New Zealand leads Transatlantic Challenge

35 out of the 36 boats which started off on the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge are still in the game, making there way from Tenerife to Port St Charles Barbados.

After 11 days of strenuous rowing, the race has progressed into a close contest between New Zealand team Telecom Challenge 1 and the Australian team Freedom.

Third position is currently being held by team 30 – Win.Belgium. The only all-women team from New Zealand, Telecom Challenge 25 are 4th again after having reclaimed their position from the UK team Comship.com earlier today.

The transatlantic race has seen some exciting developments along the way; on Saturday 13 October Rob Ringer from the spirit of Worchestershire retired from the race leaving his crew mate Richard Wood to complete the challenge alone in a bid to raise money for St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester. Richard will restart this afternoon (Wednesday) but has had to forsake receiving a race position. By continuing alone, he is also taking on the extra risk of falling off the pace of the main fleet and loosing the support from the Challenge Business safety vessel as they are bound to stay with the main fleet.

On the same day, David Hart from the Dartmothian also took on rowing solo after his team mate and cousin Jason Hart decided to retire. However, David abandoned the challenge the next day. Their boat was destroyed at sea to comply with maritime regulations.

The Basque team Euskadi had to give up their chances of a race placing on day five, as they were towed back to land for repairs on their boat. The team intend to restart from El Hierro, an island off Tenerife tomorrow (Thursday).

This years Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge is the second ever of it’s kind. On October 7, 36 two-person teams, from 13 countries, lined up in Tenerife to row the 4,600 km (2,900 miles) across to the island of Barbados in the Caribbean.

It is expected that most teams will take from 50 to 100 days to make the crossing.

Worldrowing.com will bring you regular updates on the progress of the transatlantic crossing.