MacArthur, Ellen

MacArthur, Ellen
▪ 2006

      On Feb. 7, 2005, English yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur became a new legend in British maritime history when she crossed the finish line off Ushant, France, to complete the fastest solo nonstop voyage around the world on her first attempt. The diminutive 1.6-m (5-ft 3-in) MacArthur had sailed from Falmouth, Cornwall, in her 23-m (75-ft) carbon-fibre trimaran B & Q on Nov. 28, 2004, for the official start off Ushant to challenge the seemingly unassailable record set only nine months earlier by French sailor Francis Joyon. On the southward leg of the voyage, she set speed records to the Equator, the Cape of Good Hope, and Cape Leeuwin, Australia. After reaching the Southern Ocean and turning northward, she suffered a badly burned arm while changing generators. Three days later she completed her best 24-hour run—807.2 km (501.6 mi)—before passing Cape Horn. Four days south of the Equator, she fell behind Joyon's time for the first time, but when she recrossed that line on day 60, she had made up enough time to be 10 hr 50 min ahead of his record. MacArthur reached France to complete the 44,012-km (27,348-mi) journey through the world's most dangerous seas in 71 days 14 hr 18 min 33 sec, breaking Joyon's record by 1 day 8 hr 35 min 49 sec. On her return to Falmouth Harbour amid a flotilla of boats and cheering crowds, she stepped ashore as Dame Ellen MacArthur, the youngest woman in modern history to be granted a life peerage.

      Ellen Patricia MacArthur was born on July 8, 1976, in the small (population 350) village of Whatstandwell, Derbyshire. She began sailing with her aunt at age four and spent her spare time reading sailing books. Four years later she started saving her school dinner money to buy her first boat. In 1994 MacArthur launched her career in yachting by working on a 18.3-m (60-ft) vessel and teaching sailing to adults at the David King Nautical School in Hull. She achieved her yachtmaster and instructor qualifications at age 18, and in 1995 she won the Young Sailor of the Year Award after sailing solo around Great Britain. The following year she finished third in her first transatlantic race, from Quebec to Saint-Malo, France. In 2003 she founded the Ellen MacArthur Trust to introduce young cancer and leukemia patients to the joys of sailing.

      Seven months after completing her global record, MacArthur spent seven weeks on standby in New York waiting to challenge Joyon's solo transatlantic record of 6 days 4 hr 1 min 37 sec. The attempt would be futile without perfect conditions, but the particularly active hurricane season in the Caribbean affected the North Atlantic weather and prevented the normal pattern from forming. MacArthur would have to wait for another opportunity to set her next record.

Keith L. Osborne

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Universalium. 2010.

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