Crossing the Atlantic is the nautical equivalent of scaling Everest and Sir Richard Branson and the TEAMORIGIN sailors aboard ‘Virgin Money’ are attempting a challenge that until the last decade had a record spanning almost a century.
The earliest ever recorded transatlantic record was set by Charlie Barr, completing the challenge in the Atlantic schooner yacht in 1905. He and his crew of 39 successfully sailed across the ocean to set a monohull record of 12 days, 4 hours, 1 minute and 19 seconds. Countless attempts were made to beat this record, but it stood for 93 years, the longest standing speed record in the history of yachting, before it was finally beaten in 1998.
In 1998 the record was taken by Mari Cha III, owned by Robert Miller and with Mike Sanderson as Skipper, setting a time of 8 days, 59 minutes and 17 seconds.
Then in October 2003, the record that stood at that time was again smashed by the maxi yacht ‘Mari Cha IV’, also owned by Robert Miller, and again skippered by Mike Sanderson (also to be co-skipper of ‘Virgin Money’), setting a record time of 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds, beating the previous record by over 2 days and they became the first and so far the only monohull sailing yacht to cross the Atlantic in under 7 days.
In June 2008, the yacht ‘Leopard of London’ crossed the Atlantic in 7 days, 19 hours, 20 minutes and 49 seconds, setting a new record for the fastest monohull ‘with powered winches’ crossing.
Although the record books will hand the power-assisted record to ‘Virgin Money’ if it beats the current record held by Leopard, Branson and his team hope to beat the faster non-power assisted time held by Mari Cha IV.
Currently set at 6 days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds by Mari Cha in 2003, by beating this record, Branson, his team and Virgin Money will be the undisputed kings of the Atlantic waves.
With the skipper of the Mari Cha, Mike Sanderson taking the helm for ‘Virgin Money’, a crew of 24 actively racing the boat and the support of TEAMORIGIN helping with the challenge, the race is on to beat the record.
