Ian Walker Teams Up With Ellen MacArthur

Ellen returns to sea on Monday for the first time onboard ‘Kingfisher’ since the VendZe Globe race, in a week long Open 60 invitation regatta in Fecamp, northern France.

There are 6 inshore races and an overnight across the English Channel on Monday night.

Ellen is joined not only by co-skipper Nick Moloney, and shore crew Ant and Pipo – but significantly, sailing stars Ian Walker and Simon Fry from Peter Harrison’s GBR America’s Cup Challenge – a great boost for the team, and a fine example of two very different areas of sailboat racing coming together.

The fleet includes VendZe skippers Roland Jourdain (SILL), Thomas Coville and Thierry Dubois, Eric Dumont and Bernard Stamm (who recently broke the monohull transatlantic speed record). This will be the first time these yachts have raced inshore, close-quarters, and it will be an excellent chance to compare performance. Owen-Humphreys, Lombard, Finot, Rolland, and Nivelt are all represented in terms of Designers.

After the regatta in Fecamp, Ellen and ‘Kingfisher’ will sail to Cherbourg to join ‘Foncia-Kingfisher’ the 60 foot trimaran of Alain Gautier, from where Ellen will sail her first race on this spaceship-like racing machine. The ‘Challenge Mondial’ race is 2,500 miles of heart-stopping pace, to the Azores and then down in to the Med to Tarragon, south-east Spain.