Dame Ellen Patricia MacArthur (DBE), is an English sailor. She is best known as a solo long-distance yachtswoman.

Sailor and founder of the Ellen MacArthur Foundation,  in the video link above Ellen talks about population, depleting natural resources and the role of education in establishing a new approach based around the Circular Economy. 

Ellen's story is not just about sailing, rather one of human endeavour from land-locked Derbyshire girl to 'Yachtsman of the Year'.

At 18, Ellen sailed solo around Britain and consequently won the 'BT/YJA Young Sailor of the Year' award.

Whilst living in a portakabin for three years, Ellen raised sponsorship to complete in a transatlantic race. Once she had reached her target she travelled to France and bought tiny 21ft Classe Mini yacht. She camped in the boatyard, refitting the yacht until it was fit to race. Finally, it was ready, and Ellen raced 4,000m single-handed across the Atlantic over 33 days in the 1997 'Mini Transat' race.

Ellen went on to compete in the famous Route Du Rhum transatlantic race. Despite the failure of her keel hydraulics, she won her class on an Open 50.

Following this achievement, Ellen secured sponsorship from Kingfisher for the Vendee Globe 2000. The Vendee Globe is the toughest challenge that the world's oceans have to offer: 100 days alone at sea, racing around the round the world.

Ellen has had to completely alter her lifestyle for her sport. Proof of how important adaptability and preparation can be in any environment. Through her work with leading chronobiologist, Claudio Stampi, she has trained to sleep for as little as 20 minutes at a time to avoid fatigue, which can be life endangering. Saving weight is critical and eating freeze-dried foodstuffs can significantly save weight on the boat - all Ellen has to worry about is not burning the water!

In 2005 Ellen crossed the finish line off Ushant to set a new solo, non-stop round the world record. Ellen took an astonishing 1 day, 8 hours, 35 minutes, 49 seconds off the previous fastest solo time of Francis Joyon. The same year she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her achievement.

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation is an independent charity with the aim of inspiring a generation to re-think, re-design & build a positive future through the vision of a "Circular Economy"

Changing perspectives:

The Foundation puts much emphasis on "systems thinking", the understanding of a phenomenon within the context of a larger whole; to understand things systemically literally means to put them into a context, to establish the nature of their relationships.

Like The Open University in their primer on systems thinking, the Foundation agrees that it "is the key literacy that we need for the future."

They offer a contemporary framework for thinking based on taking insights from living systems and applying them to energy and resource flows in the economy to produce restorative cycles of development.

The Foundation shares and promotes discussion and debate around a simple and coherent approach which brings together contemporary understanding in science (non-linear systems), participatory teaching and learning and the development of a circular or closed loop economy based on insights from living systems.

Pre-1994

• Aged four, began sailing with aunt on ‘Cabaret’, all spare time reading sailing books
• Started saving school dinner money at the age of eight to buy her first
  boat
• First boat at 13 (‘Threep’ny Bit’, dinghy), second at 15 (‘Kestrel’, small keelboat), then third at 17 (‘Iduna’, 21ft Corribee)

1994

• Debut into full-time yachting, working on an Open 60ft yacht and teaching sailing to adults at the David King Nautical School in Hull.
• Achieved RYA Yachtmaster and Instructor’s ticket, aged just 18

1995

• BT/YJA Young Sailor of Year award
• Sailed ‘Iduna’ single-handed around Great Britain

1996

• First transatlantic passage leaving Newport, Rhode Island (USA) on Ellen’s 20th birthday
• First transatlantic race in the Quebec-St Malo. Result: 3rd in class on board Anicaflash, skipper Vittorio Malingri

1997

• Mini Transat single-handed transatlantic race in 21ft boats
  Result: 17th overall on board ‘Le Poisson’, number 116

1998

• February – Teamed up with Mark Turner at Offshore Challenges
• November – Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race from St Malo to Guadeloupe on board Open 50ft monohull ‘Kingfisher’ Result: 1st in Open 50 class (20 days, 11 hours, 44 mins, 49 secs)

