Michael Perham

Michael Perham
Perham aboard his boat before setting off on his around-the-world attempt, 15 November 2008
Born	(1992-03-16) 16 March 1992 (age 25) Hertfordshire, England, U.K.
Residence	Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, England, U.K.
Nationality	British
Occupation	Sailor
Known for	Held the official record as the youngest person to sail solo around the world (with stops and assistance); second person under the age of 18 to complete a solo circumnavigation
Parent(s)	Heather and Peter Perham
Website	Official website

Michael Perham (born 16 March 1992) is an English sailor and adventurer from Potters Bar. In 2007 at the age of 14 he became the youngest person in the world to successfully sail across the Atlantic Ocean single-handedly, beating the record set in 2003 by British sailor Seb Clover. In 2009 at the age of 17 he became the youngest person to sail around the world solo. Perham's second record surpassed that of Zac Sunderland, an older 17-year-old American, set only six weeks earlier.

Perham was educated at Chancellor's School, a state comprehensive foundation school, in the village of Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire.

In 2007, Perham became the youngest person in the world to successfully sail across the Atlantic Ocean single-handedly, when he helmed the 28 foot (8 metres) Cheeky Monkey between Gibraltar and Antigua with repair stops in the Canary Islands and Cape Verde between 18 November 2006 and 3 January 2007. That voyage ended when he sailed into Nelson's Dockyard in Antigua at 14:00 GMT after a 3500-mile voyage. His father crossed the Atlantic at the same time in a separate boat.

At the time, Perham was 14 years and 293 days old and he took the Guinness World Record from young Briton Seb Clover from Cowes on the Isle of Wight, who had crossed the Atlantic in late 2002 to early 2003, at the age of 15 years and 362 days.

On 15 November 2008, Perham began his solo non-stop circumnavigation around the world from Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth, England, in his chartered Open 50 yacht, totallymoney.com (named after the principal sponsors). He had to sell the vessel he used on his previous record attempt to raise money for the new record attempt. The journey was planned to take four and a half months and to cover some 40,000 km. In fact he completed it on 27 August 2009. Perham was 16 when he began the journey, and turned 17 on 16 March 2009, while crossing the Indian Ocean making him the youngest solo round-the-world sailor.