A former SAS trooper plans to sail 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in a 65-foot home-made whale-shaped boat called Moby.

Tom McClean, 73, has spent £100,000 building the 62-tonne vessel on the shore of Loch Nevis near Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands.

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

Former SAS trooper Tom McClean, who has spent £100,000 building a 65-foot whale shaped boat called Moby

Mr McClean has built the vessel on the shores of Lochaber in the Scottish Highlands and plans to sail it across the Atlantic

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, Mr 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.'

Mr McClean - who also runs a successful outward bound centre - 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.

Mr McClean launched the project 20 years ago, and has oversaw every part of the building of the 62-tonne boat

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

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.'

Mr McClean's ambition is just the latest chapter in his somewhat colourful life.

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

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

The plan for the Moby, which is 65 foot long and is set to be sailed by Mr McLean, a former SAS trooper, across the Atlantic

He joined the Parachute Regiment at 17, which he described as easy compared to the orphanage, and after six years of action in Borneo, Aden and Malaya was one of only three in 105 to pass the gruelling selection course for the elite SAS.

Three years later, aged 26, he set off from Newfoundland in Canada in a small fishing boat trying to become the first person to row solo across the Atlantic.

He explained: 'Every part of my life has prepared me for the next.

'The orphanage toughened me up for the army, and the army toughened me up for the SAS, which taught me how to survive on my adventures.

'It's all about survival, looking after yourself and doing what you need to do.'

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 gruelling seven-mile hike.

The kitchen interior of the Moby, which Mr McClean plans to sail across the Atlantic. He wants to spruce up the inside of the vessel before the journey

Mr McClean said people often ask him for tips for their own solo crossings, and he tells them to sit in a cupboard for three days and then decide if they still want to do it

He shares his hydro-electricity powered beach-side cottage with Jill, with whom he has two sons - James, 35, and Ryan, 33.

She has grown used to his adventurous streak over the years, having waited for him while he became the first man to survive for 40 days alone on Rockall - a remote rocky outcrop in the north Atlantic.

She said: 'With every project I never want him to do it but he always convinces me he will be fine.

'He convinces me that he has planned it well, and then I end up helping. I have complete faith in him.'

Mr McClean said people often ask him for tips for their own solo crossings, and he tells them to sit in a cupboard for three days and then decide if they still want to do it.

The adventurer - who wants to be buried in Moby - added: 'It's all mental. Big guys can do a lot, but if you're dirty, tired, cold and everything is going wrong can you still do it, can you smile under pressure?

'You have to not want the world, not need to call your family or even think about them.