1999

• January – Won BT/YJA Yachtsman of the Year Award
• June – Round Europe race on board Open 60ft monohull ‘Aquitaine Innovations’ Co-skipper with Yves Parlier. Result: 1st in Open 60 class
• August – Fastnet Race on board 60ft trimaran ‘Kingfisher’ (ex-Primagaz). Co-skipper with Yvan Bourgnon. Result: 4th in multihull class.
• November – Transat Jacques Vabre two-handed transatlantic race on board 60ft monohull ‘Aquitaine Innovations-Kingfisher’ with co-skipper Yves Parlier from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. Result: 6th in Open 60 class

2000

• March-May – Delivery of Open 60ft monohull ‘Kingfisher’ from New Zealand, following her launch in January
• June – Europe1 New Man STAR solo transatlantic race on board Open 60ft monohull ‘Kingfisher’ Result: 1st in Open 60 class (14 days, 23 hours, 11 mins) – youngest person to ever win race
• November-February 2001 – Vendée Globe solo, non-stop round the world race. Open 60ft monohull ‘Kingfisher’ .Result: 2nd (94 days, 4 hours, 25 mins, 40 secs) – fastest female and youngest sailor to race around the world solo, non-stop

2001

• May – Challenge Mondial Assistance on board 60ft trimaran ‘Foncia- Kingfisher’ with co-skipper Alain Gautier. Result: 1st
• 3 July – 25 August – EDS Atlantic Challenge crewed five leg race from St Malo with stops at Hamburg, Portsmouth, Baltimore, Boston on board ‘Kingfisher’ Open 60ft monohull with co-skipper Nick Moloney. Result: 1st place overall Also on 60ft trimaran ‘Foncia-Kingfisher’ during 2001 season:
• 30 April – 5 May – Trophee Coralia at Fecamp. Result: 2nd 19-24 June Sardinia Grand Prix
• 30 August – 2 September – Fecamp Grand Prix. Result: 1st
• 11- 16 September – Zeebrugge Grand Prix. Result: 2nd
• 4th November – Transat Jacques Vabre two-handed transatlantic race from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on board 60ft trimaran ‘Kingfisher-Foncia’ with co-skipper Alain Gautier. Result: 2nd in the ORMA 60 class.

2002

• January – Ellen MacArthur and Kingfisher plc announce five year plan to include Jules Verne record attempt and culminating in the solo Route du Rhum race in November 2006.
• 9-23 November – Route du Rhum solo transatlantic race from St Malo to Guadeloupe on board Open 60ft monohull ‘Kingfisher’. Result: 1st in Open 60 class (13 days, 13 hours, 31 mins, 47 secs) setting a new monohull record

2003

• January – Jules Verne record attempt on board 108ft catamaran ‘Kingfisher2’ departing on 30.1.04 with 14 crew to try and break the existing record of 64 days, 8 hours, 37 minutes and 24 seconds. Kingfisher2’s record attempt ended on 23 February when the boat dismasted in the Southern Ocean, 2000 miles from the coast of Australia
• April – Announced build of new 75ft trimaran to race under the colours of B&Q and Castorama. The sole objective of the new trimaran is to attempt to break solo speed sailing records
• November – Transat Jacques Vabre two-handed transatlantic race from Le Havre to Salvador de Bahia, Brazil on board 60ft multihull ‘Foncia’ with co-skipper Alain Gautier. Result 9th overall (suffered sail / halyard damage on day two of race)

2004

• January – Launch of new 75ft ”B&Q” trimaran on 8.1.04 in Sydney, Australia
• March-April – Delivery trip of new trimaran from New Zealand via Australia and the Falklands Islands. Leaving the delivery crew at the Falklands, Ellen sailed “B&Q” solo to New York
• June – Solo transatlantic record attempt on board “B&Q” missing the record by just 75 minutes in a time of 7 days, 3 hrs, 49 mins, 57 secs
• November – Departs on solo round the world record attempt. Finishes in Feb 2005 setting a new record of 71 days, 14 hrs, 18 mins, 33 secs.

