The smallest boat ever to cross the Atlantic

[KellysEye]

In 1982 Tom Mclean, ex SAS, broke the record for crossing the Atlantic in the smallest boat - the 9 foot Giltspur - "a raft really" that he built himself . Navigating with only a sextant, catnapping when he could, keeping watch for icebergs, dealing with 60 foot waves, force 9 gales, and capsizing and his boat nearly sinking - he finally reached Ireland in 70 days at sea.

Just three weeks after he he reached Britain an American crossed the ocean in a boat 8in shorter. So McLean chainsawed 2 feet off Giltspur, shippped her back to Newfoundland and repeated the journey. Her mast and steering snappped during a storm: "I overlapped the mast and tied it together, shortened the sails, cut them up, floated in the last 400 miles". He ignored people on the radio telling him to give up. By the time he had drifted into the Bay of Biscay he had lost 3 stone and was running out of food and water. The record still stands.

I doubt that record will ever be beaten unless somebody is utterly mad.

Source: The TImes

 

[bikedaft]

its a great story

Winchester's "Atlantic: A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories" is worth a read - all the various crazy crossing stories/history of, are in there

 

[Lyndsey Doyle]

Good morning, indeed an amazing story, a great British total nutter. Now he has a steel whale, and he's planning some mega trip in it..

 

[afterpegassus]

Moby's skills as a shipwright have been wryly observed by the Mallaig community over the years.
Giltspur is the red object to the right of the Tricolour, an interesting choice of flag for an ex soldier.

 

[alant]

In 1982 Tom Mclean, ex SAS, broke the record for crossing the Atlantic in the smallest boat - the 9 foot Giltspur - "a raft really" that he built himself . Navigating with only a sextant, catnapping when he could, keeping watch for icebergs, dealing with 60 foot waves, force 9 gales, and capsizing and his boat nearly sinking - he finally reached Ireland in 70 days at sea.

Just three weeks after he he reached Britain an American crossed the ocean in a boat 8in shorter. So McLean chainsawed 2 feet off Giltspur, shippped her back to Newfoundland and repeated the journey. Her mast and steering snappped during a storm: "I overlapped the mast and tied it together, shortened the sails, cut them up, floated in the last 400 miles". He ignored people on the radio telling him to give up. By the time he had drifted into the Bay of Biscay he had lost 3 stone and was running out of food and water. The record still stands.

I doubt that record will ever be beaten unless somebody is utterly mad.

Source: The TImes

I well remember seeing his boat displayed at Earls Court Boat Show.
Also think there was something that looked like a barrel with sails. Can't believe they actually sailed, more like drifting with wind & current.

 

[bikedaft]

saw an 8 foot alum boat in brisbane maritime museum once, mini yacht. i think had made it mostly across the pacific. there are some mad yins out there...

 

[Hydrozoan]

Er ... am I missing something? "... Hugo’s achievement was that he made it in the smallest boat, measuring 5ft 4inches". http://www.nmmc.co.uk/index.php?/co...s_day_the_smallest_boat_to_cross_the_atlantic

 

[Dyflin]

In a similarly extreme vain, a couple of crazy Finns "motorsailed" across the Atlantic in a 14ft mobo in 1970.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

There was another attempt by Tom McNally in 1998. The 'boat' was called "Vera Hugh II" and was all of 3' 11". He left from Tangiers and made it to Las Palmas intending to continue at a later date. I don't think that he ever did.

 

[richardabeattie]

Why not a 2ft boat with a 27ft beam?

 

[Norman_E]

Why not a 2ft boat with a 27ft beam?

And sail it sideways!

 

[macd]

Er ... am I missing something? "... Hugo’s achievement was that he made it in the smallest boat, measuring 5ft 4inches". http://www.nmmc.co.uk/index.php?/co...s_day_the_smallest_boat_to_cross_the_atlantic

Yes, very odd. As well as the National Maritime Museum, Wiki (and many other sources) credit Hugo Vihlen with the record in '68 (5'11") and again in '93 (5'4").

Yet Wiki also credits Tom McLean with the record in '82 in a boat 3'10" longer than Vihlen's first, and again with the same Giltspur less two feet in '83. This is patently incompatible with Vihlen's first crossing (although McLean may briefly have held the record, twice, for W to E crossings). No wonder The Times (and Mail, and others) is confused.

This site seems to be comprehensive and, at least, consistent. It doesn't concern itself only with Atlantic crossings, but with brave, mad people in small craft in general. 1982-83 seems to have been the golden age for such heroics in the North Atlantic. Check out Wayne Dickinson's interesting landfall.
http://www.microcruising.com/famoussmallboats.htm

 

[Hydrozoan]

Yes, very odd. ...

It is - I had read of the Vihlen crossings and knew his boat was ca. 5' 4". Perhaps there is some technical nuance involved which means that both are records of a kind?

Thanks for your link - BTW Shekdar's Bold Man of the Sea about his Pacific row is worth a read if you have not done so already.

 

[macd]

Perhaps there is some technical nuance involved which means that both are records of a kind?

Nothing obvious springs to mind unless you distinguish between W to E and E to W crossings. And in one sense they're all records of a kind.
"Because it's there" somehow evokes one emotion when referring to a tower of rock and ice six miles high, and quite another when addressed to a rather small bathtub, don't you think? Nutters.

Thanks for the book recommend: I'll check it out.

 

[Woodlouse]

This is my favourite. These guys crossed the Atlantic in a Jeep.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Carlin