"No other British seaman in history has made such a widespread reputation without the use of gunfire"
The Observer Newspaper.

Afternoon Tea was served with Legend of Adventure

Sir Chay Blyth on February 5th, London.

The first person to sail single-handed and non stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents - he went the wrong way round when everyone said it was impossible...

He set off on his first round the world race when he didn't know how to sail, and he rowed across the Atlantic in 1966 with all the previous experience of a channel crossing by steamer. Meet Sir Chay, legend of adventure..

This here chap is without doubt one of modern history’s greatest ocean adventurers: He’s broken more records than Usain Bolt, defied death more often than most of us have sipped on a G&T and quite frankly makes James Bond look like a Boy Scout.

Never one to tread the path of convention, Chay’s journey from Scottish schoolboy to multiple record breaking adventurer is as unbelievable as it is remarkable. His adventuring career began in 1966 when he joined John Ridgeway on what many thought was a foolhardy mission to row the Atlantic in a 20 foot open Dory.

Chay couldn’t row, sail or navigate and the US Coast Guard helpfully told them they had a 95% chance of committing suicide. In fact Ridgeway was well aware that Chay’s sea-going experience was a channel crossing by steamer but he was also a member of the parachute regiment and made of stern stuff.

After a 92 day, 3000-mile ordeal of hurricanes, near starvation and intense physical pain the pair made it to Ireland. Awards, celebrity status and meetings with the Queen were in swift abeyance.

Chay’s taste for ocean adventuring was sealed and in 1968 he was one of nine men to enter the now legendary Sunday Times Golden Globe Round the World Non-Stop Yacht Race. Astonishingly, Chay had never sailed before, and taught himself as the race unfolded, eventually having to withdraw when his 30ft boat breached 11 times in one day.

In 1970, still with very little sailing experience, he set out to become the first person to sail non-stop around the world against the prevailing winds and currents. It was a journey Francis Chichester, the first man to sail around the world eastwards, had dubbed ‘the impossible voyage’. Chay completed the record-breaking journey in 292 days and as a result was awarded a CBE. The Times described the feat as "The most outstanding passage ever made by one man alone".

Chay’s astonishing list of feats since includes victory in the Round Britain and Ireland Race, a record-breaking Atlantic Crossing with Richard Branson and victory in the Whitbread Around the World Race in 1974. On top of this, since 1988 Chay has been a successful businessman, running a series of round the world yacht races.

Throughout his life Chay has succeeded where others haven’t dared tread, and blithely ignored people who’ve told him things are impossible.

Chay has also changed the face of modern day sailing through his business ventures and set up the Global Challenge round the world race among others that is well known to have changed the course of offshore sailing around the world and made vast oceans accessible to amateur sailors.

To find out more about the legend of adventure that is Sir Chay Blyth see his website at www.chayblyth.com.