boatsnthingsuk.com › Book Review Ellen MacArthur “Taking on the world”
Inspired by a sailing trip with her aunt on the east coast when she was four, Ellen MacArthur saved her school dinner money for eight years to buy her first boat,an 8 foot dinghy called Thr’penny Bit. A bout of gladular fever in her final year at school ended her plans to become a vet. But, transfixed by scenes from the Whitbread Race being shown on television while she convalesced, she resolved to become a sailor instead. Aged eighteenshe won the BT/YJA Young Sailor of the year award. She sailed around the coast of Britain inher 21 foot Iduna, the following year, in 1997 she raced single handed across the Atlantic and was named Sunday Times Person of the year 2001 and runner up in the BBC Sports Personality of the year. Ellen MacArthur lives in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. This is her first book, and in true Ellen style she wrote every word herself, without the help of a ghost writer.
The book takes you on a passage through her early life. On the trip around Britain and then how she crossed the Atlantic and finishes with the results of the Vendee Globe. She writes about her personal trials and tribulations to getting where she is today. After reading you realise what hard work it was/is to create these opportunities for herself.
Filed under: Chandleryforboats | No Comments »