Abigail prepares to take on the tallships

Abigail Robinson (18) hopes to sail from Torbay to Barry in South Wales this summer on a tallship.

The ten-day voyage will be the first time she will have done any sailing. 'It is an excellent opportunity, which I would love to be able to undertake, as it would be character building and a great adventure.

'It would involve manning the ship and undertaking crew duties as well as meeting new people, resulting in an amazing and extremely valuable experience for me,' said Abigail (18), of Avisford Park Road.

Abigail has chosen the tallships voyage for the residential section of her gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. She is in her fourth year of taking part in the scheme. She began while a student at Chichester High School for Girls.

The previous years have seen her undertake a mixture of community service to improve and gain skills to enable her to acquire the bronze and silver level awards.

She is currently helping the Beavers in Barnham at their weekly meetings for her community activity.

'I want to complete the gold award and gain all the experience I can from the scheme,' explained Abigail. 'I know quite a few people who have gone on a tallship voyage and they all say it is a really enjoyable thing to do.

'You have to work quite hard and it is definitely not a holiday.'

Abigail is raising funds to go on the voyage in late August with a weekend waitressing job at the nearby Hilton Avisford Park Hotel.

However, the hard revising needed for her three A level and one AS level exams to gain a university place for a French and Spanish degree course has limited her earnings potential in recent weeks.

She needs 1,000 to cover the voyage fee.

Anyone who is willing to back her should contact her by e-mail: absteronkles@ hotmail.com or call 01243 555425.