Young's Seafood has sponsored Lincolnshire lass, Rachel Axcell, to help achieve her goal of completing the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2007/08 - which launched this week from Liverpool.

Rachel is crewing on the yacht, 'Hull & Humber' which represents the Humber region in the race, backed by the regional development agency, Yorkshire Forward. She approached Young's to help her reach her dream of completing the international sailing marathon, comprised of 14 races in seven legs scheduled to take around ten months and visiting 12 countries.

As well as supporting Rachel, Young's also features on the Hull & Humber yacht as one of four major sponsors to the Humber team. There are ten boats in the race in total, each of which is supported by different global cities and regions (the others representing Liverpool, Glasgow, New York, Durban, Western Australia, Singapore, Qingdao, Jamaica and Nova Scotia).

Yvonne Adam at Young's, said, "When we met Rachel we thought she would be a super ambassador for our region and for our business and we are delighted to support her. The Hull & Humber yacht will visit many of the countries where we buy fish and the event is a nice fit with our work to bring seafood from around the world to the UK market 'via Grimsby.' "

Rachel Axcell (24), who is from Caistor, says, "My wish is to promote our area, its enterprise and culture throughout the course of the race, and I am excited that Young's - as one of our region's most important national brands - has joined me in this vision and offered such tremendous support."

Rachel's participation in the project forms part of her drive to become a professional yachtswoman and achieve a foundation degree in Ocean Yachting. She also hopes to be able to raise funds through the trip for the Ellen MacArthur Trust for children with serious illnesses.

The first leg of the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race 2007/08 started in Albert Dock Liverpool on Sunday. The race will have port stopovers in France, Brazil, South Africa, Australia, Singapore, China, Hawaii and the east and west coasts of the USA - before returning to the UK in July 2008.