Sweeping the Indian Ocean

Setting a new frontier in ocean rowing, eight rowers have just completed the 3,132 nautical miles across the Indian Ocean in 58 days. The first ever Indian Ocean Rowing Race has now welcomed the first two teams into Mauritius.

The first home, the team of eight, was brought together by Paralympic rower Angela Madsen (USA) with the sole purpose of breaking the record for this route from Western Australia to Mauritius.

The 11-metre boat, christened Aud Eamus, was set up to have four people sweep rowing at a time. This is unconventional for ocean rowing where sculling has become the norm.

By the time the team reached Mauritius they had broken several records. On top of being the fastest rowing boat ever to cross the Indian Ocean, Madsen is the first paraplegic woman to row this body of water. Teammate Helen Taylor and Madsen are the first women to do it. Simon Chalk is the first person to row the Indian Ocean twice and this is the first time an eight-person boat had rowed the Indian Ocean.

Madsen, who has also rowed the Atlantic Ocean, said the Indian Ocean was a lot harder. "It was longer and we never had favourable weather conditions," said Madsen. "On day three we got knocked down and flipped over. We broke some oars and the steering went out."

The sweep rowing did not work well according to Madsen. ""I'm not so sure that sweep rowing is all that effective in ocean rowing." The boat was set up to have four people rowing at a time and Madsen said it was difficult to stay in time especially when one side would have their oars out of the water as they struggled in the waves. The movement of the boat meant often the oars would slam down onto the rowers. 

The multinational crew came together under the pay-per-place concept set up by race organisers Woodvale. The purpose of the crew is to break records and this boat was a trial run.

Aud Eamus left Western Australia nine days after the start date of the rest of the boats in the race. This proved advantageous as the crew was able to use the other boats as a strategy to try and overtake them. Aud Eamus arrived ahead of the entire fleet which consisted of solo, pair and four person boats (all scullers).

The race started with 11 boats but so far five have retired from the event predominantly due to equipment failure and four of them in the very early stages of the race. There are four boats still to finish.

The second boat to finish was a crew of four from Great Britain who completed the crossing in 68 days. They were the first men’s four to cross the Indian Ocean and they became the overall winners of the first ever team of four race across the Indian Ocean. The boat, named Bexhill Trust Challenger, is nine metres long and the crew rowed it in pairs doing two-hour shifts.

Prior to this race there has been only four successful rowing crossings of the Indian Ocean.

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