BB FANS

ELLEN SET FAIR FOR A SOLO WIN

YACHTSWOMAN Ellen MacArthur was on course yesterday for the fastest solo trip around the world.

She has extended her lead to two days, five hours and 30 minutes ahead of the record set by Frenchman Francis Joyon.

He completed the non-stop voyage in 72 days 22 hours 54 minutes and 22 seconds in February.

Ellen, 28, from Cowes, Isle of Wight, has averaged almost 15 knots aboard her 75ft trimaran B&Q - more than two knots faster than she needs to beat the record.

She has been helped by strong winds as she sails 560 miles south west of Tasmania and 1,050 miles west of New Zealand.

But she remains cautious about her prospects as she nears the halfway point.

She said: 'It's a long, long way home. It's not over until it's over - and Francis's time is the only record that stands.'

Ellen, who set off on November 28, must cross the finish line at Ushant off the French coast no later than February 9.

Mirrir

Thanks for that Madeline!

I think Ellen is an amazing woman! I really admire her.

http://www.teamellen.com/

3 d 2 h 41 m ahead of Joyon (record holder), 9,865 miles left, 16,072 miles sailed.

She's fastest woman to sail around the world - but is she at the age of 29 ready after this challenge to settle down with someone special - or will she race year after year until she's old enough not to sail?

Attachment is for Hippo for some reason if Hippo visits ever Sports Forums
(I personally hate this kind of pictures taken from celebrities without their permission)

There's only 541 miles left and she's over 2 days ahead from Joyon!

Looks like she will make it the day after tomorrow.
and break the record.

MacArthur on verge of history


Ellen MacArthur should complete a fantastic feat today when her 75ft trimaran B&Q crosses the line between Lizard Point in Cornwall and the Ushant lighthouse off the French coast.

She will have knocked almost two days off the remarkable solo round-the-world sailing record set by Francis Joyon last year.

The 28-year-old Derbyshire-born sailor's achievement is all the more remarkable because she has sailed a smaller, and therefore potentially slower, boat than Joyon's 90ft trimaran. But MacArthur's boat was specifically designed by Britain's Nigel Irens to be the biggest boat she could handle on her own and is considerably lighter than Joyon's.

She also has the backing of a huge team of sailors who have prepared this boat and a management team who have relieved her of the day-to-day running of this campaign. She has been protected so that she can concentrate on sailing this purpose-built craft, and she has had to drive it through the most unfriendly oceans on the planet, culminating in full gale conditions over the past few days.

Conditions were predicted to abate but the weather was expected to remain squally until she had finished the 27,500 miles she has sailed since leaving Ushant on the way out. Once she was inside Cape Finisterre and into the Bay of Biscay it was hoped the north-east wind would shift more into the east and then to the south-east to give B&Q a fast run home.

From on board she reported: "The breeze is oscillating the whole time - one minute it is 35 knots, the next it is decreasing to 16. My speed at the moment is 12.7 knots average, which is terrible.

"We had a few really big waves during the night," she continued. "I was virtually thrown out of the bunk by one that broke right over the boat and filled the cockpit. The cuddy was full, everything was awash, all the ropes were swimming around in the cockpit. I was a bit worried about the structure."

MacArthur was still getting 35-knot gusts yesterday but the average wind strength was down to 23 knots and she found it hard to decide what area of sail to set because of the unstable conditions.

"If the breeze is averaging 30 knots," she said, "I put the third reef in and if it is averaging 28 to 29 knots I have two reefs in, but, when you're getting gusts of 36, that is shit-loads; I'm setting three reefs and a [small] staysail."

Her final comments on the previous night were that she had worked hard. "I was saying, 'It's rough now, it's time to be gaining,' and I just thought, 'Keep it together and try hard to rest.' But it is hard to rest when the breeze is dying - so hard."
guardian

It has been really HARD - but anyway - YIPPEE!!!

She's not there yet! she's done brilliantly so far

Come on Ellen!

Amazing lady, I don't know how she does it, I know I wouldn't last a day at sea.

Ellen MacArthur is on the verge of becoming the fastest solo sailor around the world.

But light winds are forcing the 28-year-old from Cowes to tack her way to the finishing line between Lizard Point, Cornwall, and Ushant, France.

She needs to reach the line before 7.04an Wednesday to break the record set last year by Frenchman Francis Joyon of 72 days, 22 hours, 54 minutes and 22 seconds.

MacArthur looks likely to hit the line in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after an earlier estimated arrival of 6pm today was pushed back.It is an agonising end after 70 days at sea, during which time she has covered 27,000 miles.

MacArthur is being forced into the Bay of Biscay in search of southeasterly winds.

TV crews and fans are gathering at Falmouth in Cornwall for her return.

Over the weekend the exhausted yachtswoman and her 75ft trimaran B&Q battled through a Force Eight storm, with giant waves and winds gusting up to 40 knots.

Earlier in the attempt, MacArthur was five days ahead of the record time but technical problems with her mainsail and light winds eroded her lead.

Already the Derbyshire-born sailor has made five records on this trip which began on Nov 27- beating Joyon's times to the Equator, the Cape of Good Hope, Cape Leeuwin in Australia, Cape Horn and back again to the Equator.

Update from:Telegraph

She's done it!!!!

As we say in Ireland, she's some woman for one woman!

Wonderful achievement, I'm delighted she made it.


It takes a big deal to get me on the Sports Forum!

Well done Ellen

Thousands gather to greet MacArthur triumph

Ellen MacArthur last night confirmed her status as one of the most remarkable sailors in the history of her sport, setting a new world record for single-handed circumnavigation in dramatic circumstances off the northern coast of France.

At 10.29pm - 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds after starting her voyage - MacArthur steered her 70ft trimaran, B&Q, across a finishing line just north of the lighthouse at Ushant, Brittany, and into the record books.

Shepherded home by a 16-knot south-easterly that brought her home three hours earlier than expected, MacArthur beat the record set last year by the Frenchman Francis Joyon by one day, eight hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds, and brought to an end a 27,354-mile voyage that saw her brave South Atlantic icebergs and Pacific swells to add sailing's most taxing record to her already remarkable achievements.

The feat was greeted with a shower of champagne by her shore team in the National Maritime Museum at Falmouth, Cornwall. News of the record-breaking moment was relayed to Falmouth by Claude Breton, an official from the World Speed Sailing Records Council waiting in the lighthouse in Ushant to sight a strobe on B&Q's mast.

Moments after the champagne flowed in Falmouth, MacArthur called in to greet the end of a gruelling 10-week journey. Speaking to Mark Turner, her business partner and team manager, she said: "I feel totally elated and utterly drained," she said. "It has been a very difficult trip all the way. The South Atlantic was terrible for us and all the way back up was incredibly hard, but I am delighted to be here. The one thing I would really like to do is to see my family, because they have suffered through with me every step of the way."

Mr Turner said: "This is the best moment of all. It's been incredibly hard."

In the final hours of a journey that pushed MacArthur's powers of endurance to their limit, her trimaran was accompanied by HMS Severn, a Royal Navy patrol vessel carrying members of her shore crew and her doctor.

Within moments of passing the finishing line, members of her team boarded B&Q to steer her towards a reception in Falmouth this morning, where several thousand people are expected to line the dockside. She was given immediate attention by her personal physician, Dr Kevin McNeel.

"I suspect Ellen is physically spent," he said. "She looks after the boat better than herself."

MacArthur's achievement follows her record, in 2001, as the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe and the fastest woman.guardian

Congrats Ellen