Going solo again

Ellen MacArthur discusses her new 75ft trimaran program with James Boyd

Speaking to Ellen MacArthur following yesterday's announcement that she is to return to singlehanded sailing but this time on a purpose-built 75ft trimaran, one gets the impression that firstly a great weight has been lifted off her shoulders and secondly the old pre-Vendee, pre-Mini spark has returned. This project is something she is REALLY enthusiastic about.

The reason for the relief is that this plan has been hatching not just for weeks or months, but for years, since, Ellen says, she sat down and discussed it with multihull designer and close friend Nigel Irens prior to the start of the Mini Transat in 1997.

The green light for the project came in September 2001 as part of the second phase of her sponsorship with leading high street retailer Kingfisher and in an impressive display of Offshore Challenges secret squirrelling has successfully been kept under wraps until now.

The team are already a long, long way down the line with the new boat. Nigel Irens completed work on the design for the new trimaran at the end of last year and the build is to commence at Boatspeed outside of Sydney in four weeks' time now that the new Bols maxi is out of the shed.

The reason for not coming clean back in January 2002 Ellen explains was because they felt that announcing the Kingfisher Jules Verne Trophy attempt and the plan to build a new 60ft trimaran with the intention of winning the 2006 Route du Rhum was enough news for one day. At the time there seemed to be a very obvious hole in the Kingfisher program during 2004, which we assumed was probably going to materialise as a Kingfisher-sponsored entry in The Race. But not so, it would seem.

The two main records Ellen says she wants to nail in her new 75ft trimaran are the singlehanded west to east transatlantic record and the singlehanded 24 hour record. Both are currently held by Laurent Bourgnon when during an extraordinary solo trip in June 1994 aboard his 60ft trimaran Primagaz the fearless Swiss sailor not only set a new time for the passage of 7 days 2 hours 34 minutes and 42 seconds, but during the course of the trip covered 540 miles over one 24 hour period.

At the time the crewed record for 2,925 mile passage was 6 days 13 hour and 3 minutes but Bourgnon's 24 hour record was even more impressive - at the time it was faster than any fully crewed boat had ever sailed and remained unbeaten until the advent of G-class multihulls.

An attempt on the singlehanded non-stop around the world record - currently Michel Desjoyeaux's Vendee Globe time of 93 days 3 hours 57 minutes and 32 seconds - is also a possibility and Ellen says that experience of sailing Kingfisher2, another big multihull, in the Southern Ocean will help her make the call over that decision. She is also looking at a possible record from Shanghai to London - the only similar record we know of is when Philippe Monnet sailed a trimaran singlehanded from Hong Kong to London in 1990 in a time of 67 days 10 hours and 26 minutes.

It is tempting to think that this plan of action might have been prompted for commercial reasons, but Ellen is adamant this is not the case. "This is a 100% Ellen decision," Ellen says, "120% in fact... I remember sitting in the on phone to Nigel discussing what is going to happen next, discussing future possibilities, discussing round the world records...I've always liked record attempts and this was something out there to be done."

Indeed every aspect of this project seems to suit her.

She loves the anoraky technical design side and particularly working with Irens. "It is so exciting as a project: there's no rule, the design was a clean sheet of paper: 'this is what we are going to set out to do and this is how we are going to achieve it'."

The boat will be half way between an ORMA 60ft trimaran and one of the G class maxi-multihulls, both of which Ellen now has first hand experience. Significantly the boat will also be designed for sailing singlehanded, unlike the present generation of 60ft trimarans which have large cockpits suitable for a small army of crew. In being solely geared for singlehanded offshore racing the new boat is likely to ressemble some of the older generation 60ft trimarans. The result will be 75 foot long and considerably narrower than an ORMA 60 although under a similar sized sail plan, but with less roach in the mainsail.

Ellen also seems more emotionally drawn to singlehanded offshore racing than fully crewed racing. We put it to her a theory that has been doing the rounds - that she doesn't like sailing with a crew. "That's bullshit. That's not at all true. The Jules Verne was a huge challenge, but it was awesome and I would sail with any one of those guys again." She admits there were some bad times - getting behind the record because of the weather on the way down the Atlantic and finally the dismasting, "but then there were some bad times in the Vendee too," she says.

Equally she does admit: "I can't say that I've dreamed of sailing around the world with crew. It is not that I don't like it - it is competely different. It was a massive responsibility sailing with all those guys with so much experience and I did take on a lot, being skipper and navigating. From a time point of view it was really tough and I don't think I'd do it again that way. There were constant decisions. Equally morale-wise it was very tough to deal with."

At present there are no immediate plans to make another attempt on the Jules Verne Trophy, but they still have the boat and it is hard to believe that it will just sit around dormant.

The new 75ft trimaran will be launched in Sydney on 1 December this year and Ellen says that immediately after this her programme will be very similar to the build-up to the Vendee Globe. She will sail the boat back to the northern hemisphere, no doubt part of the way singlehanded, and may head straight for New York to wait for the right weather to make an attempt on the west to east transat record.

Meanwhile as the boat is in build, she will spend this year racing with Alain Gautier on board the 60ft trimaran Foncia, a program which will involve her and the 1992-3 Vendee Globe winner racing in the two handed Transat Jacques Vabre again together. "You've got to keep your hand in," she quips.

In the immediate future Ellen has a major problem with which to contend: taking a holiday, a month long and her first real break for as long as she can remember. For someone so driven and who finds it hard to sit down, this will be no small undertaking. But then Ellen is a fast learner...

AUDIO FILE: Listen Ellen describe her new campaign here .