by Katie Alston

Record-breaking Kent sailor Hilary Lister is set to break new ground by becoming the first severely-disabled person to compete in the Fastnet yacht race.

The 37-year-old quadriplegic has just announced the latest in a long line of challenges which has seen her receive numerous awards and world firsts.

She hopes to take part in the 2011 Fastnet Race in a Class 40 boat. The vessel will pose several challenges to her as it is twice as long and four times as wide as the boat she used to become the first disabled woman to sail solo around Britain in 2009.

The sailor, from Dunkirk, near Canterbury, will also have to get used to sailing with 10 sails instead of two and captaining a three-person crew.

Hilary, who is paralysed from the neck down, sails using a system called sip and puff which controls the boat using her breath. For her however to be able to control the whole racing yacht, new and more advanced technology needs to be developed.

A total of £3million sponsorship will have to be raised in order for the boat to be built from scratch and ensure that Hilary can move around the craft.

She said: "This is going to be a huge challenge and a dream come true. Once I have done the first race it will open doors for me not just as disabled sailor but for me as a professional sailor in my own right.

"I will be able to compete in other races and be part of a team, which will be new for me.

"We are now actively looking for sponsors which I need to have in place ideally by June.

"The sip and puff technology is under construction and continually breaking down barriers. It is exciting as it has never been done before. No boat like the one we will be building has ever competed.

"This has been something I have wanted to do for a long time and we started talking about it in 2008. After I finished the Round Britain Dream we started to give it serious thought.

"Racing rules have had to be re examined and the Fastnet organisers have so far made positive noises. The race is iconic and something that every sailor wants to be able to compete in."

The Fastnet Race is renowned as one of the toughest races in the world, running from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, round the Fastnet Rock, off the coast of southern Ireland, and back, a distance of more than 600nm.

It gained some notoriety in 1979 when a storm brought disaster to the race, with 15 sailors losing their lives in the waves.