Ellen home and hosed

by Kingfisher Challenges on 9 Feb 2005 Ellen MacArthur touched down on the finish line in Ushant in record breaking style yesterday and spoke at a press conference attended by hundreds about her achievement.

What kind of influence do you think you can have?

I hope that through what I am doing at the moment, through be determined about the goal, can show people that things can be possible, it doesn't always go your way but it can be possible. That's something that I've always believed, so any way I can take that forward let's hope that that's a positive thing.
What are you going to do now?

Right now I'm going to spend some time with my family and just switch my brain off. My brain's been constantly thinking about boat speed, weather conditions, charging the batteries on the boat keeping everything running for a really long time so, the one thing I want to do is disengage my brain.

How was it to end to finally get back on land?

One thing I'm really happy about is that when I left that boat, I wasn't sad I wasn't particularly emotional like I was when I got off the boat in the last round the world trip, it wasn't as if it was the end with this boat.

It's not over, they are lots of other records out there. I won't be setting off round the world in the short term because I've just got back from that, but they'll be other records like the Transatlantic record we missed out on last year that's definitely something we'll be aiming for
What's B&Q's personality

She's a fighter, She's a boat that will not let you down, She has been unbelievably rugged and strong, we've been through a lot together over the last few months.

To listen to the audio in full and to download:

http://www.ocftp2.com/audio/ellen/confpresse_uk.mp3

Notes on record:

OMEGA: Official timekeeper for Ellen MacArthur

B&Q skipper, Ellen MacArthur, crossed the finish line off Ushant at 22:29:17 GMT 07/02/2005 to set a new solo, non-stop round the world record of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds.

MacArthur has taken 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, 49 seconds off the previous fastest 72 day, 22 hours, 54 minute solo time of Francis Joyon (Joyon finished his record attempt on 03/02004.

B&Q sailed 27,354 miles through the water at an average speed of 15.9 knots.

Ellen MacArthur solo round the world - new solo times:

Ushant-Equator 8d 18h 20m 7/12/04 0230GMT (taking 14h 3m off Joyon's time)

Ushant-Cape of Good Hope 19d 9h 46m 17/12/04 1756GMT (taking 10h 45m off Joyon's time)

Ushant-Cape Leeuwin 29d 14h 5m 27/12/04 2215GMT (taking 17h 24m off Joyon's time)

Ushant-Cape Horn 44d 23h 36m 12/1/04 0746GMT (taking 4 days 2h 45m off Joyon's time)

Ushant-Equator 60d 13h 35m 27/1/05 2145GMT (taking 1d 10h 50m off Joyon's time)

Equator-Equator record of 51 days, 19 hours and 15 minutes

To view the daily summary of Ellen's round the world record attempt so far:
http://www.teamellen.com/ellen.asp?artid=2340