Ellen MacArthur interview part 2

Britain's solo sailing star talks about her plans for the future

mfs: So Ellen, three months down the line from the Vendee Globe, what is life like for you these days?

EM: Life at the moment is busy and it's great to be getting back on the water. It's been pretty hectic since the finish of the race with writing the book (her autobiography). For sure, that's been a big pressure. But I also feel it's very much the time to do it and I feel I just have to bite the bullet and get it done.

mfs: Are you finding it harder to make decisions about what to do next, now that the Vendee is finished and the overall goal is not as clear as it was six months ago?

EM: It is harder - it's not like it was before the race and it never will be again because the Vendee Globe was my first round-the-world race and it's not something you can recreate which is why it was sad at the end. But what I did decide during the Vendee was that future decisions shouldn't be made overnight. I didn't want to get back from the Vendee and say 'this is what I'm doing', but take some time and look on a bigger scale at everything and then make a decision.

mfs: But you've taken almost no time off since you got back.

EM: That's true, but then I don't think I can make a decision about the future unless I'm trying things that I could do, which is why I'm sailing a trimaran and racing on Kingfisher with a crew.

mfs: In the back of your mind, are you beginning to get a sense of what you might do because there are options, obviously.

EM: Yes, there are options and they lie pretty much in multihull sailing or continuing on Kingfisher or mixing a bit of both or just sailing on other people's boats or doing two-handed races.

mfs: Do you feel that the success of your transatlantic race last summer and your Vendee campaign and the whole profile you now have in the sport is making it harder for you to make simple decisions about what to do next, especially given the expectations people now have of you?

EM: In a way, yes. If I went into the trimaran circuit - it obviously involves grand prix racing and I have got a lot of work to do there to come up to the standards of the other guys, I feel. Getting a boat that size round a short course and knowing all the rules is something I've had little experience of. Most of the guys have done Figaros and everything comes naturally to them, so I'd have to work quite hard on that if that was the route I was going to take.

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