Sailing: MacArthur races into record book

Ellen MacArthur sailed across the finish line of the Route du Rhum trans-atlantic solo race to win in record time in the early hours of this morning. In her 60-foot monohull yacht Kingfisher, she completed the journey from the French port of Saint Mâlo in 13 days, 13 hours and 31 minutes.

Thousands covered the beaches of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and chanted her name as the 26-year-old British captain pulled into the docks in Pointe-à-Pitre at 02.16am to become the first woman skipper and the first Briton to win the race's big monohull class.

"I could never have imagined a better finish," she told the crowd in French. "For me it's been a very special race. Very, very hard tactically without respite. You have to be at your best all the time and I couldn't have given more. I'm so happy."

Fellow Briton Mike Golding came in second on Ecover, arriving nine hours and 17 minutes behind MacArthur. "I had a bit of a fight on with Mike," MacArthur said. "One day I was mild, next day he was mild. It will be great to talk to him, find out how hard he was pushing, as I know I was pushing as hard as I could."

MacArthur, who departed from Europe on 9 November, beat Frenchman Yves Parlier's record of 15 days, 19 hours and 23 minutes, which he had set with his yacht Cacolac d'Aquitaine in 1994. Sailing in a direct line, the voyage would be 3,551 miles in total, but MacArthur raced 3,968 miles and achieved an average speed of 14.8 mph. "Ellen MacArthur is the greatest female solo sailor in all time," said the race committee president, Sylvie Viant. "She is brilliant in all categories."

From the start, MacArthur and Golding opted for a more northerly route than the pre-race favourite, Frenchman Roland Jourdain on SILL. The latter headed south and bore the brunt of a ferocious storm which tore his mainsail and forced him to limp to the island of Madeira for a pitstop. This cost him the lead and left the two British solo skippers to fight it out.

"We suffered the storm too but we were further west and got ahead of it," said MacArthur. "I've never seen a storm like it in all my life, with enormous waves."

In 1997, MacArthur won the 50-foot monohull class of the Route du Rhum, then came second in the Vendée Globe round-the-world solo race in 2000-01.

Ellen MacArthur's autobiography "Taking On The World" is among five contenders for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year, announced tomorrow.