Left: where legends begin... Ellen MacArthur and her Owen/Clarke/Humphreys-designed Open 60 Kingfisher surf through the Southern Ocean on the way to second place in the 2000/2001 Vendée Globe. The Kingfisher project was created around MacArthur and longtime associate Mark Turner (above) and their new company Offshore Challenges. Kingfisher was the first wholly integrated Open 60 (later Imoca 60) programme, with a carefully assembled design and engineering group and the build undertaken in-house
her to climb her mast several times; her tiredness plays nasty tricks on her, in partic- ular she gives away 40nm of separation in longitude. That mistake makes the English skipper very angry. But on the morning of 28 January the position reports show that in terms of distance to the finish Ellen is now less than 26nm behind her experienced rival! When Kingfisher crosses the Equator at precisely 09h 07m, the young woman makes an offering of some biscuits to Neptune and accompanies her gesture with sincere thanks: ‘Thank you for having sat Michel in a hole without wind. I know that it is not fair but thank you anyway.’
24 January, now at 22°S, the wind comes back at last, but the situation is still awful for Michel. All his advantage has melted away in the non-existent trade winds. King- fisher has closed to within 72 miles of PRB. The same day Ellen completes repairs to her damaged gennaker. The wind is not bursting with energy but it is enough to propel the yellow 60-footer along at a decent speed. In her logbook on 26 January Ellen writes, ‘Tactics not too complicated. The more you are in the west, the more quickly you get through the doldrums. ‘On the satellite image the way ahead looks like it’s in my favour. I am 40 miles west of Mich and the picture is rather good. If ever I am to have a chance to go past him, it is now…’
During the two days that follow Ellen encounters her own problems which oblige
At exactly the same moment the instru- ments on PRB are showing 1kt of speed heading to the northwest. Michel tries to reassure his team and in the midday radio report jokes that ‘If I climb to the top of the mast I will see Ellen…’ In the afternoon the gap between the two boats drops further. Kingfisher is only 10nm from the fat white design! Michel continues his slow progression towards the northwest because that is the only place he can get out of the doldrums before it is too late. But his track compared with the rhumbline now looks ridiculous. 29 January, at the 10am position report. For the first time since the beginning of the race, more than two months ago, King- fisher, skippered by the tiny Ellen, is now in first place with a five-mile margin back to PRB. The British boat is 1° further east than the French boat and follows a head- ing of 39° while her rival is still heading 334°. This explains the lead change. Ellen follows a direct course towards Les Sables d’Olonne while the French skipper takes a course away from the line to the finish. ‘When Mark [Turner, the man behind Ellen and the whole King- fisher challenge] told me the news I did manage a smile… but I was so tired that I
could hardly speak back to him.’ Ellen will enjoy her moment of happiness but she knows it is unlikely that her position will last for very long. When a little later the wind shifts left and Kingfisher must tack PRB has already taken a 40nm lead. Lucid, the female skipper writes: ‘My boat and I must simply go a little bit more quickly from now on to take back two miles each day from PRB.’ Which was very much possible because the Owen-Clark design is very efficient upwind. And most of the sailing to Les Sables will be upwind. When things do not go the right way. This historic day when Ellen took command of the race thus lasted only for the space of one radio sched… a few hours. Then destiny reversed the changing fortunes of the two skippers. Now beginning to sail fast upwind in the building trade winds, Kingfisher collided with an unidentified object which broke a board and damaged a rudder. ‘I had just a small period of rest inside the boat while the sun was setting down in the sky… and then my head was banged violently into the front bulkhead and the peace of the evening was shattered by a horrible cracking noise.
‘We had just struck a very hard object which stopped us abruptly… I immedi- ately had a look towards the back of the cockpit and saw a piece of rudder and another piece from the board floating away from me.’ A hard setback for the speedy Kingfisher.
Ellen uses a lot of energy lifting out the damaged board and finds a solution to the situation by lifting the remaining port board and lowering it down into the case on the starboard side. Ellen’s British team does not say a word about the incident. In the vicinity of the Azores Ellen is once again back in the wake of PRB. She closes within 15nm of her rival who is still posi- tioned a little further to the west. But once
SEAHORSE 49
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JEAN-MARIE LIOT/DPPI
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