…boys toys!

As I said when I started this regular Friday post not everyone who appears here is here purely for their looks. This weeks woman of the week certainly isn’t. Sorry Ellen – no offence intended!

I am including her for here achievements – and great achievements they are!

I used to live not far from where Ellen was brought up (you can’t get much more inland in the UK than Derbyshire) so was aware of her to some degree from local press before she shot to fame – and no doubt fortune. Ellen MacArthur  has done more than most will ever achieve in a lifetime – and she’s only 33 now, so who knows what else is to come.

An incredibly driven woman, amongst other things she has;

• in 1997 she finished 17th in the Mini Transat solo transatlantic race after fitting out her own yacht
• in June 2000 she sailed the monohull Kingfisher from Plymouth, UK to Newport, Rhode Island, USA in 14 days, 23 hours, 11 minutes. This is the current record for a single-handed monohull east-to-west passage, and also the record for a single-handed woman in any vessel.
• first came into the public eye  in 2001 when she came second in the Vendée Globe solo round-the-world sailing race in her boat Kingfisher (for which she was given and MBE)
• in June 2004, MacArthur sailed her trimaran B&Q/Castorama from Ambrose Light, Lower New York Bay, USA to Lizard Point, Cornwall, UK in 7 days, 3 hours, 50 minutes. This set a new world record for a transatlantic crossing by women, beating the previous crewed record as well as the singlehanded version
• in February 2005 she broke the world record for the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe!
• following her return to England in February 2005, it was announced that she was to be made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her achievement.It is believed that she is the youngest ever recipient of this honour. She was awarded the French Légion d’Honneur Knight by Nicolas Sarkozy in March 2008

Ellen MacArtur also set up the Ellen MacArthur Trust which takes young people aged between 8-18 sailing to help them regain their confidence, on their way to recovery from cancer, leukaemia and other serious illness.

In her words… “These are really special kids. In many ways they are just the same as everyone else, they are interested in the same things as kids their age, they have the same goals in life, but the difference is that they do this with a huge challenge ahead of them. I face challenges out on the water, but these are challenges that I choose to do. They on the other hand don’t have this luxury. They battle against something harder than many of us could ever imagine and they do it with the biggest smiles on their faces. To me they are truly inspirational and if the Ellen MacArthur Trust can help them in their battle in any way then that is a fantastic achievement.”

What an impressive career for a 33 year old!

Related posts:

1. Woman of the week – Madonna
2. Woman of the week – Lara Croft
3. Woman of the week – Angelina Jolie