08 December 2004


In the heat of the night, Ellen MacArthur set a new record of eight
days, 18 hours, 20 minutes for sailing solo from Ushant to the Equator
yesterday. She steered her 75ft trimaran B&Q into the southern
hemisphere at 02.30 GMT to beat the previous record by some 14 hours,
but this is only the first stage of her attempt to beat the man who set
the previous record, Francis Joyon, who went on to knock 20 days off
the old record for sailing solo round the world.
She still has 20,000 miles to go.

Joe