Fastest swim crossing of St George's Channel in relay

On 5-6 June 2021, the "OA Giants", comprising Bill Donnelly, Keith Garry, Chris Judge, Colin Lindsay, John McElroy and Dominic Mudge (all Ireland), swam from Carne Pier, County Wexford, Ireland, to St David's Head, Pembrokeshire, Wales, UK, via St George's Channel in a time of 34 hours 25 minutes. The swim was ratified by the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association. They were piloted by Pádraig Mallon of Infinity Channel Swimming aboard the vessel ĀNANTYA .

This was also the first time that this waterway has ever been successfully traversed by swimmers.

The expedition set out from Carne Pier at 7 a.m. local time on 5 June and arrived at St David's RNLI lifeboat station at 5.25 p.m. on 6 June. Along the way, the swimmers encountered dolphins and the final swimmer (Donnelly) had to negotiate a challenging stretch of reef known as "The Bitches and Whelps" with rocky outcrops, standing waves and whirlpools.

At its narrowest point, St George's Channel is 76 km (47 mi) wide between Ireland and Wales. Owing to strong tidal currents, the relay team actually covered a total distance of 116 km (72 mi).

Also present on the piloting boat ĀNANTYA was co-pilot Adrian Poucher and crew members Milo McCourt and Jacqueline McClelland.

The same team hold two other records for swimming between Ireland and Great Britain. They completed an unprecedented relay swim of the Oa Channel, from Islay in Scotland to the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, UK, on 8-9 August 2020 in a time of 16 hours 57 minutes 43 seconds. This was a week after they had swum the fastest North Channel crossing from Northern Ireland to Scotland on 2 August, with a time of 9 hours 2 minutes 41 seconds - faster than any other team or individual ever.