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

She said: "In the end, one of the biggest things is the belief in the crew just to keep pushing.

"We've had a lot of problems, I think everyone in the race has had problems, and it is very easy when things go wrong to slow down and give up and try and rest up.

"But we pushed really hard and fixed things as fast as we could and got on with the race and we carried on and I think that's what paid off. I think in most races that is a really key factor.

"I think it is fantastic for the whole team. We've worked really hard together over the last 10 days.

"We've had our downs and our ups but we believed in ourselves until the end and it paid off and I think it's been a great moment for all of us."

After 2,705 miles the race came down to just 400 metres, but MacArthur explained that such an outcome was not altogether surprising.

"It happens quite often that the finishes are very tight. These boats are relatively similar in performance speed, so they do have the capability of staying very closely together," she added.

"That leads to very close racing. Every hour in this race we received updates, so we knew we were racing very closely regardless of whether we could see them our not."

Foncia-Kingfisher (�Yvan Zedda)
Foncia won by a mere 400 metres
MacArthur, making the transition from extreme monohull to extreme multihull, said that the lack of wind that restricted the average speed to less than 11 miles per hour posed unique challenges.

She added: "When there are light winds it makes it very difficult to race because everyone is trying to make the boats move.

"Some places have a little more wind than others and for sure its frustrating when someone is moving a little more quickly than you when there's no real reason for it."

MacArthur told Sport Online that the final move that swept Foncia-Kingfisher past Belgacom to victory was not a fluke.

Future plans

"We kind of planned the final move in advance, but we weren't sure whether it would work or not. We had to do something, there was no point in us staying right next to Belgacom," she added.

"So we decided to actually drift down below and we did that. We got the wind change and it was successful. We took off, caught some new breeze by the coast and crossed the line first."

Never one to rest on her laurels, MacArthur flies back to England on Thursday to continue working on her book.

Next week, she returns to Les Sables d'Olonne for the Vendee prize-giving and after that she is racing on Kingfisher at the IMOCA Grand Prix Quiberon.

She said: "I'll be doing some more racing on Foncia later this year and also on Kingfisher, so it's going to be a busy sailing season. This is not the end."