A FORMER British Special Air Service trooper plans to sail 3,000 miles (4,828 km) across the Atlantic in a 19.8-meter homemade whale-shaped boat called Moby.

    Tom McClean, 73, has spent £100,000 (US$139,620) building the 62-ton vessel on the shore of Loch Nevis near Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands.

    McClean launched the project 20 years ago, and has overseen every part of the building of the boat.

    But despite the construction, Moby has not moved in three years and the only jaunts before that were short journeys off the west coast of Scotland.

    However, now, McClean is gearing up for the adventure of a lifetime, and is preparing his boat for the 3,000-mile crossing of the North Atlantic.

    He said, “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done before and it has been a long time coming.

    “Arriving to a huge crowd will be an unbelievable swan-song and my crowning achievement.”

    McClean — who also runs a successful outward-bound center — plans to refit the boat with new electric motors to replace the reliable but noisy and smelly diesel ones.

    He also wants to completely redo the interior, which has a bridge, lounge and bunks for a crew of 10.

    He’s also planning a luxury touch — a bath, complete with gold taps — where the crew will be able to relax after a hard shift.

    The pensioner, who already holds several records for solo rowing and yachting voyages across the Atlantic, added, “I’ve learned to stick at things when other people might give up.

    “It makes you feel alive to have a challenge, not just working to pay the bills.”

    McClean’s ambition is just the latest chapter in his somewhat colorful life.

    Abandoned in a grim wartime orphanage aged 5, where fights and beatings were a way of life, he learned the stubbornness, self-reliance and unyielding will to survive.

    He also knows a thing or two about survival, given that he’s built his remarkable creation from the remote confines of the Knoydart peninsula, one of the most inaccessible parts of mainland Scotland.

    His isolated home — which he built from scratch — is only accessible by boat or a grueling 11-km hike.(SD-Agencies)