Last week, Ellen MacArthur was lamenting our energy profligacy. ‘Each of us in the UK uses the equivalent of 4.4 litres of oil per day’, she said, citing the fact that the contents of the biggest oil tanker in the world would last us only three days.

Yes, our wasteful lifestyle is an important subject, but hang on a minute?

Isn’t this the same Ellen MacArthur whose company OC Group organises the enormously energy-hungry travelling regatta that is the iShares Cup?

They have been investigating an Asian tour, one possible venue of which involves the transport of a whole fleet of Extreme 40 catamarans and cast of people to the Maldives?umm?one of the countries most urgently threatened by global warming and rising sea levels.

Photo from this weekend’s racing in Almeria, Spain, by Thierry Martinez.