The close of 2003 has found Ellen competing in a punishing round of events, including the XIV Trophee Clairefontaine in September, an invitation only annual event that saw some of the highest ranking sports-people competing against each other, including America's Cup Champion Ernesto Bertarelli, Laurent Bourgnon, Loick Petron and Michel Desjoyeaux. The event comprised of nine short races with each team in identical 25ft catamarans.

September also saw the announcement that the official launch of the new B&Q/Castorama trimaran will take place on the opening day of the London Boat Show on January 8th 2004. Both the boat and Ellen will be in Sydney for the launch, but will be transmitting life to the show on a giant screen in the new docklands venue. Ellen has described the launch of the new giant 75ft trimaran as' my next great adventure'. This month has seen the start of assembly in northern Australia and the whole process is being broadcast on web cam from the Boatspeed build shed on

http://www.teamkingfisher.com/webcam

Unsurprisingly Ellen has not been on shore during the last few weeks, completing the compulsory 1,000 mile qualifier event for the Transat Jaques Vabre. Ellen and her ream mate Alain Gautier took the 60 ft multihull Foncia through her paces in some reportedly pretty rough weather, and are now set for the 5,190 mile race that starts 2nd November 2003 in Le Havre France, and finishes in Brazil. At this point the event has 41 vessels and 15 multihulls in the full competing fleet.

MacArthur and Gaultier will be competing against a very strong line up, including Michel Desjoyeux and Herve Jan on Geant, plus the...

only other mixed team amongst the multihulls, Karine Faunconnier and Damian Foxall. Both Herve and Damian crewed with Ellen on Kingfisher 2 in the Jules Verne record attempt.

Build team working on float © Offshore Challenges

Meanwhile the B&Q trimaran has had most of her main components completed, including the main hull, floats and beams, and is now having smaller components fitted, such as satellite equipment and window moulds. After competing in the Transat Jaques Vabre, Ellen will be heading for Australia for the official launch.

On a different note .... a three year partnership with the McArthur Offshore Challenges Sailing Team has been announced. 'Cowes Waterfront', a regeneration scheme by the South East England Development Agency SEEDA ) and the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership, are now a partner of the Offshore Challenges team. The Schemes imperative is to promote the reputation of Cowes Waterfront and The Medina Valley.

Article added 7 November 2003