Double whammy

Mari Cha IV adds the west to east transatlantic record to her 24 hour record

Robert Miller - owner

Yesterday a man with a perpetual grin on his face was Mari Cha IV's owner Robert Miller. As we have previously written the new 140ft schooner follows Miller's previous ownership of a Nicholson 72, a Frers maxi (now Bristolian) and, best known of all, Mari Cha III, the 146ft Briand ketch which the Miller family still own and use as their vehicle for cruising.

Now 70, although looking at least 10 years younger, Robert Miller built his fortune up from scratch through the company Duty Free Shoppers Group he co-founded in Hong Kong, initially exploiting the burgeoning Japanese tourist trade. This company expanded establishing and running duty free shopping outlets at many airports around the world. Miller sold his stake in DFS for a reported £950 million in the early 1990s. Alongside DFS Miller has had the investment company Search Group aimed at individuals of high net worth. No figures have ever been published for Search Group, so the scale of Miller fortune is hard to evaluate. The Times Rich List this year ranked him as 22nd richest man in the UK, but this is believed to be conversative.

Although a British passport holder, Robert Miller's accent is American - he was born in a suburb of Boston - and considers home to be in Hong Kong, although he also has residences in London, Gstaad, Paris and New York as well as the 12,900 hectacre Gunnerside Estate in Yorkshire.

Aside from being a highly successful businessman, Miller is also a very keen yachtsman and as an owner deserves considerable commendation for having the vision to go ahead with the design and build of boats as large and as radical as Mari Cha III and her newer sibling.

"She’s fantastic, I couldn’t have been more happy with her performance," Miller enthused to thedailysail yesterday on the lawn outside the Royal Cornwall Yacht Club. "We haven’t really turned the full tap on yet. We haven’t discovered her full potential. A very fast boat like this requires, to learn how to helm her, quite a bit of care and attention. I think we learned quite a lot this time."

He says that he steered every day, but not at night. "I let the more experienced helmsman handle it in the pitch black of night, but during the day I had a lot of fun with it."

In October 1998 Mari Cha III set the west to east monohull transatlantic record with a new time 8 days 23 hours 59 minutes and 17 second (prior to Bernard Stamm swiping the record off her three years later). That voyage had been in considerably bigger conditions and had seen much breakage on board. This was partly due to the wind and waves, but also that Mari Cha III was a more highly loaded, heavier boat - more than 100 tonnes, compared to the new boat's slender 50.

"She wasn’t frightening," says Miller of his new steed. "On Mari Cha III when you were at the helm she was very hard to steer when she was fully loaded. Mari Cha IV is much lighter and is very responsive to the helm - in fact you have to be careful not to over-steer."

The rudders also occasionally have the habit of ventilating. "I think what happens too with this canting keel is that you get an airpocket underneath the boat when you are at speeds of over 20 knots and that airpocket maybe affects the rudder and you get a void at certain times when you are steering. All of a sudden you’ll find there isn’t anything there and then the load will come on and hit you all of a sudden."

From here Mari Cha IV is going back to Cherbourg for a refit as Robert Miller and the crew work out exactly what they are going to do next. There is much speak of a Jules Verne Trophy record attempt to see how much they can reduce the monohull record. This record currently belongs to Michel Desjoyeaux - singlehanded in the last Vendee Globe. Could Mari Cha IV be the first monohull to sail non-stop around the world in 80 days? Her performance to date indicates she is certainly capable of the necessary pace.

Miller thinks that a non-stop round the world record is a little more than he would be prepared to take on personally. "I don’t know whether I can stand 80 days on board! I think 7,8, 9 days is great. It is the food mainly! It is a younger man’s race, like the Whitbread or the Volvo, but they stop. If you are going to go non-stop that is really something..."

Aside from the possible Jules Verne attempt Miller says they are looking at other records they can break. Next year their schedule is likely to take in the Pacific Cup, transpac race. "We’re going to look at some other Pacific sailing we can do in 04 and in 05 you have the Cape Town-Rio and then the Royal Yacht Squadron and New York Yacht Club want us to do the Rolex race from New York to the Needles. I’m sure we’ll do that." Robert Miller is a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron and Mari Cha IV has 'RYS' on her transom.

Although the boat is also likely to take part in occasional regattas like Antigua Sailing Week, Miller says round the cans racing is not really where he gets the most enjoyment. "I much prefer the offshore. I like being a spectator of the America’s Cup. It is a like a chess game, but I have no interest of owning an America’s Cup boat."

So sadly no DFS-sponsored America's Cup challenge. "Although we could do Hong Kong to Manila..." he adds.