On 15th December a crew of 14 people will set off from the Canary Islands, attempting to set a new Guinness World Record for the fastest Atlantic crossing by an ocean rowing boat. The "Atlantic Challenge" rowing race is a speed challenge designed to capture the world record for the fastest man-powered crossing of the Atlantic Ocean.

The Race
1n 1992, a French team set a World Record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic in a rowing boat. The record stands at 35 days, 8 hours and 30 minutes. We aim to beat this record with a British/Irish crew in the same boat the French used, La Mondiale. We are racing head to head against Team Orca from the USA, crewed by Denis Richardson, Roy Finlay, Chris Cuddihy and Ronnie Desiderio.

The Boat
Built in 1991 by VMG (Ouistreham) and designed by Luc Poupon and Nordahl Mabire, the boat is made of a composite woven glass and carbon sandwich epoxy under vacuum. She is very light: the bare hull weight is just 639 kilos, and very strong.

To accommodate 12 men, she is larger than the average rowing boat at 15.50m in length and 2.80m across the beam. Fully laden, her published weight is 3.9 tons.

The boat is now owned by Ocean Rowing Events Ltd, the company set up to undertake this challenge. She has been completely refitted for this record attempt.

The Route
The route will take us from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands to Barbados in the West Indies. It is just over 3000 miles and slightly longer than the record-holding French team's route, but we believe that our route will afford us the advantages offered by prevailing weather conditions in certain areas.

The Organiser/Skipper
Leven Brown rowed the Atlantic from east to west in the 2005/6 season in an event he named 'The Columbus Run' in his boat Atlantic Wholff. He is responsible for putting this new expedition together. He was the first rower to conquer the notorious Bay of Cadiz and holds a Guinness World Record for being the first to row from mainland Spain to the West Indies.

The Crew
The command structure on the boat devolves from the Skipper to three ship's officers: the Mate, then the Ship's Engineer, the Ship's Surgeon and the crew.

Charlie Taylor (The Mate), Ray Carroll (The Ship's Engineer) Liam Hughes (The Ship's Surgeon), Peter Donaldson, Julian Barnwell, Mike Tooth, PJ Luard, Don Lennox, Stuart Kershaw, Olly Dudley, Jamies Walker, Reinhardt von Hoff, Rob Loder-Symmonds and Johnny Whitteridge.

Cohesion
Breaking the world record depends entirely on the cohesiveness of the crew, the total commitment of its members and their selflessness with one another.

David Fox-Pitt, a former Special Air Service Officer and well-known outdoorsman, organised the crew's first teambuilding and training exercise, based around Loch Tay in the Perthshire hills. It involved hard physical training which included swimming, many miles' hill-walking and a 60-mile circumnavigation of Loch Tay by canoe and rowing boat, all completed in a state of sleep deprivation.

Subsequently, there have been several further events in Norfolk, involving sea-survival, bicycle marathons and long-distance rowing on the Broads. A training weekend also took place in Ayrshire involving fell-running, circuit-training, a rowing machine challenge and swimming.

Sea Trail and Crew Training
The boat's sea trial took place between 4th and 7th October and was a great success, involving a record-breaking row from Edinburgh to Lowestoft. The crew smashed the record set by a Royal Marines Commando team of 72 miles for the longest non-stop row in the North Sea. The new record is over 180 miles non-stop.

Further training and sea trials are ongoing from the boat’s new home in Lowestoft as the crew makes
final preparations for departure.

The Royal Navy are very keen on this project and subject to operational commitments there is the possibility of a frigate escort into the finish in Barbados.

Dangers/Safety
The dangers to rowing boats are the same the world over; land, weather and traffic.

Because we are on a trade wind route, land should not be a consideration; however we carry a fortress anchor in case of lee shore conditions. Weather will be reported to us via our satellite link and we have the speed in this larger boat to avoid the worst of any extreme weather patterns. Traffic is always a hazard but the boat is equipped with the latest 'Sea-Me' transponders, AIS radar, and, of course, 6-8 pairs of eyes to spot any potential conflict of interest on our course! For safety, we carry 2 x 8 man life-rafts and have budgeted for GPS EPIRB, Argos Tracking (which also has a distress function), radio and satellite communications, a comprehensive set of marine flares and compulsory clipping-on and wearing of life jackets during conditions of Force 4 or above.

To find out more information please visit www.oceanrowevents.com

Article kindly supplied by by J Barnwell 2007