Ellen MacArthur celebrates with champagne in Falmouth, England, 8th February 2005, after completing her record breaking round-the-world voyage.

Ellen MacArthur is currently one of the world’s most famous sailing pioneers.

MacArthur specialises in long-distance, solo sailing and broke the world record to sail the fastest solo circumnavigation of the globe in 2005.

She was a sailing enthusiast from a young age and spent her time either in boats or reading sailing books. She began saving for her first boat at the age of eight and had achieved the title of Young Sailor of the Year by 1995.

MacArthur made a series of different record attempts before setting her non-stop, round-the-world time of 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds in February 2005. She currently holds five different sailing records and has sailed an estimated 250,000 miles across the world’s oceans.

Ellen MacArthur was made a Dame of the British Empire in 2005 and decided to attempt to break the transatlantic speed record in the latter half of the same year. She was forced to pull out after seven weeks because of bad weather but plans to try again in the future.