Sail of the century

It may have been the glandular fever that did it. Ellen MacArthur had wanted to be a vet, but she was laid low while she was studying for her A-levels and it seemed unlikely she would get the grades she needed. But as she recovered in bed, watching the Whitbread Round the World Yacht Race on television, she decided on a change in direction: she decided to become a sailor.

Twelve years later, she is being feted as one of the greatest sailors a great sea-faring nation has ever produced. After 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds at sea, the 28-year-old has become the fastest person ever to sail solo and non-stop around the world. Almost as soon as she touched land, she was made a dame. Other honours are sure to follow.

But even as she soaks up the tumultuous reception, she makes a somewhat unconventional heroine. Single-minded and passionate about sailing, she has reached her goals through sheer force of will, a refusal to be bowed and an astonishing self-discipline. And while she accepts the fame that comes with her achievements, she seems resolutely unchanged by it.

Although she only took up sailing seriously after that bout of illness when she was 16, her interest in the sport had been kindled several years earlier. She was brought up in the village of Whatstandwell in landlocked Derbyshire, where her parents Ken and Avril still live, but when she was eight she was taken sailing by her aunt in a boat called Cabaret.

From then on, she was hooked. She spent all her spare time reading about sailing, and saved her school dinner money for three years until she had enough to buy her first boat, a small dinghy.

This was followed by a bigger dinghy, and then a 21ft yacht, Iduna, in which she sailed single-handed round Britain when she was 18. That feat earned her the title of British Young Sailor of the Year, and a meeting with her hero, Robin Knox-Johnston, the first man to sail non-stop around the world.

That year, 1995, she also became the youngest person to pass the Yachtmaster Offshore Qualification, but the examiners refused to give her the certificate, believing she was too inexperienced. But her achievements so far went largely unrecognised by an island nation strangely uninterested in seafaring exploits.

After 2,500 letters to potential sponsors yielded just two replies, at the age of 20 she crossed the Channel, buying a yacht and camping out at a French boatyard while she refitted it. She entered a solo transatlantic race, finishing 17th after completing the crossing in 33 days, and started to make a name for herself in France, where yachting is held in high regard. She is now hugely popular in France, where she is called La Jeune Espoire de la Voile, Sailing's Young Hope.

In 1998, she entered the gruelling Route de Rhum race, winning her class and coming fifth overall, and, more importantly, earning the recognition which would see her backed to take part in the 2000-1 Vendee Globe, the sailing world's toughest single-handed race, crossing some of the most terrifying seas.

Since the race began in 1989, two yachtsman have died while competing, and several others have had to be rescued, including Briton Tony Bullimore, who survived for several days inside the upturned hull of his boat before he was rescued by the Australian navy in the 1996 race.

It was the Vendee Globe which really made her name. Although she finished second, having changed course to help a competitor in distress, the story of the diminutive - 5ft 2ins - Englishwoman proved captivating.

More than 50,000 fans emailed her during the 94-day voyage, and when she sailed into the Bay of Biscay on her return, some 200,000 people turned out to greet her. Such was the interest in the young Englishwoman few remember who came first (it was Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux).

Success and the resulting fame meant funds became available for new boats, equipped with the latest technology and, in 2003, she set off with a crew of 13 to try and break the round-the-world record in Kingfisher 2. The bid failed when the catamaran's mast broke in the Indian Ocean, but MacArthur had got a taste for multi-hulled craft.

B&Q, the trimaran which she has now taken 27,348 miles around the world, was built specifically for her frame, and with solo speed records in mind. The sails on the 75ft boat are controlled by sheets stretching back into the cockpit. It takes her around 35 minutes to hoist the 170kg mainsail to the top of the 90 metre mast, and on a clear day she can climb to the top of the mainsail to carry out repairs in five minutes. In stormy seas, it can take an hour-and-a-half.

The living quarters, inside the central hull, are tiny, with just room for a bunk, a one-ring gas cooker, a sink and a table where she can spread her charts. With no shower and no lavatory, she uses buckets for her ablutions. The food is freeze dried, reconstituted with water.

And on top of these privations, MacArthur has endured salt sores all over her body, burns on her arm from a generator and a head wound when she was hit by a sail. She collided with an unidentified object, and narrowly missed collision with a 30ft whale. She has been as much as four days ahead of the record, only to fall behind after 58 days. Only her DIY skills have enabled her to keep the boat going and keep the record in sight.

She has shared her thoughts and experiences with followers across the world, with regular email updates. She has cried when she felt her body could take no more, and ranted at the monotony of her diet.

Throughout it all, it is obvious that only someone with an intense single-mindedness could have attempted such a feat; only someone with incredible determination and reserves of mental courage could have continued; only someone with enormous self-discipline, from saving up her dinner money to going days without sleep, could have succeeded.

It seems she is also, despite the hardships, despite the solitude and despite the risks, someone who is never happier than when at sea. A former boyfriend, Portuguese diver Luis Costa, said last year: "Her first love is sailing and that takes priority over everything else in her life."

About 1,800 people have reached the top of Everest; around 450 have been in space, but only five have tried to circle the globe non-stop on a multihull boat. Before MacArthur, only Francis Joyon, whose record she broke on Monday night, has finished.

MacArthur once said: "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that deep down in your heart, if you have a dream, then you can and must make it happen." She had that dream when she was 16 and lying in bed with glandular fever; now she has made it happen.