Auckland businessman Maurice Bryham hopes the weather will be good enough today to allow him to take an English Channel crossing record off Sir Richard Branson.
Mr Bryham wants to break the Virgin head's record of 1hr 40m 6s for crossing the 34km Channel in an amphibious craft, set last year.
And he is so confident in the power of his rigid-inflatable that he aims to smash the record rather than merely break it.
Speaking from Calais last night, Mr Bryham said that unlike Sir Richard's Aquada, an amphibious car built by a company controlled by expatriate New Zealand multimillionaire Alan Gibbs, the Sealegs was designed more for water than land.
The outboard-powered boat has motorised wheels on hydraulic legs that retract when the craft is afloat.
It has a top speed of 60km/h on water and 15km/h on land, whereas the Aquada can reach 120km/h on land but just 30km/h on water.
"The Sealegs is much quicker than the Aquada. If everything goes right we should get there in half the time that he did," said Mr Bryham.
He has not attempted any similar records and admitted it was only the publicity for Sir Richard's effort last year that prompted him to make the attempt.
"I knew I had a boat capable of breaking the record. I just wanted to show them what we were capable of."
- NZPA
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