MacArthur windswept but on course

SAILING/Solo round-the-world record attempt: Ellen MacArthur should complete a fantastic feat today when her 75ft trimaran, B&Q, crosses the imaginary line between the Lizard Point in Cornwall and the Ushant lighthouse off the French coast.

She will have knocked almost two days off the remarkable solo round-the-world sailing record set by Francis Joyon last year.

The 28-year-old Derbyshire-born sailor's achievement is all the more remarkable because she has sailed a smaller, and therefore potentially slower, boat than Joyon's 90ft trimaran.

But MacArthur's boat was specifically designed by Britain's Nigel Irens to be the biggest boat she could handle on her own and is much lighter than Joyon's.

She, too, has the backing of a huge team of sailors who have prepared this boat and a management team that has relieved her of the day-to-day running of this campaign. MacArthur has been protected so she could concentrate on sailing this purpose-built craft, and she has had to drive it through the most unfriendly oceans on the planet, culminating in full gale conditions over the past few days.

Conditions were predicted to abate, but the weather was expected to remain squally until she had finished the 27,500 miles she has sailed since leaving Ushant on the way out.

Once she was inside Cape Finisterre and into the Bay of Biscay, it was hoped the north-east wind would shift more into the east and then to the south-east to give B&Q a fast run home.

From on board, she reported, "The breeze is oscillating the whole time - one minute it is 35 knots, the next it is decreasing to 16. My speed at the moment is 12.7 knots average, which is terrible.

"We have a few really big waves during the night," she continued. "I was virtually thrown out of the bunk by one that broke right over the boat and filled the cockpit. The cuddy was full, everything was awash, all the ropes were swimming around in the cockpit. I was a bit worried about the structure."

MacArthur was still getting 35-knot gusts yesterday but the average wind conditions were down to 23 knots and she found it hard to know how much sail to set because of the unstable conditions.

"If the breeze is averaging 30 knots," she said, "I put the third reef in and if it is average 28 to 29 knots, I have two reefs in, but when you're getting gusts of 36, that is loads. I'm setting three reefs and a (small) staysail."

Her final comments on the previous night were that she had worked hard. "I was saying, 'It's rough now, it's time to be gaining,' and I just thought, 'Keep it together and try hard to rest.' But it is hard to rest when the breeze is dying - so hard."