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The sea has been the most important thing in Ellen MacArthur’s life since she spent a summer on her Aunt Thea’s boat on the English coast when she was eight уears old.  Her bedtime reading at that time was a biography of a famous yachtsman who had sailed round the world three times and her dream was to do the same thing. Her parents, who are both teachers, understood that cross-country running and hockey were not going to provide enough adventure for their daughter, and that theу could do nothing to alter her decision. Ellen had already started to save up her pocket money to buy a boat.  But as Ellen knew, it is easy to dream of doing a round-the-world voyage, but finding the money and learning how to go about it is more difficult. At the age of eighteen she was only 163 cm tall and weighed a little over 50 kilos, but she made her first solo trip around the coast of Great Britain.  For her this was a test to see if she could cope with the hardships of a lone voyage. In 1994 she started talking about entering the Vendee Globe, the famous French single-handed, non-stop, go-the-world race. By 1996, she knew she had to do it. Then the real struggle began. Ellen lived in a caravan to save money for the race and even slept under her boat for a few nights during a Northern English winter while she got it ready for the heavy seas. She wrote two thousand letters asking for sponsorship from companies and got two replies.

One of these was from the Kingfisher brewery, and an alliance was born.  She named her boat after them, and they are still her "sponsors today". "My strongest quality is that I just don’t give up", she says. By the time the boats lined up for the start of the 2000 Vendee Globe race, Ellen MacArthur had sailed 120,000 kilometers in eight months in her beloved Kingfisher, more than anyone else in the race had sailed in the previous two years. By now she was also a very experienced racer and was considered to be one of the favorites.  Nevertheless, the sight of this tiny figure at the helm of the enormous ocean racing yacht made almost everyone in France feel protective towards her.  For the next three months, the news bulletins on French television contained not only race reports but also medical updates on Ellen.  Ellen believes that everyone who finishes the Vendee Globe is a winner, but she still must have been disappointed to come second. She had overtaken Michel Desjoyeauх, who eventually won, days before the finish but ultimately he snatched back the lead. In the spirit of the race, Ellen went back to the finish line to greet most of the other sailors on their return, including the 60-year-old Frenchman who finished last after nearly five months at seа.  “For me, it’s part of the tradition of the event, ‘says Ellen. “You’re there at the start, you should be there at the finish.’

How did Ellen MaCArthur’s parents feel about her ambition?

What made Ellen decide to enter the Vendee Globe race?

Once Ellen had decided to enter the Vendee Globe race, the most difficult thing for her was

Why did the French public like Ellen?

How does Ellen feel about yacht racing?