[Spirit of Portsmouth]
THE ATLANTIC CHALLENGE
Portsmouth USA to Portsmouth UK
Latest news -- December 1997
  • They made it! Click here to see how they got on
  • Read the full story in Beating the Big One the full story of the adventure. Available now from a bookshop near you. More details on RIBnet
  • To see what else Alan and the crew have been up to visit the Offshore Expeditions web site
"It was back in 1995 that I had the brilliant idea to cross the Atlantic via the Arctic, at which time everyone that had heard about it either said we were mad or it was going to be a stunt.

Here we are some eighteen months later, the boat in America waiting for us, and all plans in place. We leave as planned on Sunday 22nd June and WILL be back off Southsea sea front on Saturday 12th July at 1300 hours!"

Alan Priddy

On Sunday 22nd June 1997, Alan Priddy, Vic Palmer, Jan Falkowski and Steve Lloyd set out to cross the Atlantic in Spirit of Portsmouth -- a four year old 7.4m (24ft) Ribtec rigid inflatable with a single 165hp Yamaha inboard diesel engine.
Photo of the Spirit of Portsmouth The Spirit of Portsmouth underway during the 24 hour endurance test around the Isle of Wight
The journey took them from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA to Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK, stopping on the way in in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Ireland.

The average leg was more than 500 nautical miles with the longest one planned to be nearly 700 nautical miles, scheduled to take 35 hours non-stop in favourable conditions. As you will see from the updates, they spent considerably longer at sea -- travelling from Iceland to Weymouth they stopped briefly for fuel in Barra and Bangor which were the only breaks in 100 hours at sea!

Spirit of Portsmouth has three integral fuel tanks below the sole: 22gal (100 litres) forward, 18gal (80 litres) aft, and 31gal (140 litres) in the main central tank. It also carried two 55gal (250 litre) flexible tanks, lying just inside the tubes wedged in between the engine compartment and the console.

With the spare 132gal (600 litre) flexible tank that they also carried, they actually had the range to go straight from Nova Scotia to Ireland. But as Alan Priddy said "What on earth would be the point in bobbing along at sea for five days? It'd be boring. We want to do some cruising -- go from port to port, meet people, have a few beers and see what's going on".

They were also doing it for charity, and aim to raise at least £250,000 for the Cancer Care Society.
News updates on the Spirit of Portsmouth's progress were posted here as they were received.

For more information, email offshore@rib.net

This site is maintained by RIBnet the home of RIBs on the internet