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Displaying items by tag: Exploring

#Offshore - He's prepping to cross the Atlantic in a self-built boat the size and shape of a 60ft sperm whale.

But that's not the only remarkable thing about Irish-born, British-bred adventurer Tom McClean, who's profiled by Vice's Joe Banks regarding his storied and eccentric achievements.

McClean endured a tough childhood before joining the British Army's Parachute Regiment and later the SAS, taking him to some of the farthest flung places on earth.

He's perhaps best known for his attempt to assert Britain's claim to Rockall, camping out on the rocky outcrop in the cold North Atlantic for 40 days back in 1985.

But he was also an early pioneer of solo Atlantic crossings, setting out on his first such adventure completely unassisted – and with no offshore rowing experience – in 1969.

He's repeated that feat numerous times in different vessels. And in his latest planned effort, at the age of 73, he will do it in Moby, the self-built whale boat he's already sailed around Britain and is hoping to fit out with electric motors to pioneer zero-carbon sailing.

Vice has much more on the story HERE.

Published in Offshore

William M Nixon has been writing about sailing in Ireland and internationally for many years, with his work appearing in leading sailing publications on both sides of the Atlantic. He has been a regular sailing columnist for four decades with national newspapers in Dublin, and has had several sailing books published in Ireland, the UK, and the US. An active sailor, he has owned a number of boats ranging from a Mirror dinghy to a Contessa 35 cruiser-racer, and has been directly involved in building and campaigning two offshore racers. His cruising experience ranges from Iceland to Spain as well as the Caribbean and the Mediterranean, and he has raced three times in both the Fastnet and Round Ireland Races, in addition to sailing on two round Ireland records. A member for ten years of the Council of the Irish Yachting Association (now the Irish Sailing Association), he has been writing for, and at times editing, Ireland's national sailing magazine since its earliest version more than forty years ago