Ellen MacArthur

Well, the lone yachtswoman is back at Falmouth, to the accompaniment of much media attention and publicity. Today's questions are:

• Has anything been achieved?
  
• Was it of any use to anyone?
  

She's sailed a yacht alone round the world, but isn't the first person to do it. Will we soon be talking about the first red-haired over 35 to sail round the world, or the first one-legged Albanian to climb Everest?

Was it round the world? That's actually quite a difficult thing to define, since there's (probably) nowhere where you can go round an uninterrupted great circle.

Was it of any use? It may well have further built her powers of resilience, or tested a new boat in untried seas, but I really can't work up a great deal of enthusiasm for the feat. Aren't there better things to be done than this?