BBC SPORT | Special Events | 2001 | MacArthur in the Mondial

Ellen MacArthur's right-hand man, Mark Turner, gives an exclusive personal account of their journey from obscurity to fame.

It was at the London Boat Show in 1995 that I first met a rosy-cheeked ball of energy called Ellen MacArthur.

In those days, she was, in the nicest kind of way, "in your face".

Ms MacArthur did not usually take no for an answer.

She was at the show as an 'exhibit', with her little 21 foot 'Corribee', the tiny cruising boat that she had just sailed round Britain on her own in what was to become the first of many solo adventures.

Mark Turner
Turner: "I feel very responsible for Ellen"
I was there as Marketing Director of a marine industry company called Spinlock, but at the same time I was preparing for a crazy French race called the Mini Transat.

Someone had suggested to Ellen that this event would be a good next step for her and that's how we got to know each other.

A year later we were working to get our boats ready for the Mini - a solo 4,000 mile race across the Atlantic in ridiculously small and fast 21-foot "surfboards".

We complimented each other well, my marketing and organisation experience, her practical abilities and energy.

With our first sponsors Carphone Warehouse and Financial Dynamics onboard we embarked on this amazing race.

We both completed it in good shape - and me having beaten her, I decided, temporarily at least, to hang up my seaboots while the going was good!

Well, it wasn't quite like that.

But at the end of the race I returned to my marketing job, and Ellen embarked on the next stage of her career, and bigger boats.

Breakneck pace

Her ultimate aim was the Vend�e Globe in a state-of-the-art 60 footer.

A few months later, I quit my day job and we set up Offshore Challenges with objective number one being to find sponsorship for Ellen.

From almost the day we met, our lives have been run at breakneck speed.

From the moment we signed the sponsorship with Kingfisher plc in April 1999, I'm not sure that we have taken more than a few days in total away from the 'project'.

Even then, one's mind was thinking about it all the time.

A young Ellen MacArthur at the 1999 Boat Show
Every hour we lost from that moment on would mean we'd be less prepared on the Vend�e Globe start line in November 2000.

Boats like Kingfisher, known as Open 60s, are incredibly complex machines.

The failure of just one system could spell the end of the race.

Every hand that touches her along the way can help success or ultimately sow seeds of disaster.

The sheer weight of all this at the start line is something few can have experienced.

We were numb on the dockside in Les Sables before Ellen sailed off. Ellen included.

This moment we had worked towards for years, and suddenly it was time to go.

I was calm until the moment a TV reporter asked me if I felt "responsible" for Ellen while she was out there.

Images I had seen myself during the Whitbread Round the World Race a decade earlier flashed through my mind.

The Southern Ocean has towering seas, freezing temperatures and dangerous icebergs.

Ellen was choked to tears during the post-race press conference
I did feel responsible. Very.

And so started the Vendee Globe race - 94 days of roller coaster living, on the boat and on the land.

The highs and lows are extreme - higher and deeper than life on land.

To share and communicate these from a laptop firmly on land was a new experience for me, and my intimate knowledge of what Ellen was doing made it harder in some ways.

I knew how tough it was out there, yet there was nothing I could do to help, just be there to support her.

But we made it.

Too much

When Ellen sailed across that finish line it was an extraordinary moment.

But it was quickly diffused by the equally as extraordinary welcome she received - and the media barrage which we then had to manage and Ellen had to face for the weeks afterwards.

Even now the requests pile in every day - celebrity status they say.

We set out to give a good return to our sponsor, so we certainly didn't run from the media.

Powerful effects

But at the finish this went probably too far.

People just didn't seem to get it, you don't do this stuff for money or fame. It's a much bigger thing than that.

Ellen didn't race for celebrity, she raced to achieve her dream.

The fame in some ways has brought a downside to what was an incredible achievement.

Managing the consequences of that fame, protecting her personal space so that she can go on being Ellen and be racing hard on the ocean, is our biggest challenge now.

This season is a transitional year for Ellen, still dealing with the powerful effects of the Vend�e race.

She is sailing both Kingfisher, a monohull, and Foncia-Kingfisher, an extreme 60 foot trimaran.

By the end of the year, she will have decided which route to go forward with in 2002.