Yachting: MacArthur victorious in Route du Rhum

LONDON - Britain's Ellen MacArthur won the monohull class of the Route du Rhum transatlantic single-handed race in a Kingfisher yesterday.

The 26-year-old Englishwoman, sailing the 60-foot monohull Kingfisher for the last time, reached the finish line off Pointe O Pitre on the island of Guadeloupe yesterday.

MacArthur took 13 days 13 hours and 47 minutes to make the 3 540-mile crossing from Saint-Malo, France.Frenchman Michel Desjoyeaux, in the multihull category, completed the race in 13 days, 7 hours, 53 minutes

Entrants in the multihull category started 24 hours after the monohulls.

MacArthur finished second in Kingfisher behind Desjoyeaux in the Vendee Globe single-handed round-the-world yacht race in February 2001, a feat which earned her worldwide fame.

The English sailor became the youngest person and the fastest woman ever to circumnavigate the globe when she completed one of sailing's most arduous events in 94 days.

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