Kate Middleton's sailing team set for Channel race - despite the fact most of them can't sail...

When Kate Middleton signed up to The Sisterhood, a group of women who plan to row across the English Channel in a dragon boat, the attention she would attract was inevitable.

So concerned was the 25-year-old brunette, who is back together with Prince William, that she would impede the group's chance to become the first all-female team to break the world record, that at one stage she pulled out.

Now Kate is back in the charity race - and the 21-strong all-female rowing team have applied for an exclusion zone order.

"It's basically to protect all of us and make sure the boat is as safe as possible," events organiser and helmswoman, Emma Sayle, 29, told The Mail on Sunday at an exclusive photoshoot to launch the charity race.

"Having Kate has made our challenge a lot more high-profile. If boats come up close to take pictures while we are rowing, it would make the task a thousand times harder.

"So we want a 20-metre restriction zone around the boat to make sure we can prevent backwash."

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The girls switched their wetsuits for silk empire line dresses by one of their sponsors, designer clothing line Qveen, at a launch party at a private members' club in London's West End on Friday night.

The 21-mile row on August 25 starts from Dover and finishes at Cap Gris Nez, near Calais, and the girls are competing against a 17-strong male team called The Brotherhood. The current record for the crossing is held by an all-male team in seven hours and 40 minutes.

"If we make it, we will be the first all-girl team to cross the Channel in a dragon boat," Miss Sayle said last night. "There will be 19 of us in the boat and we'll have two reserves."

Most of the girls are novice sailors - including Amanda Cherry, a 29-year-old hedge-fund worker, who claims her only nautical experience is "sailing at school and sunbathing on the deck".

The Sisterhood are taking a mobile make-up service called The Powder Room on the pilot boat which will accompany them across the Channel.

"We want to look our best when we beat the boys to the finishing line," says Miss Sayle.