A YOUNG sailor from Sevenoaks has competed in an arduous race around the northernmost tip of Britain to Norway.

Rory Chandler, 19, was on board HM Sail Training Vessel Dasher, a 55ft Nicholson yacht, which finished fifth in its class at this year's Tall Ships Race.

Rory, an officer cadet with the Southampton University Officer Cadet Training Corps, was one of 12 crew members on board the ship, which took on 70 other vessels in the annual sailing spectacular.

The ships left Liverpool on July 23 in front of 300,000 spectators and made their way to the race's starting point near Loch Foyle, off the coast of Northern Ireland. The route took them above Scotland and over to Maloy on the Norwegian coast, north of Bergen, where Rory and his colleagues arrived a week later.

The former Skinners' School pupil, now in his second year of a mechanical engineering degree at Southampton University, joked before he set sail: "I'm just hoping to get some challenging weather to make things more fun."