Dame Ellen MacArthur

Steve(spt) · February 2005

Well Done ,

She smashed the previous mark, set in 2004 by Frenchman Francis Joyon, by nearly 33 hours.

Steve(spt)

Gilby · February 2005

Sports Personality Of The Year 2005!

And if she's not, it's a disgrace.. I dunno about you lot, but I'm getting a bit sick and tired of the usual footballing suspects being nominated year in, year out who can barely string a sentence together.

Steve

psj3809 · February 2005

Probably get flamed for this but oh well !

I'm not a fan of her at all, yeah might help if i'm into boats etc but i didnt think 'wow' when she broke the record and wasnt excited at all. (probably would help if she was fit or something though ! ;)

Only 3 footballers have won it the last 25 years or so, yeah a few might get nominated but i cant see any footballer winning this year so far.

AndyC · February 2005

I have to admit, I'm a member of the "What was the point of that?" group.

I'm sure the time/money/effort could have been put to much better use than floating around for a day less than someone else.

rich_chandler · February 2005

To be quite honest, well done Ellen but you didn't exactly find a cure for cancer did you...

psj3809 · February 2005

Its a bit like the Olympics, we all love the relays, the 100 metres, the 1500 and many other track events but when it comes to some obscure shooting or boating thing at the olympics most of us dont give a monkeys if England has won a medal at some obscure shooting competition.

Theres a reason why the relay is at the end of the olympics as we all look forward to it rather than ending the Olympics on an event such as shooting or some boat event.

thx1138 · February 2005

I live in Bedford, just about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in England.

So "meh".

Gilby · February 2005

Well, I'm not into boats or yaughting by any means, I just think what she's done deserves recognition.

It's one thing to kick a football about or whatever, but sailing around the world, single handedly to boot takes a load of bottle.

Steve

Arjun · February 2005

And as we all know, "worse things happen at sea". :)

murtceps · February 2005

I live in Bedford, just about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in England

Bedford, thats almost coastal, you should live in Ashby

Sard · February 2005

Ah well.. we can all look foward to the mandatory documentary , where we get to watch her blubbing her way round the globe , all to a Dido soundtrack...

The girl is one big walking tampon advert :)

LeeT · February 2005

B&Q (her sponsors - if you couldn't already tell!) insisted in the contract that she sailed in during daylight hours. Maximum publicity!

zeropolis79 · February 2005

I agree with those about the footballers winning all the awards (vote rigging I say). She deserves to win and well done to her for beating the record..

psj3809 · February 2005

But as i put earlier the main award has been won only 3 times in the last 25 years by a footballer ???

Philip Kendall · February 2005

Stop bringing facts into the discussion. That might stop people buying into whatever the current media fad is this week...

psj3809 · February 2005

Good point, sorry boss

MattLamb · February 2005

Hell of an achivement, aye. But it doesn't really effect my life. If she hadn't have made it, it'd have been a shame for sure. But no more so for me than when the dominoes didn't fall correctly for Roy on Record Breakers.

That said, I don work in a newsagents, and in fact I open the shop in the mornings. The last two days all the papers have beem super-thin. No news whatsoever it seems. So without this woman and her sailing, I don't think there'd me much to put in a paper right now.

That probably helps contribute to the huge media exposure she's been getting.

Philip Kendall · February 2005

Mid-East leaders announce truce
'Eta car bomb' explodes in Madrid
Phillipines battle toll rises
6m face endowment shortfall
Dolly scientist wins human cloning research licence.

I'm sure I could go on.

cyborg · February 2005

But who wants to read about that Phil?

Where's the celebrities?
Where's the immigrants?
Where's the goggle-box?
Where's the tits?

robert@fm · February 2005

On 2005-02-09 13:19, zeropolis79 wrote:
I agree with those about the footballers winning all the awards (vote rigging I say).

Ellen MacArthur winning is a rigging vote. :p :D

MattLamb · February 2005

All I know is that all the papers this week have been noticably thinner than usual. I'm not saying there has been no news, just less than we've had in recent months.

