Wandsworth sailor Cossie Lewis is about to take a massive step to possible stardom, and she is only 13 years old.

Lewis has booked a place in the eight-strong British team for July’s Magic Marine 2015 Optimist European Championships after impressing in trials last month.

The teenager will be pitting her wits against more than 250 of the continent’s best young sailors in the waters around Pwllheli in north Wales from July 17.

The Optimist junior sailing class is regarded as the breeding ground for future international sailing success with four-time Olympic champion and America’s Cup winner Sir Ben Ainslie a former Optimist sailor.

More than 90 per cent of sailors at London 2012 raced Optimists as juniors, including TeamGB medalists Hannah Mills, Saskia Clark, Iain Percy, Andrew Simpson and Luke Patience.

Hence it is no wonder that Lewis is excited about the prospects – although she wants more.

"I am really looking forward to the event, particularly sailing against such tough international competition,” she said.

“I’m still working out my goal however. Ideally it would be to get into the gold fleet, which is the top third of all boats for the final series.”

The youngster has previously been selected for Britain in Optimist regattas in Holland, but she said her best recent achievement was coming 30th out of 538 competitors at the International Palamos Optimist Trophy regatta in Spain in February.

Lewis, who sails for Sevenoaks School Sailing Club in Kent and Bosham Sailing Club in West Sussex, added: “The Europeans is the biggest event I have been selected for to date.

“Last year I sat down with my coach, Matt Rainback, and discussed my goal, which was to get to the European Championships.

“All my racing and training during the past few months was focussed towards this goal, so I was thrilled to achieve it.”