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Ellen McArthur

Ellen MacArthur

Dame Ellen MacArthur was born on 8th July 1976 and perhaps best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman. Her first boat was an eight foot dinghy, which she named Threp’ny Bit. When she was 17, Ellen MacArthur bought a Corribee named Iduna, which in 1995 she sailed single-handed on a circumnavigation of the UK.

Ellen and Falmouth

Choosing Falmouth as the port to leave from and return to, Ellen broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, a feat which gained her international renown. On 7th Feb Feb 2007 she completed the challenge in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds

Her record breaking achievements:

In June 2000, MacArthur sailed the monohull Kingfisher from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes. This is the current record for a single-handed monohull east-to-west passage, and also the record for a single-handed woman in any vessel
Her time 94 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes in the Vendee Globe is the world record for a single-handed, non-stop, monohull circumnavigation by a woman
Ellen set a new world record in June 2004, when she sailed her trimaran B&Q/Castorama from Ambrose Light, Lower New York Bay, USA to Lizard Point, Cornwall, UK in 7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes.