Richard Branson

Sir Richard Branson has never been afraid of taking on challenges, and over the years has broken a number of records, on sea and in the air. His latest challenge sees him return to the waves in an attempt to break the record for the quickest Cross Atlantic monohull sailing yacht journey.

In 1986 Branson, in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II crossed the Atlantic Ocean in the fastest ever recorded time for a boat – beating the previous record by two hours. The record came a year after Branson’s initial attempt had to be abandoned after Challenger I broke up and sank close to the finish.

A year after his success in Virgin Atlantic Challenger II he completed a similar journey, but in the skies, in the ‘Virgin Atlantic Flyer’ hot air Balloon. Reaching 130 miles an hour, the Virgin Atlantic Flyer completed the journey in record time. Richard, along with Per Lindstrand, became the first person to cross the Atlantic by Hot Air Balloon. The balloon also held the record as the biggest hot air balloon, at 2.3 million cubic feet (65,000 m³).

Less than a decade later Branson again took to the skies, crossing the Pacific Ocean from Japan to Arctic Canada, a journey of 6,700 miles (10,800km). Branson crossed this in record time, with a speed of over 240 miles an hour in a balloon of 2.6 million cubic feet – again alongside Per Lindstrand - becoming the fastest person to cross the Pacific by balloon.

Between 1995 and 1998 Branson and his team of Per Lindstrand and Steve Fossett made a number of attempts to circumnavigate the globe by balloon, but could not complete the global challenge before Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones in March 1999.

Branson has also set the fastest record for travelling in an amphibious vehicle from Dover to Calais, crossing the English Channel in 1 hour, 40 minutes and 6 seconds, smashing the previous record that had stood since the 1960s. The journey in the amphibious Gibbs Aquada cut over 4 hours off of the previous record.

His latest adventure sees him back in the waves, attempting to cross the Atlantic in a monohull sailing yacht in less than 6 days 17 hours 52 minutes and 39 seconds, the current record set by Mari Cha IV in 2003.