Ellen unfazed by fame and Vendee success

Ed Gorman examines how Britain's top sailing star is faring prior to embarking on her latest yacht race

Hang around with Ellen MacArthur for a few hours and you discover what life is like for probably the most famous sailor on the planet. The 24-year-old from Derbyshire was already a star in France before she set off on the Vendee Globe, but her performance in that race has only intensified the French fascination with the Kingfisher skipper.

Everywhere she goes these days she is followed by autograph hunters, by people wanting her to lend her support to their project - the latest was a woman who waited for hours to speak to Ellen in the hope that she would back her campaign to raise awareness about the plight of women in Afghanistan - or she finds herself confronted by strangers who just want to say how much they admire her.

On the dockside in Cherbourg where the nine-strong fleet of 60ft trimarans are preparing for the start of the Challenge Mondial Assistance on Saturday, Ellen was stopped by a middle-aged woman on her way to work. She said how delighted she was to see a woman doing so well and, though of a different generation, she said she wanted to offer Ellen her congratulations and luck for the future.

Ellen takes it all with grace and poise. Even after months of this 24-hour-a-day attention which would rile many, she still takes the time to thank people and to talk to them. More than that, she still seems genuinely amazed that ordinary people are continuing to draw so much inspiration from her achievements.

Coming here at the start of her first big project since finishing the Vendee - Ellen is racing on Alain Gautier's Foncia - I was looking for signs of change. But Mark Turner, her manager, is right when he says that she has remained true to herself and remarkably unaffected by her fame. The childlike enthusiasm is perhaps a little more hidden than a year ago and she has definitely matured, but she is still the Ellen of old - straightforward, honest and disarmingly modest.

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