Adrenaline rush

Ellen MacArthur spoke to Ed Gorman about second place, trimaran racing and being the world's top ranked skipper

The partnership with Alain was one of the strengths of the Foncia campaign pre-start and so it proved in the race. Ellen and her French mentor got on, in her words, fabulously well. So does she still see the relationship in terms of the master and his pupil or is it more a case of a partnership of equals? "We do see ourselves as equals," she said. "I think we learn things that we learn from each other, though it's fair to say I've learnt more from Alain that he's learnt from me. But we still learn from each other and we've learnt about the boat as well."

The thing she has learned most about, she believes, over the past 15 days, is "where the edge is" on a big racing multihull and she reckons she has reached Brazil with a far better understanding of where this fine line is drawn than she had when she left France. As for the future it seems likely that monohull and multihull racing will feature for a young woman who, at 25, has already compiled an almost unbelievable record of success in offshore ocean racing.

And what about being world champion? She laughs at the thought, still finding it hard to imagine it could be her at the top of the leaderboard. "I guess I've spent a lot of time on the water in the last two years," she said.