Personal Blog of Ellen MacArthur

Well, the results for the Round the Island Race were fantastic for the Ellen MacArthur Trust, we had the first and the last boat to finish, and two other boats, both with 5 kids on each… In addition to that we had 10 walkers who, starting at 0430am walked around the island, and 40 cyclists who cycled the course…
Everyone had a fantastic time, from the walkers who walked 35miles, to the cyclists who beat us on our watery course, to the kids, most importantly, who had a ball.. Comments were that the race was wet and fun, and I can vouch that that was certainly the atmosphere onboard our boat! There were a few whoops and cheers as our two guests got a real hosing on the back side of the island…. But above all it was fun!

Well, I’ve just literally stepped off the Extreme 40 JPMorgan Asset Management on which I sailed to support the Ellen MacArthur Trust in the Round the Island Race.. It was absolutely wonderful to get out on the water and race one of these fantastic boats. There was a strong westerly wind, and a good swell running on the south side, something which kept you on your toes as you powered along! Extreme 40’s aren’t normally powering down the back of the Isle of Wight, so we had to be careful not to overpower the boat and dig the bows in! Onboard we had Nick Hutton, George Skuodos, Greg Homann, BBC South journalist Jo Kent and Campbell Fleming, Head of UK, JPMorgan Asset Management. Our two guests loved it, and were full of fighting spirit to will us on round the racetrack! They did get a little wet though, in fact so wet that Campbell’s lifejacket automatically inflated… Nice!

Anyway, it was a close race with ABN AMRO and iShares never far behind. The guys were fantastic, and the atmosphere onboard was fantastic. We all had a great time, but to cross the line first was just great!

ellen

Well it’s been a little while since the last blog as I’ve been away on holiday in Scotland. It always seems busy on my return, and this occasion is no exception!

Straight into meetings, a presentation for the Carbon Trust, and the good old JPMorgan Round the Island race at home here in Cowes. I’ll be competing this year in the race on an Extreme 40, and shall be personally sailing under the colours of the Ellen MacArthur Trust, which for those of you who are not aware is a charity we set up in 2003 to take children sailing who are recovering from Cancer and Leukaemia. I shall be sailing on JPMorgan Asset Management’s boat with a great team of sailors including our guest Campbell Fleming from the boat’s sponsors who has been a great personal supporter of the Trust for several years.

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Morning to everyone. I hope you all enjoyed the Albatross documentary on BBC4 last night. A big thanks to Steve Robinson and Matt Dyas at Indus Productions who produced it - great job, guys!

And another really big thanks to Sally (Poncet, the marine biologist in the documentary), whose work to raise awareness about what was happening to albatrosses inspired me so much. She was a fantastic person to be with when I was in South Georgia thanks to her amazing knowledge about the island and has become a firm friend.

I was really sad to hear from Sally that Alfred (pictured) didn’t make it - he really was a very special bird with a very special character! - but he is just another reason why every effort must be made to make sure that these magnificent birds do not die out.

ellen

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Well, the past few weeks have been pretty busy really. We went to see a sustainable housing development in South London called BedZed, and spent the weekend trying out a few new ideas on the energy front. Bedzed was really interesting; amazingly it was designed 10 years ago as a zero energy development – with solar gain for space heating (using the windows), there are office blocks with windows to the north and houses with windows to the south, there is no other space heating whatsoever, and there are roof gardens and rain water harvesting. There are other developments I am very keen to have a look at – there is so much learning to do!!

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