Guinness World Records

The first edition of “The Guinness Book of Records” book was released in 1955 with the intent on being the definitive reference for superlative facts and answers of great use to the general public. Later renamed Guinness World Records, the book is for those people that like to know ‘stuff” like this:

The fastest time to eat a 12" pizza is 1 min 45.37 sec and was set by Josh Anderson (New Zealand) in Wellington, New Zealand, on March 22, 2008.

The fastest time to carve a face into a pumpkin is 24.03 seconds, by Stephen Clarke (USA) on July 23, 2006.

Vincent Pilkington of Cootehill, County Cavan, Republic of Ireland, plucked a turkey in 1 minute 30 seconds on November 17, 1980.

Ken Edwards of Glossop, Derbyshire, England ate 36 cockroaches in one minute on March 5, 2001.

During the recent rash of ‘youngest around the world’ record attempts, the Guinness World Records group became concerned with encouraging attempts by minors on records which are dangerous or potentially life-threatening, and this year made the decision to no longer accept any such ‘youngest’ sailing record claims.

But that does not mean GWR is out of the sailing business. They have enlisted the services of yachting author Mark Chisnell to help with their categorization, who in turn is seeking help from Scuttlebutt readers:

“I have been asked by Guinness World Records to research some of the other sailing achievements they have logged, and the next contentious one is the thorny issue of biggest sail boat race. I thought we might divide it up into categories:

Largest Single Sailboat Race by number of competitors

Largest Single Sailboat Race by number of boats

Largest multiple race event (regatta) by number of competitors

Largest multiple race event (regatta) by number of boats

Largest Single Trans-Oceanic Sailboat Race by number of competitors

Largest Single Trans-Oceanic Sailboat Race by number of boats

“If anyone has suggestions for claimants for any of those, I'd love to hear them. Please contact me through my website: http://www.markchisnell.com/email.htm