Ellen MacArthur | |
|---|---|
.jpg) MacArthur in 2010 | |
| Born | (1976-07-08)8 July 1976 (age 48) Whatstandwell,Derbyshire, England |
| Occupation(s) | Sailor and charity founder |
| Known for | Previous holder of fastest solocircumnavigation of theglobe in a yacht |
| Website | ellenmacarthur |
Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthurDBE (born 8 July 1976) is a retired English sailor, fromWhatstandwell nearMatlock inDerbyshire, now based inCowes,Isle of Wight.
MacArthur is a successful solo long-distanceyachtswoman. On 7 February 2005, she broke theworld record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe, a feat which gained her international renown.[1]Francis Joyon, the Frenchman who had held the record before MacArthur, was able to recover the record again in early 2008.[2]
Following her retirement from professional sailing on 2 September 2010, MacArthur announced the launch of theEllen MacArthur Foundation, a charity that works with business and education to accelerate the transition to acircular economy.
She once held the top spot on the UK Top Gear show for fastest star in a reasonably priced car.
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MacArthur was born inDerbyshire[3] where she lived with her parents, who were both teachers, and two brothers Fergus, still in Whatstandwell, and Lewis, who now lives inPennsylvania. She acquired her early interest in sailing, firstly by her desire to emulate her idol at the time, Sophie Burke,[4] and secondly by readingArthur Ransome'sSwallows and Amazons series of books. She has since become the Patron of the Nancy Blackett Trust[5] which owns and operates Ransome's yacht,Nancy Blackett.
Her first experience of sailing was on a boat owned by her aunt Thea MacArthur on the east coast of England. She saved her school dinner money for three years to buy her first boat, an eight-foot dinghy, which she namedThrep'ny Bit even thoughdecimalisation had taken place before she was born.[6] She sellotaped a real 'threepenny bit' coin onto the bow.
MacArthur attendedWirksworth County Infants and Junior Schools and theAnthony Gell School and also worked at a sailing school inHull.[citation needed] When she was 17, MacArthur bought aCorribee and named itIduna; she described the first moment she saw it as "love at first sight".[citation needed] In 1995 she sailedIduna single-handed on a circumnavigation of Great Britain.
In 1997, she finished 17th in theMini Transat solo transatlantic race after fitting out her 21 ft (6.4 m)Classe Mini yachtLe Poisson herself while living in a French boatyard.
She was named 1998British Telecom/Royal Yachting Association "Yachtsman of The Year" in the UK and "Sailing's Young Hope" in France.
Asteroid20043 Ellenmacarthur is named after her.[7]
MacArthur first came to general prominence in 2001 when she finished second in theVendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race in her Owen Clarke/Rob Humphreys designedKingfisher (named after her sponsors,Kingfisher plc), and subsequently MacArthur was appointed aMember of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for services to sport. At 24, she was the youngest competitor to complete the voyage.[8]
In 2003, she captained a round-the-world record attempt for a crewed yacht inKingfisher 2 (a catamaran formerly owned byBruno Peyron and known asOrange), but was thwarted by a broken mast in theSouthern Ocean.
A trimaran namedB&Q/Castorama (after two companies in the Kingfisher group) unveiled in January 2004, was specially designed byNigel Irens and Benoit Cabaret for her to break solo records. The 75-foot (23 m)trimaran was built in Australia, with many of the components specifically arranged to take into account MacArthur's 5-foot 2 inch (1.57 m) height.[original research?]
Using the yacht, her first significant record attempt in 2004 to break the west–easttransatlantic crossing time failed by around one and a quarter hours, after over seven days of sailing.
She began her attempt to break the solo record for sailing non-stop around the world on 28 November 2004. During her circumnavigation, she set records for the fastest solo voyage to theequator, past theCape of Good Hope, pastCape Horn and back to the equator again. She crossed the finishing line near the French coast atUshant at 22:29UTC on 7 February 2005 beating the previous record set by French sailorFrancis Joyon by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, 49 seconds. Her time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds is world record for the 27,354 nautical miles (50,660 km) covered. This is an average speed of 15.9 knots (29.4 km/h).
On 8 February 2005, following her return to England, it was announced that she was to be made aDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to sailing.[9] She was the youngest person to ever receive this honour at the age of 28.[10] Coming immediately after the event being recognised, rather than appearing in due course in the New Year's or BirthdayHonours lists, this recognition was reminiscent ofaccolades previously bestowed uponFrancis Drake andFrancis Chichester when reaching home shores after their respective circumnavigations in1580 and 1967. MacArthur was also granted the rank ofHonoraryLieutenant Commander,Royal Naval Reserve on the same day.
