ONE of the world's few female yachting skippers has returned to her Southampton home.

Sairah MacGillivray, 37, dropped anchor at Saxon Wharf on board the yacht Findings for major servicing on the Dutch-built vessel.

Skipper Sairah, who trained for her Class 4 qualification in Warsash, is delighted to be home and proud to return as the captain of a 300-tonne yacht.

Only a handful of female yachtswomen have reached her level in the competitive mega-yacht industry.

She said: "I've always said it's harder to get there than to do the job because it is a male-dominated industry.

"You've got to have people believe in you and trust in you."

Sairah, who used to live in Whitworth Crescent, Bitterne Park, has led an international team of five crew 30,000 miles from the Mediterranean across the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to Australia and back again.