27 Jan 2012
Rough Christmas and New Year's for ocean rowers
There are 17 teams currently rowing across the Atlantic Ocean and already some have been forced to quit. Team of two, Tom Sauer and Tom Fancett (Great Britain and the Netherlands), had their race abruptly end eight days after the 5 December 2011 start in the Canary Islands. Their rowing boat was hit by a freak wave which knocked it over and forced the two rowers into a life raft. They were picked up by a cruise liner 10 hours later.
The race finish is in Barbados and comes after about 5,000km of rowing have been completed in seven-metre long boats. At present a team of two, Box Number 8, is in the lead and they are now through the half-way point. The duo of Toby Iles and Nick Moore from Great Britain have round-the-world sailing experience behind them but only one has some high school rowing to call on.
The husband and wife team of Helena and Richard Smalman-Smith from Great Britain are both involved in rowing and for them it seemed inevitable that they would try this challenge. The Smalman-Smith’s currently sit in eleventh position.
The first ever attempt by a crew of five females – Row For Freedom – is sitting in seventh place and they have just crossed the half-way point. The crew, who have come together from a number of countries, say daily damage is the norm on their boat.
Currently trying to row the Tasman Sea from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, is Team Gallagher. The crew of four New Zealanders, Andrew McCowan, James Blake, Martin Berka and Nigel Cherrie, is 31 days into its Tasman Sea row. Progress has been slow with their initial prediction being that they would be finished the 2,500km row in about 30 days. But recently they have made no progress.
The weather has hindered their chances of getting closer to their New Zealand target and the crew are down to just one working seat in the rowing boat which is designed to enable two rowers to row at any given time. This means that one rower will only be able to manage fixed seat rowing and thus only their body and arms will be utilised.
The crew commented, “Just broke another axle. Last good seat sags and drags along slides.”
For more information: http://www.taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/