HAMPSHIRE yachtswomen Ellen MacArthur has named a 14-strong crew to race the 110ft maxi-catamaran Kingfisher2 for the Jules Verne Trophy this winter.

The international team for the round-the- world voyage is drawn from six nations and boasts 20 circumnavigations between them.

"We have assembled a fantastic group of people with a very wide knowledge base," she said. "It's going to be very exciting and a learning experience for myself to sail with these guys, and a lot of fun as well!"

The confirmed Kingfisher2 team includes Brits Neal MacDonald, Andrew Preece, Jason Carrington and Damian Foxall.

This will not be MacArthur's first crewed race. She has already been part of two winning teams this year - firstly with Alain Gautier in the Challenge Mondial race, and again with victory on Kingfisher the monohull in the EDS Atlantic Challenge.

Kingfisher2 was due to be based at the Galician port of Sanxenxo in north west Spain for crew training, but due to the recent sinking of the oil tanker Prestige this plan had to be cancelled.

"It is with great regret that we can no longer go to what was an ideal training base in Sanxenxo," commented Project Director Mark Turner.

"The town had offered fantastic support, the location further south and open to the Atlantic Ocean was ideal (it was the base for illbruck's winning Volvo Ocean Race campaign), and the King of Spain was even hoping to join us for an outing!"

Instead, the French maritime town of Lorient on the Biscay coast will be the team base for the work-up period, utilising the facilities of Le Defi French America's Cup base.

MacArthur is excited to be returning to Brittany. "That's where these five years of adventure really began for me with the Mini-Transat base in La Trinite," she recalled.

"With Alain Gautier and the Foncia team I have also discovered Lorient, and with the great support of the town and base we're really looking forward to four to six weeks of training from there."

The project will move to a port closer to the Jules Verne start line - set between the lighthouses at Lizard Point in south-west England and Ushant on the north west tip of France - in mid to late January 2003 and await the green light from the weather routers.

"Without doubt the Jules Verne record is hard to beat - the combination of constantly having to find the right weather systems to keep moving at maximum speed but avoiding the big stuff that could damage the boat is a hard call," said MacArthur.

"These catamarans are speed machines, the loads are enormous and breakages can happen easily."

Kingfisher2 already has a record-breaking history. As Orange, she set the current Jules Verne record of 64 days, eight hours and 37 minutes in May 2002. This is the record Team Kingfisher hope to beat.

Frenchman Bruno Peyron, the first skipper to break the 80-day barrier back in 1993, set that record with an average speed of 18.15 knots over the distance he sailed.

His crew included four of the team that will sail on Kingfisher2.

This beat Frenchman Olivier de Kersauson's 1997 record by seven days, five hours, 44 minutes and 44 seconds.

Breton de Kersausan is also expected to mount a new Jules Verne challenge this winter on his 38-metre trimaran Geronimo.

MacArthur's new challenge is to beat the current record. But statistically even to finish the tough Jules Verne course is difficult - even more so at the pace now required to beat the record.

"It's great to have another project back-to-back with the Route du Rhum to move the story on," continued MacArthur.

"It has been personally very difficult to leave Kingfisher the monohull, very hard mentally to move away from that era.

"And it would have been harder if there was nothing there - if I had got off Kingfisher at the end of the Route du Rhum and that was the end.

"This is a great new focus to have. I can't wait to get out there, and I can't think of a better bunch of guys to do it with."