Hampshire’s Dee Caffari and Sam Davies are among an impressive list of high-profile female entrants taking part in this year’s Rolex Fastnet Race.

A record fleet of 372 boats are signed up this year, with less than a month to go until the famous 600-mile contest gets underway.

There is a notably strong female representation in the latest edition of the world’s largest offshore race, which begins on Sunday, August 11, in Cowes.

Southampton yachtswoman Caffari, below, will be taking part in the Fastnet for the seventh time, having joined the team on Sidney Gavignet’s MOD70, Oman Air-Musandam.

Caffari completed the 2011 race on another MOD70, Steve Ravussin’s Race for Water, and is looking forward to being back on board a multihull.

“I’d never done the race that quick before in my life, so I am really delighted I’m back on a MOD70,” she said. “I am really looking forward to being back in that intensity again.”

Hamble’s Davies will be competing in the Fastnet for the fifth time, as part of Team SCA.

The race forms part of the Swedish team’s training regime and selection process to mount the best ever all-female campaign in the Volvo Ocean Race.

Team SCA are one of four VO70s competing and will be up against Abu Dhabi, which set a monohull course record in 2011 and is skippered by Southampton’s Ian Walker.

“We have done a lot more sailing, but we are missing the Volvo experience still,” said Davies, when asked how they would fare against them. “I’m sure their crew will be made up mostly of people who have done the race before.”