Portland gave a royal welcome to Princess Anne when she arrived to spend a day visiting two key sites on the island.

The Princess Royal, wearing a plaid jacket and tan skirt, spent yesterday morning at Portland Port where she was greeted on her arrival by Portland Port chairman John Langham who presented her to director Rupert Best.

She then spent half an hour inside the Britannia Passenger Terminal - opened in 1999 by the Duke of Edinburgh - meeting a variety of people including Wrens Association South Dorset branch president Nora Nickinson. Princess Anne is patron of the association.

She moved on to meet Portland Bunkers International director and general manager Andreas Athanasiadis who presented her with a book on royal voyages through the Greek islands.

He then talked to her about the company's three-year, £6 million development scheme for a new fuel bunkering terminal for the port which is due to be completed in June 2003.

The tour then moved on to Manor Marine, Portland Port's first tenants, where director John Tye explained about the company's £350,000 investment in a site development programme. Princess Anne also saw small craft being refitted, craft being built and visited a machine shop.

Mr Tye said later: "The Princess Royal asked some very good questions about apprenticeship training schemes and about our attempts to keep a pool of skilled labour on site. She had obviously read up on us."

Princess Anne's next visit was to Global Marine whose Portland operations manager Jeff Halford showed her one of Global's remote operated tracked vehicles used on operations for undersea cables. The company has just taken over a new £1.8 million building for such vehicles.

Her final visit of the morning was to the TS Pelican sail training ship, a main mast barkentine which, when completed, will be the first ship rigged in this fashion since 1820.

She met Commander Graham Neilson who founded the Astrid Trust and who is leading the conversion of the former 145ft French-built Arctic trawler to long haul training at sea.

He said later: "Princess Anne was really interested in the concept of being able to be flexible between long haul training and general chartering, research and adventure.

"She was impressed by the unusual rig and she was also shown a video of a model of the ship under sail. It could eventually be the fastest Sailing ship in the world for its size."

Mr Langham said after the Princess Royal left: "Her visit was very much a great honour for us.

"We have been here six years now and we certainly had plenty to show her. She was very interested in what we were doing."

And Mr Best said: "She was able to see a great range of industry and commerce here and the great range of people who make the port what it is."

Princess Anne later spent the afternoon on a visit to Weymouth and Portland Sailing Academy.

She took a tour of the academy's facilities at Osprey Quay and took in some of the action from the British Match Racing Championships, before talking to skippers, crews and volunteers.

Two youngsters who have worked on rescue boats at the academy for several years met the Princess Royal on behalf of the volunteers.

Marcus Pitt and Emily Gollop, both 14, from All Saints School in Weymouth, represented a group of more than 60 people who help out with safety boats, time-keeping and launch control at events throughout the year.

Marcus said: "It is an honour to represent the volunteers and I admit I was very nervous about meeting her.

"I drive a rescue boat when there are racing events. In the big competitions there are up to 18 rescue boats in the water in case anyone gets into difficulties.

"They are all manned by volunteers so it is an important job."

Emily said: "The Princess was very nice, she asked us about how we got involved in sailing and the work that we do at the academy."

Academy officials said the royal visit helps to raise the profile of the establishment as plans are made to develop the facilities.

Chairman Bill Ludlow said: "It is very prestigious to have a royal visitor, especially as Princess Anne is president of the Royal Yachting Association.

"Our aim is to make the centre into a top quality centre for sailing, make it accessible for the whole community and gain economic benefit for Weymouth and Portland, so it is a good time to have her here."

The Princess Royal boarded the MV Freedom boat to get a closer look at the Match Racing Championships, which continue in the harbour over the weekend.

The competition involves crews of five racing against each other in identical keelboats, testing their skills in a series of one-to-one duels.