Yachting: Kiwi carving keeps sailor safe

By JULIE ASH

Top British sailor Ellen MacArthur will carry a little piece of New Zealand with her when she hurls herself around the world in her giant trimaran, attempting to break a string of solo sailing records along the way.

MacArthur, 27, was given a greenstone carving when she was in New Zealand for the launch of her famous yacht Kingfisher four years ago. It has not left her neck since.

It was there when she won the Transat race in 2000; when she finished second in the 2001 Vendee Globe round-the-world race; and when she smashed the race record in the 2002 Route du Rhum.

"It is supposed to mean safe travel over water," MacArthur said.

"I guess I am the right person to be wearing one."

MacArthur, originally from Derbyshire, has been in Auckland for the past month testing her new 75ft trimaran B & Q Castorama.

"Every time I walk down the dock in the morning I just think 'wow'," said the pint-sized MacArthur of her giant orange and blue craft.

"I am really happy with this boat. If we started designing a boat tomorrow I don't think we'd design a boat really different."

The Nigel Irens-designed trimaran was built in Sydney at cost of around $3 million.

MacArthur said she did investigate building the trimaran here, as Kingfisher had been.

"Auckland or New Zealand has been hit quite hard by the America's Cup [loss] and a lot of the boatyards had lost boat builders and I think everyone was sort of 'let's have a breather now' after the cup.

"Different yards had different projects and it just happened that a yard in Australia had a slot."

MacArthur's trimaran is designed specifically for breaking speed records.

The three key solo records are the 24-hour distance record (540 miles, set in 1994 by Laurent Bourgnon on the 60ft Primagaz); the transatlantic crossing record (seven days and two hours, again by Bourgnon in 1994); and the round the world record, which was recently smashed by Francis Joyon, who recorded 72 days, 22h, 54min 22s on his 90ft trimaran.

"He is an incredible character and what he has achieved is huge," MacArthur said.

"Just to take a multihull around the world on his own without stopping is a massive achievement."

MacArthur, whose sailing achievements have made her a household name in both France and Britain, has been sailing since she was four.

Focus and determination is something she has in spades. This is the woman who, at 11, saved up her school dinner money for three years to buy her first boat.

She moved her bed into the barn so there was room for her ropes and charts, oars and sails in her small bedroom.

At 18 she sailed single-handed round Britain.

"I spent all my time at school dreaming about sailing," she said.

"I just love it. I love learning about technical things, about computers, engines, everything. When you run a boat on your own you have to know about everything."

MacArthur hesitates when asked whether she ever gets scared in the middle of the Atlantic in big seas with no one for company.

"Sometimes it is pretty stressful. But in the moment you concentrate on finding the solution. After that you might think 'that was a little full-on'. But you have to deal with it because there is no way out.

"There are little moments, like sailing in the Southern Ocean around the icebergs - huge icebergs which are amazing to see," she says.

"Yeah, you are a little concerned and a bit nervous, but it is also so exciting to see them.

"You know that that iceberg you have just seen no one else will probably ever see because it will disappear. You feel so lucky."

MacArthur will leave New Zealand at the end of the month, sailing with a crew as far as the bottom of Cape Horn. She will then continue home to Britain alone.

"I don't know why, but sometimes things just click for you and that is what happened with me: I just fell in love with solo sailing."