Our Patron
Dame Ellen MacArthur DBE

Ellen MacArthur first hit the headlines in 2001 when she single-handedly raced non-stop around the world in the Vendee Globe when only 24 years old. In February 2005 she set a new world record aboard her 75ft trimaran, of 71 days, 14 hours, 1 minute and 33 seconds.

Since then she has broadened her work to include working in the area of sustainability, encompassing a trip to South Georgia and the Antarctic and various projects connected with preserving the environment around us.

She is now a partner in BT Team Ellen, dedicated to success on the water across a number of disciplines including the IMOCA Ocean Racing World Championships and the Extreme 40 catamaran series. She will be competing in a number of crewed IMOCA 60 events through 2008-10 and will participate in the 2008 iShares Cup Extreme 40 Sailing Series. She is a founder of the Ellen MacArthur Trust, set in 2003, which takes young people aged between 8 - 13 sailing to help them regain their confidence on their way to recovery from cancer, leukaemia and other serious illnesses.

Ellen is also the author of two books,
Taking on the World and Race against Time.

Ellen started sailing at the age of four with her aunt on ‘Calipso’. When she was eight she started going without school dinners so that she could save her dinner money to buy her first boat which she achieved at the age of 13 with a dinghy ‘ Threepenny Bit’. More saving bought Kestrel’, a small keelboat and then ‘Iduna’ a 21 foot Corribee. In 1995 she sailed ‘Iduna’ single handed round Britain, was awarded the BT/WJA Young Sailor of the Year Award and also became the youngest person to pass her Yachtsmasters Offshore Qualification.

From her debut into full time yachting in 1994, Ellen tackled larger and larger projects, competing in races around the UK and across the Atlantic until the delivery of her Open 60 monohull ‘Kingfisher’ from New Zealand made her the youngest ever person to win the Europe1 New Man STAR solo transatlantic race and the Vendee Globe, aboard ‘Kingfisher’, and world record, aboard ‘B&Q’, followed on from that.

She has been awarded every honour possible including an MBE and a DBE both bestowed on her by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

Ellen’s love of the sea and sailing is matched by her love and commitment to the Border Collie and its welfare