Polar world sailor arrives home

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A British sailor who set off in 2005 to try to become the first person to sail solo around the world via the polar regions has arrived back in the UK.

Adrian Flanagan, 47, who lives close to the Oxfordshire/Buckinghamshire border, spent 405 days at sea in a 38ft yacht.

He moored in Hamble, Hampshire, after more than 29,700 miles (47,797 km).

But the World Sailing Speed Record Council said it was not ratifying the journey as a record because he had been forced to stop twice during his quest.

The father-of-two, from Ludgershall, near Bicester, was welcomed home by his family and friends who were waiting for him at the Royal Southern Yacht Club.

He said to have his aspiration "achieved and satisfied, it feels tremendous, but mainly its relief to be back and be with the children".

During his voyage he was washed overboard from his yacht, Barrabas, and dislocated both wrists.

He also suffered two knock-downs at Cape Horn and was tracked by pirates off Brazil.

'Crowning achievement'

Mr Flanagan hoped to enter the record books as the first person to sail "over the top" of the world having sailed westwards around Cape Horn and across the Russian Arctic coast.

He said bureaucratic delay forced him to lay up Barrabas in Nome, Alaska, for the 2006-2007 winter.

He eventually won permission to go into military sensitive areas of northern Russia's Arctic waters in July 2007.

He said: "To have become the first solo yachtsman to enter the Russian Arctic is irreducible.

Adrian Flanagan was forced to postpone his journey twice"It is the crowning achievement of the voyage, not just for me but for everyone involved."

He then sailed 2,000 miles (3,219 km) of the Northern Sea Route before "impenetrable ice" blocked his path.

A Russian icebreaker convoy transported his yacht through the ice to Murmansk, before Mr Flanagan was forced to lay up the yacht for a second time in Mehamn, northern Norway, in October 2007.

He resumed his trip, which raised money for Oxford Children's Hospital and Save the Children, on 1 May.

John Reed, secretary of the World Sailing Speed Record Council, said they could not ratify the record because of the breaks in Mr Flanagan's journey and the help he received from the Russian icebreaker convoy.

"It does not fulfil our rules and requirements, in that a single-handed voyage in our terms means you do not stop," Mr Reed said.

"It's an epic voyage, it's not a record."