The 75ft trimaran B&Q arrived in New York on Tuesday 4.5.04 lunchtime after an overnight delivery from Newport, Rhode Island. Talking about the rough conditions Ellen MacArthur said: “We left Newport late but still faced the remnants of some bad weather, slowing our progress. But we got here and now we will be waiting for a good weather window to try our first record attempt.” B&Q will be berthed at the Liberty Landing Marine, New York.

Having sailed B&Q halfway round the world already from Australia to the States, MacArthur will be attempting to set a new solo west-east transatlantic record from Ambrose Light to the Lizard currently held by Frenchman Laurent Bourgnon of 7 day,s 2 hours, 34 minutes and 42 seconds.

The state-of-the art trimaran was designed by Nigel Irens and built for one objective – to try and set new solo speed sailing records. But the transatlantic record is notoriously hard to break, relying totally on ideal weather systems and minimum breakage on board a boat that is being pushed to its limits – the current record has stood for a decade.