British yacht smashes transatlantic record

A BRITISH billionaire’s 14 million high speed superyacht yesterday became the first monohull to sail across the Atlantic in less than seven days.

Robert Miller’s 140-foot-long Mari Cha IV crossed the finish line off Lizard Point on the south Cornwall coast at 11.32am, smashing the previous West to East trans-Atlantic speed record by more than two days.

The 70-year-old owner-skipper of the giant racer and his 23-strong crew set sail from the Ambrose Light just off New York on October 2. It took them six days, 17 hours, 52 minutes and 39 seconds to cover 2,925 nautical miles to reach the finish line.

The previous west-east record of 8 days, 20 hours, 55 mins and 35 seconds was set in 2001 by Swiss Bernard Stamm.

During its transatlantic voyage the superyacht also smashed the 24-hour distance record by covering 525.5 nautical miles in a single day.