HAMPSHIRE sailor Sam Davies has revealed that competing in the next Volvo Ocean Race will surpass her wildest childhood dreams.

The 39-year-old said she was so in awe of the race as a youngster that she didn’t dare imagine that one day she might get the chance to compete in it herself.

But her dreams are set to come true next year when she hits the water with the race’s first all-female crew in ten years.

Davies is one of seven international women named in the Team SCA crew for the 2014-15 Volvo Ocean Race, which will see them sail around 40,000 miles through the world’s oceans.

Davies, from Hamble, said: “It’s an amazing opportunity.

“I watched the Whitbread Round the World Race when I was a kid on my mum and dad’s boat on the Solent.

“We used to go out and watch the starts and finishes and I was just intrigued and amazed by the whole thing. I was so much in awe that I could never have imagined that one day I’d be doing it.

“But in a way this is kind of my dream race.

“It’s an amazing opportunity to go from a little kid watching the race however many years ago to this. It’s great.”

Davies was one of the first crew members confirmed in January this year.

The schedule has been gruelling and the workload will only get heavier over the final year before the start of the race in October next year.

“I don’t think too much about sacrifices,” added Davies, who has a two-year-old son with husband Romain Attanasio.

“It’s not a 9-5 job, Monday to Friday, but I’m so lucky to be able to do my passion, my hobby, my sport as a job.

“That makes up for any sacrifice that you have to make to do it.

“For sure we have long hours and physically it’s very hard and sometimes we drag our family around the world after us but I see this as such a huge opportunity and a privilege to be able to do it that any sacrifice is way made up by all the benefits of being part of a project like this.

“I have a little boy and a very kind husband who is supporting me to do this project.

“I also see it as an opportunity for my son as well to see things most kids don’t get to see at that age.

“We have to work very hard, and it is very hard, but it’s all part of the reward at the end.”