it.

“I have rarely walked away from a school talk with such a spring in my step. I look forward to the day when we can take you all out sailing on Maiden!”

Jon Holt, head of sixth form at Greig City, said: “Tracy captured everyone's attention. She's made us even more determined to integrate sailing fully into our outdoor education programme.”