Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993                   TAG: 9307020166
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CINDY ELMORE FORT LAUDERDALE SUN-SENTINEL
DATELINE: FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA.                                LENGTH: Medium

LONG, LONG TRIP IN SHORT, SHORT BOAT SUCCEEDS

At 5 feet, 4 1/2 inches, the boat was thought to be the smallest vessel to cross any ocean, if such records are kept.

McNally, who sailed from Portugal to Fort Lauderdale, was so eager to get to shore he leaped into the Intracoastal Waterway and swam the last 40 feet. About 50 people cheered him on at the Bahia Mar Marina.

"So this is America," McNally said, after hugging his girlfriend, Edna Kent, who flew to meet him, and several American cousins. "It's a nice little place."

Actually, McNally has been here several times, having already crossed or tried to cross the Atlantic seven times, each trip in a progressively smaller sailboat.

This time, he beat a record set 25 years ago by retired airline pilot Hugo Vihlen of Homestead, Fla. Vihlen set the record in 1968 when he sailed a 6-foot boat from North Africa to south Florida.

McNally's record may be short-lived. Vihlen, knowing of McNally's imminent feat, on June 14 set out to reclaim his record, bound for England from Newfoundland, Canada. His boat is half an inch shorter than McNally's.

McNally doesn't mind.

"Good for Hugo," the 50-year-old sailor said. "We're friends. I wish him all the luck."

The white egg-shaped vessel had barely enough room for McNally to sit, with his head popping out of the top hatch. The boat is 7 inches shorter than he is. A domed Plexiglas cover made the vessel watertight in case of storms.

"I'm not crazy and I'm not a hero. I'm somewhere in between," he said. "It's just finding your limitations and pushing yourself beyond those limitations."

McNally survived aching legs, salt sores, stomach cramps and a bumped head, but said the worst part was the slow pace. He averaged just 50 miles a day.

The most dangerous parts of McNally's voyage came near the beginning and the end. Three days after leaving Sagres, Portugal, on Dec. 27, McNally was struck by a passing ferry. The collision split his boat's hull and McNally grabbed his life raft, ready to abandon ship 50 miles off Portugal.

He stayed with it, even though "I was literally sitting in 10 inches of water for 23 days" despite continuous pumping, said McNally, a former art teacher from Liverpool. The collision left him without power or a radio.

"I was literally going through the shipping lane with a flashlight," he said, and there were several more near-collisions. Those on board the ferry never realized what they had done.

By Jan. 22, McNally had landed at Madeira, an island off the coast of west Africa. There, he repaired the 4-foot-wide, 550-pound Vera Hugh, Pride of Merseyside, and set sail again Feb. 13 for the longest, loneliest stretch. For 86 days he tried to listen to FM radio stations, read books and catch fish - his only food for 30 days. It was sushi, McNally said, laughing, because he had no way to cook it.

He drank seawater treated with a hand-held desalinization pump. But that, too, began to give out during the trip, causing him kidney problems. McNally then drank rainwater. By the time he reached Puerto Rico, he had lost 38 pounds.

At one point, he thought he was struck by lightning. "The thing went through the boat like a high-pitched scream," he said. "I thought I was going to fry, you know?"

He left Puerto Rico on June 10, but in the end, McNally said, he was bested by the strong Gulf Stream. He had to catch a tow from the Coast Guard on Wednesday morning off Boca Raton, Fla. But the sailor said he still won the world record.