In recognition of her achievement she was appointed a Knight (Chevalier) of the FrenchLegion of Honour by PresidentNicolas Sarkozy in March 2008. She is a fluent French speaker.[11]
In 2007 MacArthur headed up BT Team Ellen, a three-person sailing team which includes AustralianNick Moloney and FrenchmanSébastien Josse.[12]
In October 2009 MacArthur announced her intention to retire from competitive racing to concentrate on the subject of resource and energy use in the global economy.[13]
In June 2000, MacArthur sailed the monohullKingfisher fromPlymouth, UK toNewport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes. This is the current record for asingle-handed woman monohull east-to-west passage, and also the record for a single-handed woman in any vessel.[14]
MacArthur's second place in the2000–2001 edition of theVendée Globe, with a time of 94 days, 4 hours and 25 minutes, was the world record for a single-handed, non-stop, monohull circumnavigation by a woman.[15] The record stood for 20 years untilClarisse Crémer beat it in 2020-2021 edition of the Vendée Globe.[16]
In June 2004, MacArthur sailed her trimaranB&Q/Castorama fromAmbrose Light, Lower New York Bay, USA toLizard Point, Cornwall, UK in 7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes. This set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women, beating the previous crewed record as well as the singlehanded version.[17]
In 2005, MacArthur beat Francis Joyon's existingworld record for a single-handed non-stop circumnavigation. MacArthur in the trimaranB&Q/Castorama sailed 27,354 nautical miles (50,660 km) at an average speed of 15.9knots.[18] Her time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes 33 seconds beat Joyon's then world record time by 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes and 49 seconds. She had no more than 20 minutes' sleep at a time during the voyage, having to be on constant lookout day and night. On 23 November 2007 Joyon set off inIDEC 2 in an attempt to beat MacArthur's current world record for a single handed circumnavigation. He achieved his goal in 57 days, 13 hours 34 minutes and 6 seconds.[2] Despite Joyon's reclamation of the record,Robin Knox-Johnston still described MacArthur's time as an "amazing achievement".[19]
Her boat, now named USE IT AGAIN is skippered by French professional sailor, Romain Pilliard.[20][21]
In 2009 MacArthur appeared on BBC Radio 4'sDesert Island Discs. Her chosen book wasThe SAS Survival Handbook byJohn "Lofty" Wiseman and her luxury item was a fluffy worm mascot.[22]
MacArthur was also the last record holder onStar in a Reasonably-Priced Car on the BBC'sTop Gear television driving programme until the eighth series, when the car and rules were changed, and previous records were removed.[23] The competition was a timed lap of a racetrack in aSuzuki Liana. She completed the lap in 1 minute 46.7 seconds, beatingJimmy Carr by 0.2 seconds. MacArthur wonTop Gear's Fastest Driver of the Year award in 2005.
She also took part in 2011 TV seriesJamie's Dream School.
There is a display about MacArthur at theWirksworth Heritage Centre, Derbyshire.
In 2002, MacArthur released her firstautobiography entitledTaking on the World. Later she wroteRace Against Time, published in 2005, a day-by-day account of her record journey around the world. In September 2010, she published a second autobiography entitledFull Circle.
In 2003, MacArthur set up the Ellen MacArthur Trust (now the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust), a registered charity, to 8 to 24 year olds sailing to help them regain their confidence whilst recovering from cancer, leukaemia and other serious illnesses.[24]
In 2008 MacArthur joined other sports celebrities to raise £4 million for the Rainbows children's hospice. The aim is to give terminally ill young people their own customised sleeping unit to enable children in separate age groups to have their families stay with them.[25]
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation (EMF) is a UKregistered charity[26] which promotes the idea of acircular economy. It does this by developing and promoting the concept of a circular economy, working with business, policy makers and academics.
Founded on 23 June 2009, the foundation was publicly launched on 2 September 2010 by MacArthur at theScience Museum.[27] The charity was inspired by MacArthur's sailing experiences.[27][28]
On 17 May 2017, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation andPrince of Wales'International Sustainability Unit launched a US$2 million prize fund for innovations which work towards the management ofwaste plastics.[29][30]
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is a founding member and partner of the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), which was launched out of theWorld Economic Forum.[31][32]
