Winner of Atlantic Challenge tells his story

The effort was made more remarkable as just 26 minutes separated the first and second boats at the finish. Iles and Moore were pushed literally to the end by solo rower Andrew Brown. The Challenge began in the Canary Islands on 5 December 2011 with crews heading to Barbados on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Moore talked to World Rowing about life at sea and the race to the end.

World Rowing: Towards the finish of the race, when were you aware that Andrew Brown was
so close?
Nick Moore: Yes – from the daily updates we would plot Andrew's position at the scheds against ours so we knew where he was relative to us and during the last few days our respective distances to finish were almost identical so we knew were close to each other. Also emails from people watching the website made sure we knew we were close to each other!  

On the very last morning, at around 9am, Toby was rowing and spotted Andrew’s boat about 500m away on our starboard beam. This was the first time we'd seen him since the end of day one of the race. However, we then lost sight of him for the rest of the day and didn't really know we were ahead until we were 1 mile from the finish line and he called us on the radio and said he was 3 miles from the line…it really was that close.

WR: What rowing strategy did you take towards the finish?
NM: Once we knew Andrew was close and there was a real chance we could beat him to the line, we changed our shift pattern on the final day so that we each rowed hour shifts and tried to maximise our efforts during each of these shifts… in the end it proved worth it.

WR: Do you have a background in rowing?
NM: Before we started training in the boat in March 2011 I had never rowed before, in any form. Toby's rowing experience was limited to rowing he did during his school days, so from that perspective the rowing part was a big learning curve for us both and we tried to get as much training as we could on the water in the boat during 2011 in the run-up to the start. This wasn't that easy as I live and work in Singapore and Toby (and the boat) was in the UK. However we both have a lot of experience in offshore sailing where we've both raced yachts around the world (in different races) and we certainly feel that this ocean experience was very beneficial to us during the race itself.

WR: What rowing technique did you use during the challenge?
NM: Interesting question, as we each had quite different styles! It was something to do with not being rowers I guess. Toby had a more "classic" style rowing at a fairly regular cadence adapted to the wave and wind conditions. My style was a bit more ragged and changed depending on the conditions but for the most part I didn't have a regular rhythm but relied more on hauling on the oars when I felt I could get maximum effort into the water. I'll admit it wasn't pretty.

WR: How did you prepare for the challenge?
NM: We both have Concept2 rowing machines at home and followed a training programme that saw us mainly do long sessions (90-120mins) at the highest resistance setting but at low spm (18-21), and using the heart rate monitor to manage the pace. Generally we'd train at a heart rate of between 140 and 150 and do occasional shorter sessions (60mins) at 160HR. We'd do C2 sessions three times a week.  

We both also were in the gym building up muscle strength and endurance. In the six months prior to the start I worked with a personal trainer in Singapore having 3×1 hour sessions per week and Toby did similar sessions in the UK. We did a lot of core strengthening work. So we were training six times a week in the run-up to the start.

We then did as much training as we could actually in the boat. We managed to complete 2×24 hour rows and a 1×48 hour row off the south coast of the UK.  The on-board training helped us to prepare mentally as it got us used to living, rowing and sleeping on the boat. We both had the benefit of our sailing experience to fall back on in terms of the offshore ocean experience but, to be honest, nothing really could prepare us for the actual race experience itself.

WR: Was there something special that you took on board for the trip?
NM: We had a few good luck items (such as two small Lego pirates) and from the school that my sister teaches at, the children there asked us to take a laminated Flat Stanley who is a character from one the books they were reading. But otherwise, we did concentrate on minimising weight as much as we could. In terms of luxury items we each limited ourselves to a couple of IPods.

WR: How did you work the rowing shifts?
NM: Apart from the first 90min of the race, we only ever rowed one at a time. Our shift pattern saw us row two hours on/off from 6pm through until 8am, then each do a 1x90min shift until 11am, then one hour shifts from 11am to 3pm, then each do a 1x90min shift to 6pm before going in to the two-hour shift pattern. We did this to avoid doing long sessions during the hottest part of the day and also because the person off-watch was also unlikely to be able to sleep during the hottest part of the day.

The 90 minute sessions also meant that we did different shifts every 24 hours (i.e. the same person didn't have the 4-6am watch for example every day). The shift system worked really well although I think we're both amazed how we got by on so little sleep.

WR: Did you talk to each other much?
NM: It depended on the conditions but certainly during the day we would chat at the watch changes, as the person going off watch would normally sit in the cabin having something to eat and we'd discuss how we were doing, tactical decisions, weather and anything else that became the topic of the day. At night time our watch changes were pretty efficient with minimal chatting going on!

WR: Describe the hardest day at sea?
NM: Christmas Day was tough as the weather just turned against us. The wind clocked round from the South-East direction that it had been mostly coming from to the South-West which was exactly the direction we wanted to go. We had to fight hard to keep the boat moving and on top of that we just had a series of heavy rain showers and big seas. By mid-morning we'd cancelled Christmas on board.
 
The wind then continued to clock round to the West and then the North-West and it needed all our strength to stop the boat heading back towards the Canary Islands. By late afternoon the wind had come round to the North and then the North-East and we were then able to start heading in the right direction. But it had proved to be a long and challenging day and neither of us had much Christmas spirit that day.

Funnily enough we were convinced that we had got caught in a really local weather system and our nearest competitors hadn't got caught in it and would have put miles on us. It turned out that they suffered worse than us and we put good distance on them.

WR: Did you suffer any breakage in equipment?
NM: Fortunately, relatively few. We had to do a fair amount of running maintenance on the wheels of the seats and a few other items, but otherwise our major equipment (water maker, tiller-pilot, navigation equipment, oars, gates, jet boil cooker) all performed well throughout. We were very careful about keeping the cabin where the tiller-pilot and water maker were located as dry as possible.  

On 30 December we did have a full 360 degree capsize when the boat got rolled in a big wave. This saw us break one of our oars when the boat inverted, but otherwise we avoided any other serious damage (to people or equipment). Looking back we got away pretty well from that little moment.

WR: Did you ever get pushed backwards?
NM: No, although we got very close on Christmas Day, but at no point did we deploy our sea anchor, nor did we ever stop rowing.

WR: What marine life did you get to see?
NM: We were surprised we didn't see more. We got visited by a couple of whales, a pod of dolphins, a few sea birds and the occasional small shark which would follow in the wake of the boat.

WR: And what's next on the rowing front for you?
NM: I'll be back on the Concept2 once I'm back in the Singapore just to maintain fitness, but I don't think I'll be doing two-hour sessions and I'll certainly be taking the resistance level down from level 10!

I've managed to secure tickets for a couple of days of the rowing at the Olympics in London so I shall enjoy being a spectator. Don't expect to see me rowing another ocean anytime soon though!

Toby and Nick's chosen charity: www.justgiving.com/boxnumber8