<EDIT>
Okay, so I was saying there had been "no news whatsoever", but of course I didn't mean it literally :) :)

[ This Message was edited by: MattLamb on 2005-02-09 18:24 ]

thx1138 · February 2005

I think that actually once in the 1930's BBC Radio skipped the news, because there wasn't any.

robert@fm · February 2005

Did anyone but me hear the BBC News broadcast where, at the beginning, the newsreader said "Israel has been invaded by lesbian forces"?

Whatever was he thinking about? :D

Refrenz · February 2005

On 2005-02-09 15:27, MattLamb wrote:
Hell of an achivement, aye. But it doesn't really effect my life. If she hadn't have made it, it'd have been a shame for sure. But no more so for me than when the dominoes didn't fall correctly for Roy on Record Breakers.

Its no doubt a great sense of achievement for the lass, but I must ultimately ask ... why bother? What does bobbing up and down in the sea for ages whilst blubbing like a girl and only getting 20 mins of sleep at a time prove? She could have flown in a fraction of the time and planes have reclining seats if you need a kip.

The girl is attention seeking, nothing more, nothing less. She could have saved herself a lot of time and discomfort and got just as much media coverage by painting herself yellow and standing on a balcony at Buckingham palace with a banner saying 'rights for bananas and egg yolks' or something.

_________________
C Nonsense in BASIC, 0:1

[ This Message was edited by: Refrenz on 2005-02-09 23:01 ]

Spector · February 2005

It took her 71 days or something to go round the world. Why didn't she use a plane? She could have gone round in less than 71 hours.

[ This Message was edited by: Spector on 2005-02-09 23:38 ]

MattLamb · February 2005

I know what you're saying with the "why bother?" idea, and I kind of agree. But if everyone thought like that, then the world would be a pretty boring place. We all do things which others would say "why bother?" too - such as supporting the Sinclair scene, making new games for obsolete computers that 99% of the world couldn't care less about.

Aye, personally I wouldn't have sailed the around the world just because it's there to do. For starters, I can't swim, so it'd have been very daft... But I do plenty of things for my own gratification (no smutty jokes, please!) which must make others wonder what's the point.

AndyC · February 2005

What really bothers me about it is the obscence amount of money that's been spent for her to do it.

Millions of pounds invested in a boat that takes one woman around the world marginally faster than anyone else. Meanwhile a few quid can save the lives of people dying in Africa. Where's the sense in that?

psj3809 · February 2005

Wow some good points ! I do get your point Matt but like i said before i think most of us arent bothered by boats and shes a minger ! That doesnt help either !

But like AndyC says in the last few months because of the tsunami disaster so many countries and people are giving away tons of money and heres Ellen in some well expensive boat whos gonna get paid shedloads by sponsors etc.

Its sad when someone said because of the B&Q sponsorship it was written in the contract she had to arrive in light not dark. Well done to her for doing it but because i'm not a huge fan of boats it doesnt really bother me one bit. I think the 'Dame' thing is totally OTT. I legged it to McDonalds in my quickest time the other night, i dont get an award ! ;)

gasman · February 2005

You seem to be under the impression that money is a finite resource that gradually gets used up. It isn't.

Big hardware retailer gives sponsorship money. Money gets paid to boat builders, who may or may not donate some of it to charity. Boat builders paint big logo on boat. Hardware retailer gains brand awareness. People watching telly see logo and make personal decision about whether to spend their money at hardware retailer rather than donating it to charity. Staff at hardware retailer make money, and may or may not donate some of it to charity. Meanwhile, person on boat completes voyage, writes book, people buy book. Booksellers and person on boat make money, and may or may not donate... well, you get the idea.

It's The Economy, Stupid.

Arjun · February 2005

Or is it the Stupid Economy? ;)

psj3809 · February 2005

I do think that most us here arent 'stupid' and knows how the economy works.

We're basically just not overly impressed by someone going round the world in an expensive boat thats all.

Dame Ellen MacArthur

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