Kate was set on Prince William before university

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Kate Middleton set her sights on snaring Prince William even before she met him at university, according to a South African who supervised her gap year, local media said on Thursday.

Yachtsman Cal Tomlinson, who supervised the prince's fiancee when she worked as a deckhand in 2001 at charter yacht firm Challenge Business, said Middleton already had her eye on the prince before starting university at St Andrews, where the couple met.

"Kate made no bones in telling us she was going to study at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and capturing the prince would be one of her goals," Tomlinson told The New Age newspaper.

Middleton was reserved around the other young deckhands, and Tomlinson said that he once had to deal with a lovestruck colleague who was infatuated with the future princess.

"I had to take him aside and tell him he was wasting his time. Kate was clearly headed for bigger things," Tomlinson told The New Age.

Middleton will wed Prince William, the second in line to the throne, on Friday in the biggest royal wedding in 30 years.

Tomlinson, who was a crew personnel manager at the charter yacht company where Middleton spent part of her gap year, recalled her working as ‘the general dogsbody’ before starting at St Andrews in September 2001.

"In the morning it was getting the boats ready, scrubbing, at 6:30 am or 7:00 am. It was very dirty work. Pretty labour intensive," he told The Star newspaper, describing the job as ‘menial wage for menial work’.

"Silver spoon or not, Kate wasn't afraid of hard work," he told The New Age.

"She used to get stuck in and do the dirty work like scrubbing the decks and bilges and she enjoyed a drink or two with us after our work was done for the day."

Tomlinson told The Star that crew worked 10-hour days and earned about 40 pounds ($65, 45 euros) aboard the 26 boats the company used for corporate hospitality events off the southern coast of England.

Middleton, who also spent time in Florence and Chile during her year off before university, was responsible for readying the company's boats and greeting guests, Tomlinson said.

Challenge Business was founded by Scottish yachtsman Chay Blyth, the first person to sail non-stop around the world travelling west, against the currents and wind.

Tomlinson said Middleton got the job because Blyth was friends with her parents, self-made millionaires whose party supply business enabled them to pay for the elite education that brought their daughter into the prince's circle.

Royal watchers have kept a close eye on the future princess since William, 28, and Middleton, 29, announced their engagement in November last year.