A YOUNG sailor from Otley is celebrating winning a place on a prestigious global yacht race.

Otley Sailing Club member Heather Thomas, 18, has been chosen as one of the crew members for the Pacific Ocean stage of the Clipper 2015-16 Round the World.

Heather was named last winter as one of two finalists in the running to join the event, through a competition run by the Andrew Simpson Sailing Foundation.

Now she has been pleasantly surprised to discover that both she and fellow finalist Charlie Stannard, from London, will be taking part.

Sailing legend and Clipper Race founder Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, who donated the prize, said: “They both equally impressed our team during their Level 1 training, in some particularly tough wind conditions, and we believe both highly deserve the opportunity to race across the Pacific Ocean. I look forward to following their adventures.”

Each prize is worth more than £10,000 and will see the pair receive full training and protective all-weather kit, along with flights to Qingdao, China and home from the US.

Heather started sailing when she was seven, became a dinghy instructor by the age of 16, and in her spare time volunteers to help with everything from children’s club sailing to adult and disability courses.

For the past two years she has also volunteered as a watch leader on the sail training vessel James Cook, run by Ocean Youth Trust North.

She said: “I’ve never been outside Europe before so getting to go to China and America will be an incredible experience.”

The pair will complete the rest of their training over the coming months and be assigned to their team skipper and crew mates at the Clipper Race Crew Allocation event, in Portsmouth, on April 25.

The event itself starts on August 30 and will be the tenth edition of the world’s longest ocean race, which sees 12 teams competing across a 40,000 nautical mile course. The Clipper will set sail from China to California in February, 2016.