Yachting: MacArthur breaks round the world record

UPDATE - Yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur has broken the solo round-the-world sailing record in a time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds. Live television pictures from the finish line off north-western France showed the 28-year-old Briton's 75-foot (22.9 metres) trimaran crossing the line at the end of the 26,000 mile journey (42,000 km).

"An absolutely unbelievable voyage, both physically and mentally," MacArthur said in live comments on television shortly after she crossed the line at about 10.29 pm local time on Monday (Tuesday morning NZT).

She needed to cross the finishing line between France and England by 7:04 a.m. on Wednesday to beat the 72-day, 23-hour record set by Frenchman Francis Joyon last year."I'm absolutely exhausted. I've had about 15 minutes sleep all through the night," MacArthur earlier told BBC radio from a satellite phone on the boat that has been her home for 71 days.

MacArthur was taking nothing for granted and told her website she needed to avoid any last minute distractions as she neared the line between Ushant, northern France, and Lizard Point, southern England.

"Right now I've got a radar alarm going off, there's a ship in the area, and I'm going to have to contend with ships right up to the finish. There's a plane flying over me right now. All I know is that it's going to be a very, very long night.

"I am very very tired. I was hoping I would be in by sunset tonight. But that looks absolutely impossible now."

MacArthur was due to be met by her shore team and a doctor when she crossed the line.

A large screen and clock have been erected by the National Maritime Museum in Falmouth. Hundreds were expected to walk up to the Falmouth headland in southern England to welcome her later today.

When MacArthur, 28, started out in November in her 75-ft trimaran, there seemed little chance she would beat Joyon. He had knocked 20 days off the previous record and was the first person to do the trip non-stop in a multi-hull boat.

However, kind weather and the good performance of her tri-hull boat have left MacArthur odds-on to break the record.

MacArthur first came to prominence when she finished second in the Vendee Globe round the world race in 2000-2001.

- REUTERS