2005

• New SNSM (St Nazaire to St Malo) crewed maxi record set on board ‘B&Q’. New record stands 1 day, 3 hrs, 23 mins, 29 secs
• Sept-Oct 2005 ’B&Q’ trimiran on standby for an attempt on the West to East Solo Transatlantic Record (New York – The Lizard, UK)
• November 2005 – Transat Jacques Vabre race on board Sill et Veolia Open 60ft monohull with Roland Jourdain. Result: 2nd
• Research Trip to South Georgia

2006

• Asian Record Circuit (March to June 2006), ‘B&Q’ trimaran Reference times
• Yokohama (Japan) – Jeju Island (South Korea) 906 nm – 5d 11h 10m 51s
• Jeju Island (South Korea) – Dalian (China) 418 nm – 1d 15h 57m 28s
• Yokohama (Japan) – Dalian (China) 1342 nm – 7d 3h 8m 19s
• Dalian (China) – Qingdao (China) 265 nm – 1d 0h 2m 53s
• Qingdao (China) – Shanghai (China) 308 nm – 1d 5h 25m 33s
• Shanghai (China) – Taipei (Taiwan) 580 nm – 3d 0h 1m 55s
• Hong Kong SAR – Sanya* 354 nm – 1d 22h 53m 25s*
• Sanya – Nha Trang (Vietnam) 360 nm – 2d 01h 37m 45s
• Nha Trang (Vietnam) – Tumpai (Thailand) 570 nm – 2d 17h 55m 14s
• Tumpai (Thailand) – Terengganu (Malaysia) 75 nm – 0d 5h 39m 26s
• Hong Kong SAR – Terengganu (Malaysia) 1350 nm – 7d 0h 5m 50s
• Terengganu (Malaysia) – Singapore 280 nm – 1d 23h 9m 8s

• Official time recorded by B&Q for the Hong Kong-Sanya 354nm route on the Asian Record Circuit. The current record holders for Hong Kong-Sanya course, in a time of 29h 55m, is the yacht Ffree Fire recorded during the annual Hong Kong to Sanya race organised by the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club.

2007

• JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2007: First to finish (Extreme 40 catamaran). Crossed the line just after 0818 hours, completing the course in 4 hrs 6 mins 3 secs

2009

• JP Morgan Asset Management Round the Island Race 2009: First in IMOCA class on BT Open 60
• Winner: Artemis Challenge at Cowes Week on IMOCA class BT Open 60 skippered by Seb Josse

2010

• In September 2010 she launched the Ellen MacArthur Foundation with the goal of “accelerating the transition to a regenerative, circular economy”. The Foundation works in the three areas of business, education and communication. Not surprisingly - this is the most exciting project that Ellen has worked on to date, and, like with her sailing she is totally immersed in it.

Accolades

• Raymarine YJA Yachtsman of the Year Award 1998, 2001
• ISAF World Champion election of Woman Sailor of the Year by 113 sailing federations throughout the world. Awarded 14.11.01
• “The Cup of the Chief of Staff of the French Navy” awarded 30.11.01
• FICO World Champion ranked by number of points obtained in the year’s ocean races awarded 7.12.01
• BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards overall runner-up (2nd place to David Beckham) plus ‘Helen Rollason Award’ awarded 9.12.01
• ‘Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year’ awarded 11.12.01
• MBE awarded 12.12.01 at Buckingham Palace by Her Majesty the Queen
• Nomination for the title of “Femme en Or” (“Golden Woman”) sport-adventure in France election on 15.12.01
• Listed in Time magazine 100 Heroes & Icons 2005
• DBE awarded 24.04.05 at Buckingham Palace by Queen
• Alternative Sportsperson of the Year 2005 – Laureus Sports Awards, May 2005
• Nominated Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year 2005 (3rd overall)
• ISAF World Champion election of Woman Sailor of the Year by 113 sailing Federations throughout the world. – Awarded 08.11.05
• BBC South Yachtsperson of the Year 2005
• BBC East Midlands Sportswoman and Personality of the Year 2005
• 3rd BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2005
• Raymarine YJA Yachtsman of the Year Award 2005
• Morgan Stanley Great Briton in Sport 2005
• Guest on BBC’s ‘Top Gear’ winning Star in a Reasonably Priced Car – 4.12.05
• ISAF Hall of Fame – one of only 6 inaugural members – Nov 2007
• Légion d’Honneur presented by Président Nicolas Sarkozy – March