DORSET woman Jenny Morisetti is a 'woman with attitude'. And that's official after she sailed across Channel as one of a 40-strong all-female trainee crew on board Britain's newest tall ship, the Prince William, writes Mike Goodey.

The Sail Training Associa-tion's two-masted brig even had a woman captain, Barbara Campbell, the only female captain of a square rigger in Europe, for this special 'Wom-en With Attitude' voyage.

Jenny, of Stalbridge, near Sturminster Newton, is no stranger to the sea, as the wife of a Royal Naval Captain, Neil Morisetti, recently in command of the Type 42 destroyer HMS Cardiff, and having been in the Navy herself in her younger days.

Although she was not allowed to serve at sea she took every opportunity she could to race yachts and crewed an RN sail training yacht in the Tall Ship's Race.

But it was not until she joined the 200 ft brig that she achieved her ambition of sailing on "a proper tall ship."

Said the 46-year-old mother-of-two: "The Prince William is a beautiful vessel and with all her sails up made me realise what seafaring was like years ago."

For many of the other women on board the 300-mile voyage marked their first time at sea. "We had a group of WI members from the North and quite a few girls about to start university," said Jenny. "Con-sidering we had such a mixture everyone got on well."

The voyage took the women from Southampton to Dieppe. Jenny found herself tacking everything on board, from heaving on ropes, log-keeping, and steering, to galley duty.

"Luckily I'm not prone to sea sickness because we ran into a large swell. I was port look-out and waves crashed over me high up on the bridge," she recalled.

The STA has issued an invitation to all of its 60,000 ex-trainees, many of them local, to celebrate the work of the charity and renew old friendships at a 'Big Bash' reunion in Portsmouth on November 3.

The bumper event, at Portsmouth Guildhall, will also honour round the world yachtsman Sir Robin Knox Johnston who retires as president of the association the following month. More details from Esther Tibbs at the STA on 023 9283 2055.