VAC II back in Britain for restoration

The new owner of this record breaker is Dan Stevens, who operates Seahawk Boats in Plymouth and who exhibited one of his Buccaneer work boats at Seawork last month.

Virgin Atlantic Challenger II has made the 2,000 mile journey from the Mediterranean back to Plymouth and the refit of the boat is continuing in the yard. “Virgin Atlantic Challenger is part of Britain’s maritime heritage and when the chance came to purchase the boat I was sure that it had to come back to home waters”, said Stevens.

Since breaking the Atlantic record in 1986 the vessel has had a chequered career. Richard Branson sold the vessel to a Saudi prince after it broke the record. He used it for occasional trips around the Mediterranean before it was laid up. For ten years Virgin Atlantic Challenger II sat on the quayside in a boatyard in Beaulieu in the South of France. When the owner stopped paying the boatyard bills, the yard took possession of the boat and put it up for sale. It was brought by Marshall Rice from Britain, who set out to restore the boat. It was put back into running condition and taken to Palma in Majorca where it was once again taken out of the water for the refit to be finished.

Sadly, Rice died and his heirs eventually put the boat up for sale. For the past seven years it has been resting in a corner of the shipyard in Palma, with the boatyard bills mounting once again, and the yard was threatening to take possession of the boat to meet the cost of storage.

“After 27 years the boat is still virtually in original condition and much of the early equipment is still working”, said new owner Stevens. “To bring her home we had to refit the fuel tanks and do other detailed work but she ran like clockwork on the four day voyage”.

Stevens now plans to complete the refit, restoring the vessel to as near original as possible. It will then be available for corporate charter and other work to pay its way in the future. The vessel has already been coded for passenger carrying.

The 72 foot long Virgin Atlantic Challenger II went into the record books after crossing the Atlantic in 3 days 10 hours (with the author of this article navigating – Editor), beating the record previously held by the liner SS United States. The vessel was built in record time by Brooke Yachts in Lowestoft after the first Virgin Atlantic Challenger sank just 150 miles from the finish line.

By Dag Pike