Ellen MacArthur Is On Her Way–Solo Transatlantic Record Attempt: After two months of waiting around for the right weather, Ellen MacArthur was about to set off from New York early this week to deliver her 75-foot trimaran back to Europe without a record bid. But as she got ready to push off the dock, a custom-order cold front came whipping off the Great Lakes and suddenly there was a decent weather window for a record shot. So off she went Monday night. She’s now more than 500 miles into the bid, and trails current record-holder Laurent Bourgnon by about 14 hours. In 1994 he made the 2885-mile sprint from Ambrose Light off New York to The Lizard at the entrance to the English Channel in 7 days, 2 hours and 34 minutes. Ellen has averaged about 17.5 knots so far, and has endured rough conditions, sleep deprivation, a broken winch and damage to her rudder. But she’s still in the game and sailing hard, racing to stay just ahead of the fast-moving front so she can ride it all the way across the Atlantic. Bourgnon had incredible pace early in his record run, setting a new outright 24 hour record of 540 miles, so it’s no surprise that Ellen is falling behind. But the approaching front is pushing wind speeds up over 30 knots and Ellen is sailing at more than 20 knots so she should start to grind Bourgnon down. Here’s Ellen’s summary of her first night at sea:

“At most 14 minutes sleep…8 sail changes since have left New York and now I have something on the rudder acting like a giant break on the boat, until daylight there is not much I can do .I also broke part of a winch during the night so its not been an easy start. I am just about hanging on to the average speed I need to stay with this weather system.”

Doesn’t sound very easy, does it…?



“I’m sailing fast. The boat’s in great shape. But I must say I am a bit worried about the fact that my left arm seems to be fading away…”