Ellen & Kingfisher win Europe 1 New Man Star !

Photos ©: Thierry Martinez

Just a few minutes ago Ellen arrived at the finish at Newport. She has left the other competitors in the monhulls half a day behind her.

Ellen MacArthur breaks record in Europe 1 New Man STAR victory

In the early hours here in Newport, USA, Ellen MacArthur crossed the line to take victory in the Europe1 New Man single-handed transatlantic race. After a tortuous final 36 hours in light and variable winds, the 23 year old slid in to Newport, Rhode Island at 1021 GMT this morning, to become the youngest winner of the race since its inception in 1960.

Racing 'Kingfisher' for the first time since her launch in Auckland in February earlier this year, Ellen has surpassed everyone's expectations, including her own. The conditions in the race certainly favoured the design configuration of 'Kingfisher', but Ellen has nonetheless proven herself capable of holding her own against the very best. The Vendee Globe is the ultimate objective for Ellen - the single-handed non-stop around the world race which starts in November 2000. This transatlantic race, which started shortly after her arrival from a 12,000 mile delivery back from New Zealand, was very much meant to be a training race for her. Ellen had this to say as she set foot on American soil -

"My objective was top ten. I couldn't believe it when I found myself at the front. Certainly there were a few boats like PRB not pushing themselves as hard as they could, saving their boats for the Vendee. Some of the guys I respect most, Yves and Toma in particular, were out at an early stage as well. It was great to have Bilou (SILL) so close to keep pushing me hard 24 hours a day. However, I found it incredibly stressful to be leading, and very challenging to make the right tactical choices on my own. I'm sure I could not have held the lead it we had been racing downwind more like in the Vendee, but overall I'm naturally very happy with 'Kingfisher'. It's a very strong bond between us now after 15,000 miles together. I really do also want to thank all the supporters, friends, suppliers, sponsors and the Kingfisher Challenges shore team - I really haven't done this alone. Sir Francis Chichester, winner of the first race, has also been a great hero for me, so it is incredible to have won this race"

Sir Geoff Mulcahy, Kingfisher's Chief Executive, was delighted with the result, and paid tribute to Ellen and the Kingfisher Challenges Team. "Ellen's exceptional performance in this tough and challenging Race is a testimony to her skills, courage and commitment, and her determination to succeed. She is an inspiration to the 125,000 people working across our operating companies, and Kingfisher is truly proud to be associated with her."

Support during this race from employees across the Kingfisher group has been fantastic. Messages have been received from people across the group, from warehouse to shop and head office.

One of the group's companies has gone a step further. As a celebration of Ellen's success, COMET, Kingfisher's UK electrical retailer, has announced a donation of 10,000 pounds worth of equipment to one of Ellen's chosen charities, RYA Sailability. Sailability provides opportunities for disabled people to enjoy sailing. Early in her career at the London Boat Show in 1996, Ellen met their patron - HRH the Princess Royal.

'Kingfisher' was designed by a European team including Merfyn Owen, Rob Humphreys, Giovanni Belgrano and Alain Gautier. She was built in New Zealand, by Marten Yachts, and is fitted with Southern Spars mast and boom. Sails are by North Sails France, and the deck hardware is split between Harken winches and Frederiksen blocks. She is slightly heavier and less powerful than many of the Finot designs, but has been constructed very much around Ellen and the challenge of lasting for a 100+ days on the Vendee Globe.

About Ellen ...

24 year old Ellen MacArthur, the youngest skipper in the whole fleet, has sailed a clean race and an impressive one too in this edition of the Europe 1 New Man Star. She has lead the Class 1 monohull fleet nearly all the way from the start in Plymouth and has left her opponents a whole half day behind her! An unprecedented performance in the world of solo offshore racing since the victory of Florence Arthaud in the 1990 Route Du Rhum.

But for the landlocked county of Derbyshire to produce Yachtsman of the Year, and for that award to go to a 23-year-old, slip of a girl from Whatstandwell, is nothing short of miraculous. She does not come from any yachting club, 'Howard's Way' culture and has not risen through the ranks of the sailing elite. Her great-grandparents came from Skye and were boating people and a great-uncle ran away to sea when young, but any real connection with the sea is tenuous. When Ellen was eight, an aunt took her sailing on the East coast, after which she was hooked.

At school, she saved up all her dinner money for three years to buy her first boat, an eight-foot dinghy. She was a "geek", she says candidly, spending all her spare time reading sailing books in the library and soaking up information like a sponge. She was going to be a vet but a bout of glandular fever while she was in the Sixth Form set her back. Instead, she resolved to become a professional sailor.

So at 18, she sailed single-handed round Britain and won the Young Sailor of the Year award for being the youngest person to pass the Yachtmaster Offshore Qualification, with the highest possible marks in theory and practical examinations. The nautical establishment looked on benignly at "Little Ellen" from Derbyshire, just 5’ 2" tall, and metaphorically patted her on the head. She wrote 2,500 letters to potential sponsors - and received just two replies.

They stopped patting her on the head and looked at her in a new light when she undertook the Mini-Transat solo race from Brest in France to Martinique in the French Caribbean in 1997. With little money, no major sponsorship and not even a return ticket, she took the ferry to France, bought Le Poisson, a 21ft yacht, and refitted it on site. She learned French in order to deal with French shipwrights and camped next to Le Poisson while she worked on the mast and hull.

Then she sailed 2,700 miles across the Atlantic; a race which she completed in 33 days. This achievement brought her first major sponsorship from Kingfisher plc, the company who own B&Q, Woolworths, Superdrug and Comet in the UK, and who believe in backing young people with an ambition to succeed. In a new boat, the 50 ft ‘Kingfisher’, she undertook the Route du Rhum transatlantic race in November of last year, winning her class and finishing fifth overall in the monohulls. She was duly awarded ‘BT/YJA Yachtsman of the Year’ for this feat and secured full sponsorship from Kingfisher plc to build her new Open 60 ‘Kingfisher’ for this year’s solo, non-stop, around the world, Vendée Globe yacht race – the toughest yachting challenge known to man. There isn't an ounce of vanity in her and she's a tireless ambassador for the sport. "Anyone could do it", she says, and means it. "You only need a few hundred pounds and you've got to start somewhere." Getting this far has pushed her harder than she'd ever have imagined but she insists: "If there's one thing I've learned in this past year, it's that deep down in your heart, if you have a dream, then you can and must make it happen."

Emma Richards & Pindar Update:

Now it is down to pure tactics and we have seen how great Em is at this aspect already. When we spoke to Newport operations centre, at 18.30 BST she was at 42 31.20N 54 20.04W and had 760.79 miles to go.

Alex Thomson was falling a little behind at 831.40 miles, on 43 11.56N 52 43.64W and marginal leader, Nastro Azzurro was at 43 0.40N 54 40.56W with 746.09 miles to sail.

We just spoke with Emma at 21.25 and she is working the boat as much as possible to make the most of the light winds. She put in a hard right tack in anticipation of a good front and thinks - according to the latest weather fax at 19.00 - she may have just missed it. She has increased speed from 3.9 knots to 7.5 knots in the last 2.5 hours and is now just 5 degrees off course for Newport.

She knows she is going in the right direction and is expert at getting this particular open 50 to give of its best. We'll be talking to her again in the next 24 hours as she closes in on the final lap of the race tomorrow.

More Information:

• Event Website
• Kingfisher Challenges
• Virtual Spectator