Nearly 72 Days Later, This Dame Is a Record Holder

Britain went mad Tuesday for a 5-foot-2, 28-year-old sailor from landlocked Derbyshire who broke the record for fastest solo sail around the world, a journey of 27,354 miles in less than 72 days. She beat the previous record by 32 hours.

“It has been an unbelievable journey,” Ellen MacArthur said after her 75-foot trimaran, a three-hulled speedster, crossed the finish line in French waters Monday night.

By royal decree, MacArthur was dubbed a dame Tuesday upon setting foot at Falmouth Harbor, where her journey had begun Nov. 28. But she said her greatest joy was knowing she had succeeded in her quest to be the world’s fastest sailor. She broke the record on her first attempt, to the surprise and delight of her crew.

MacArthur recalled surviving terrifying storms, equatorial doldrums and a near-collision with a whale. At one point, she was badly knocked about as she tried to fix a damaged mast in darkness while dangling 90 feet above her heaving deck.

“There were some times out there that were excruciatingly difficult. I have never had to dig so deep,” she told French and English reporters at a news conference at Falmouth.

MacArthur’s voyage was the culmination of an 8-year-old girl’s dream, sparked when an aunt first took her sailing in a small dinghy.

Since then, she has focused only on the sea, saving her lunch money to buy a boat of her own, gradually trading up to bigger crafts that she outfitted herself, sailing alone around the isle of Britain when she was 18 and, three years ago, nearly winning the Vendee Globe round-the-world race.

Her voyage, closely followed by the British news media and by supporters over the Internet, captured the imagination of people who had never been aboard a yacht. More than 8,000 people surged down to the green Falmouth headlands, climbing old towers and dangling on the sides of cliffs, to watch her vessel sail home escorted by the Royal Navy and hundreds of sailboats.

Tributes poured in Tuesday from people from all walks of life, including Queen Elizabeth II.

“Since you set sail last November, your progress has been followed by many people in Britain and throughout the world who have been impressed by your courage, skill and stamina,” the queen said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair called MacArthur’s achievement “stunning,” saying, “The whole country is very proud of Ellen.”

MacArthur crossed the finish line near Ouessant, known to the English as Ushant, an island off the Atlantic Coast of France, at 10:29 p.m. Monday. Her trip had begun 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds earlier.

That time cut more than 32 hours off the previous record, set last February by French sailor Francis Joyon. “I was hoping to keep the record for a bit longer, but it was not something that I put on a pedestal either,” Joyon said Tuesday.

“However, I did not think it would be Ellen beating me so soon, and so magnificently.”

Robin Knox-Johnston, the first solo sailor to circumnavigate the world, in 1969 in a wooden boat without radio contact, said he had thought Joyon’s record would stand for years.

“Now Ellen has come in and broken it,” he said.

MacArthur tearfully reunited with her parents and her close-knit yachting team. She raised flaming flares above her head, sprayed champagne and bounced her parents on the elastic netting that connected the three hulls.

The boat MacArthur sailed is a custom-built three-hulled trimaran, weighing just over 3 tons. Her living space was minimal to maximize speed and prevent her from being bounced around in rough weather. She slept only a few hours at a time.

Drinking water came via a water filterer; meals were rehydrated food capsules of the sort used by astronauts.

Because a trimaran travels at high speed, literally surfing the waves, it risks somersaulting in heavy seas, so MacArthur’s boat had long hulls. Her average speed was 15.9 knots.

Despite all the technology aboard, and regular e-mail contact with her team and the public who sent encouragement from around the world, MacArthur said it had been a grueling ordeal, particularly shivering through three days of brutal storms around Christmas.

“The whole South Atlantic was terrible, and it’s just been one big draining event from there onward,” she said at the news conference.

She was escorted for a time by Royal Navy ships she met in the South Atlantic and helicopters and planes that took time out to give her encouragement, but often she was alone.

The round-the-world challenge took four years: She raised $10 million through the British do-it-yourself hardware group B&Q;, designed and built the vessel with high-tech materials, and assembled a race team.

MacArthur said she planned to continue sailing the vessel, which she meticulously tended until it was safely berthed in Falmouth.

MacArthur, who lives on the Isle of Wight off Britain’s southern coast, said she wanted to spend time with family and friends, but promised well-wishers that she would be racing again, and looking for new records to set.

Daniszewski reported from Baghdad and Stobart from London.