|  Ellen MacArthur is a big deal. Most people know that she sailed into Falmouth Harbour two years ago having broken the world record for sailing solo around the globe. She completed this feat in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes and 33 seconds. Fewer people realise the degree to which that success was celebrated outside the UK, however.
MacArthur is a big deal in Germany, where solo sailing is an obsession, but she’s even more celebrated in France, where last year she was awarded the Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur and voted favourite European by the French public. What’s even less well-known is the degree to which she has turned her success into a European business, Offshore Challengers (OC) Group. The obvious reason for this lack of awareness is that you can’t be sailing and operating a business at the same time – or can you? We’re sitting at the OC Group HQ in Cowes, near the Isle of Wight off the South coast of England. My first question is whether since that magnificent day in February 2005 MacArthur’s life has slipped away into a series of boardroom meetings and spreadsheets, which would at least account for the surging financial performance of the company – last year it notched up a record turnover of €5m. “You can’t split it like that,” she says. “You’re selling a boat, racing a boat, breaking records on a boat, and that’s paid for by sponsors – so as a sailor, you’re a business person already.” MacArthur’s first cash sponsorship, as opposed to the more customary “benefit in kind” support where the benefactor merely donates clothing or equipment, was in 1997, and it’s no coincidence that the birth of OC Group followed shortly thereafter. “I remember it well,” says MacArthur. “I had to write 2,000 letters to get the first cash sponsor.” Even before then, she recalls, she had already self-funded numerous epic voyages including circumnavigating the UK in a tiny boat, Iduna, in 1995, when she was only 19 years old. The following year she met Mark Turner, when both sailors competed in a solo transatlantic race. The bond that was forged between the two blossomed into a business partnership that continues to this day. Turner stepped back from sailing to help MacArthur raise the next round of sponsorship, and OC Group was born.  What followed was a model case study of a mutually beneficial sponsorship situation. Sir Geoffrey Mulcahy was chief executive of UK home improvement retailer Kingfisher, and he was in the process of merging with French DIY brand Castorama. “His genius was to see that Ellen was starting to charm the French on her own terms,” says Turner.
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