ELLEN MACARTHUR - WOMAN WARRIOR

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Imagine spending months alone, seeing nothing but ocean for days at a time, sleeping in 20-minute increments and hauling equipment which weighs more than several times your body weight. This is the life and passion of the UK's Ellen Macarthur.

 

Ellen Macarthur

Ellen grew up in Derbyshire, a town located near the middle of England and about as far away from water as you could get. Her passion for sailing developed out of a boating trip with her aunt when she was eight years old. She quickly developing into a sailing book-worm spending hours in the library reading everything she could get her hands on about the sport. She even camped out in her garage so that she had more space in her room for sailing charts. At 10 she came last in sailing races at her school and as she told a BBC reporter, "On the journey home I decided that I would never let this happen again…I wasn't going to be last no matter what it took."

She spent three years saving her lunch money and with help from her grandmother finally bought her first boat – an 8-foot dinghy. At 18 she sailed single-handedly around Britain and won the Young Sailor of the Year award, passing her Yachtmaster Offshore Qualification with the highest possible marks in both the theory and practical examinations. Yet even with these achievements, she had a tough time finding sponsors. Of the 2,500 letters she mailed out, Ellen received only two replies. Undeterred and nearly broke she bought a one-way ferry ticket to France in 1997 where she purchased a 21-foot yacht. She then camped out next to the boat while she worked on its mast and hull. With her new vessel she entered into the Mini-Transat solo race across the Atlantic Ocean which she completed in 33 days, good for 17th place. Her impressive performance finally brought her a "trial" with a major sponsor and she was soon taking the sailing world by storm winning her class and finishing 5th overall in the grueling Route du Rhum – a race which help win her the title of Yachtsman of the Year.

Impressed by her hard work and dogged determination, Kingfisher (a huge home improvement retailer in Europe), backed her with 2 million ₤ (about 4.65 million dollars Canadian or 3.5 million US) to enter the world renowned Vendee Global – a three month solo journey around the world. Many in the sailing community predicted that at only 5'2", Ellen wouldn't stand a chance against her muscular, male opponents. It was a tough challenge. Alone on the water the 24-year-old needed to be able to make repairs, dodge storms, iceburgs and fatigue all while keeping on course and staying ahead of competitors with years more experience. She spent weeks at a time in her survival suit, eating freeze-dried food and working the sails with hands covered in salt sores and cuts. At one point she had to shimmy up at 90-foot mast in a storm, spent 18 hours gluing a sail back together and had to replace a broken daggerboard, a piece of the boat twice her height and 1.5 times her body weight, all while the waves slammed into her boat.

Beating the odds and all but one of the men in the field, Ellen made headlines around the world, coming in second. She also broke records.

WW - The first female competitor ever to lead the race
WW - The youngest solo sailor to ever finish
WW - The fastest women to circumnavigate the globe.

At a press conference the winner, Michel Desjoyeaux, told reporters: "Ellen for me is a great mystery…she is ten years younger than me and could have beaten me. She had displayed a great deal of courage and determination and has threatened me right until the end." When she sailed into the small French harbor of Les Sables d'Olonne after 94 days on the ocean, 200,000 fans were there to greet her ---double the crowd that had waited for the winner.

Since her dramatic finish, Ellen has gone on to victories and amazing adventures and has also written a book and released a film featuring footage that she took during the Vendee race. In 2004, she plans to make attempts at breaking several more solo-records.

 

 

Superb signed Limited Edition Print now available - click picture for details



Notes on Ellen:

Role model and inspirations:
Ellen counts her grandmother as a huge inspiration. As a young woman her grandmother had a passion for study and even won a scholarship to university, but with money tight in the family, her father forced her to turn it down and go to work. 63 years later, she went back to school – and graduated at the age of 82.

After the Vendée Globe race, Ellen was offered several honorary degrees and accepted only one --- from Derby University, the school from which her grandmother graduated.

Quotes from Ellen during Vendee:
http://edition.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/UK/02/08/sailing.macarthur.quotes/

On Sleep – or lack thereof…
To help her manage her sleep efficiently, Ellen worked with a chronobiologist, Claudio Stampi who helped train her to sleep in short naps to avoid fatigue. Dr. Stampi is a world expert on sleep strategy for sailors. He's carefully studied Ellen's sleep patterns and worked with her on how to maximize her performance at sea. During one of her races she even wore a special sleep microcomputer worn on the wrist, enabling him to monitor Ellen's sleep data via satellite link.

Read an article by Dr. Stampi on Sleep Deprivation and solo sailors
http://4therapy.healthology.com/focus_article.asp?f=sleep_disorders&b=4therapy&c=sleepdeprivation

 

 

 


 

Ellen MacArthur began her world solo record attempt Sun 28 Nov 04 @ 07:10

 

 

 

 

PLEASE USE THE LINKS ABOVE TO READ HOW ELLEN SET A NEW WORLD RECORD

 


 

 

 

SEND A MESSAGE:   EMAIL ELLEN
ENVOYER UN EMAIL Á ELLEN
> CLIQUEZ ICI

 

 

 

 

 

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