Hampshire sailor Dee Caffari, part of the all-female Team SCA crew, hopes a successful Volvo Ocean Race will encourage future teams to choose mixed crews.

The 42-year-old British sailor, based in Gosport, is part of the first all-female team crew to take part in the yacht race around the world since 2002.

Caffari, the only woman to have sailed solo around the world in both directions, says that has been a "long time coming" and hopes Team SCA will encourage others to bring women into what have generally been all-male crews.

"I thought we broke these boundaries down in previous editions with the girls that have been in before," Caffari said. "It is nice and I think we needed to do it again in order to make it the norm.

"A lot of us sail in a mixed crew environment and the guys we sail with don't see any difference. I clearly think it is entirely normal for us to be out there competing.

"I've spent a lot of time in the offshore world, kind of proving that we do the same job as the guys on the same boats, in the same bit of world.

"I am pleased it is making a big impression and hopefully it encourages other teams, ideally in the future, to have mixed teams, where I think all the girls would like to be sailing."

Caffari and Team SCA are currently sailing from Abu Dhabi to Sanya, China on the third leg of the Volvo Ocean Race.

It is the third of nine legs in a race which continues until June 27, when an in-port race in Gothenburg, Sweden brings things to a close after 38,739 nautical miles.

By that point, Caffari hopes Team SCA will have helped change perceptions of women's sport by proving their worth on the water.

"I definitely want to see the team improve," she said. "It was really nice to have that experience on the water of a win in the in-port (in Abu Dhabi).

"It has given everyone the confidence that we can perform, manoeuvre and handle the boat. It is just about sustaining now for the length of period we're offshore in the leg.

"As long as we keep improving, keep enjoying it - that's what we're meant to be doing - then I am confident that Team SCA will put in a good result in the end and achieve what we want to achieve. It will be a much stronger group of girls for it."