"Small boats - small problems"

We speak to sailing legend and Route du Rhum winner Florence Arthaud about what she's currently sailing

While Ellen MacArthur of course is best known in the UK and globally for her incredible achievements - in particular winning the monohull division of the Europe 1 New Man STAR in 2000, her second place in the 2000-1 Vendee Globe and for breaking Francis Joyon's solo non-stop around the world record, less well publicised (mainly because she doesn't view it as a big deal) is that Ellen is also that rarest of phenomena, a female sailor capable of kicking male butt in her particular discipline of the sport.

In this respect Ellen is not the first in shorthanded offshore racing, even in the Open 60 class, where Isabelle Autissier showed moments of brillance, in particular her demolition of stiff competition in the first leg of the 1993-4 BOC Challenge, before her boat destroyed itself on the subsequent leg. However before her the first woman in offshore racing to give the boys a sound spanking was Florence Arthaud. While Ellen was perhaps more consistent in her time in Open 60s, Arthaud in 1990 aboard her golden ORMA 60 trimaran Pierre 1er, won the Route du Rhum ahead of the biggest players of the day such as 1986 winner Philippe Poupon, Jean Maurel, Mike Birch and Laurent Bourgnon.

Since the Route du Rhum, Arthaud has become a mother - her daughter is now 14, but prefers horse riding to sailing - but has continued to race actively. She is a regular on the Figaro circuit, whenever money has been available and has sailed four of the class' doublehanded Transat AG2Rs. However since last year she has taken to the Class 40.

"I like this new class, because on this kind of small boats, 40ft, you don’t need lots of money," Arthaud told thedailysail at Wednesday's press conference in London for The Artemis Transat. "You can race, you can have fun and there are lots of sponsors who don’t have a lot of money and they can take part in big races like transatlantic races. So there are a lot of competitors and that is very interesting. Everyone always says ‘small boats, small problems’."

Last year she sailed her Akilaria 40 Deep Blue in the fully crewed race from Marseille to the Congo and then doublehanded with her old friend Luc Poupon (Philippe's brother) in the Transat Jacques Vabre finishing 11th in the 30 boat fleet. This year she wants to sail in The Artemis Transat but still needs a sponsor. While most of the Class 40 fleet seem to be focussing on the fully crewed return race, the Quebec-St Malo, rather than the Transat (possibly something to do with sailing upwind for 3,000 miles through gales, fog and, potentially, icebergs) Arthaud holds quite the opposite view and says having sailed the Quebec-St Malo so many times in big multihulls, doesn't think that doing it in a Class 40 will give her any better memories of the event.

However the Artemis Transat, or the OSTAR as it was back in her day, very much represents unfinished business.

"The OSTAR is a big story for me," Arthaud told us. "My father was a publisher and he published the Tabarly book in 1964 when Tabarly won against the English, because there is quite a story about the French and English at sea! They have always been fighting... And Tabarly was the first sailor to beat the English. And I have been dreaming about maybe doing the same thing as Tabarly.

"I have taken the start of the OSTAR four times. In 1980 I was 22 years old and I dismasted just five minutes before the start. I cried for three days after! In 1984 [when she sailed the trimaran Biotherm] I was second and I broke something on my boat and I had to stop in the Azores. In 1988 [when she sailed the former Paragon], I had problems with my autopilot and I finished seventh and I broke my boat. In 1992, I was second, I was running at 20 knots average and Loick Peyron was in front of me, 10 or 20 miles ahead and I had to go to sleep but I wanted to go faster than 20 knots, so I took the wheel and then I capsized. I was too fast... So this race has not been very successful for me! I hope I will find a sponsor to race the next edition in May. I hope I will be there. I am dreaming to be there on my boat in the fog, among the icebergs in bad weather - I like this course." Thereby proving that people don't get wiser with age...

Provided she finds the money Arthaud, now 50, plans to compete once again aboard Deep Blue.

So as a long term multihull sailor she must be disappointed at the stupid, unnecessary demise of the ORMA 60 trimaran class in France? "Yes I am. But I thought it would finish like that. They had machines to race around the buoys and the racing men and women don’t remember that what interests people is the adventure. That is why I created with Tituoan Lamazou the Trophee Jules Verne to make boats go around the world faster and faster and to have an extraordinary adventure. Now everyone wants to go and do that record fully crewed or singlehanded. There is a passion for it."

Aside from the Class 40, the recent exploits of Francis Joyon have motivated Arthaud to go in search of money for her own attempt on the singlehanded round the world record. She never got to compete in the Jules Verne Trophy (neither did Lamazou, the first Vendee Globe winner, who's maxi-monohull TAG Heuer suffered a catastrophic structural failure in early sea trials). However she did compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race with Alain Gabbay on board Charles Jourdain.

"I am looking for money to make a big trimaran to go alone around the world for the Trophee Jules Verne singlehanded like Francis...and the Atlantic record, the Pacific record, all the records. I would like to make the publicity of peace or the environment. I am looking for that now. I am 50 years old and I want to finish and say something to the people."

Most impressive about Arthaud is that despite sailing shorthanded across oceans for almost 30 years now, she still seems to have lost none of the passion for it. We hope she finds the money.