Sailor Hannah White has set a Guinness World Record for sailing across the English Channel aboard an 11-foot sail-powered dinghy. Her hydrofoiling Moth reached speeds of 22.2 knots - equivalant to 25.5mph - as she sailed towards Dover from Cap Gris Nez in France. The 24-mile crossing, through one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world, took White a gruelling 3hrs 44mins 39secs. Despite three solo Atlantic crossings under her belt, the 32-year-old adventurer found the switch from endurance to speed sailing "a real eye-opener". “Speed sailing requires a very different physiology to long distance races, so this was really an opportunity for me to build my skills over a shorter distance in a hydrofoiling boat," she said. White will now spend much of 2015 and the early part of next year mastering the physically demanding foiling Moth before attempting to break the women’s one nautical mile speed record on the waters of the Thames Estuary in 2016.
