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From adventure to adversity

Ellen MacArthur

Ellen MacArthur, 28, sailed into the record books in 2005 as the youngest person and fastest woman to sail solo around the world. But her background was not what you would expect for a participant in a sea-based sport costing millions.

For a start, Ellen did not even live near the sea. As a girl she lived in Derbyshire, which has no coastline. She did not have much money, but, as an eight year old, she read everything there was to read about sailing, saving her dinner money for three years to buy her own dinghy.

Ellen�s passion for the sport grew and at 18 years old in 1995 she sailed single-handed round Britain in a 21-foot yacht. She was voted British Young Sailor of the Year.

Ellen wrote 2,500 letters to potential sponsors, but only two bothered to reply. Eventually she moved to France and camped in a boatyard to refit her own boat. She went on to sail it 3,000 miles across the Atlantic over 33 days in the Mini Transat solo race.

Finally she won sponsorship, when retail giant Kingfisher funded her entry in the unforgiving Route du Rhum race in 1998. She came fifth overall, won her class and was named BT/JYA Yachtsman of the Year.

Ellen has survived her fair share of the sport�s inherent mishaps, including the dismasting of her boat in the Indian Ocean.

Ellen became the fastest person to sail solo round the world non-stop on 7 February 2005, completing the 27,348-mile journey in the record time of 71 days 14 hours. After battling storms and sleeping in snatches of no more than 20 minutes for much of the time, she beat by 33 hours the previous record set by France's Francis Joyon in 2004.

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