Ocean rowing

Samuelsen and Harbo, the first ocean rowers

Ocean rowing is the sport of rowing across oceans. The sport is as much a psychological as it is a physical challenge. Rowers often have to endure long periods at sea without help often many days if not weeks away. The challenge is especially acute for solo rowers who are held in especially high esteem within the sport. The history of ocean rowing is sometimes divided into two eras. The first 12 ocean rows are considered "Historic Ocean rows" as they were completed with very limited if any modern technology. The subsequent rows are described as "Modern Day rows".^[1]

Despite the now regular rowing races, fewer people have rowed an ocean as of 2006 than have climbed Everest or been into outer space.^[2]

Atlantic Ocean rowing

The first ocean to be deliberately rowed was the Atlantic by Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo, two Norwegians, in June 1896. The pair left Battery Park, Manhattan on 6 June 1896 arriving on the Isles of Scilly, 55 days and 13 hours later having covered 3,250 miles (5,230 km). They continued to row to Le Havre, France.^[3]

The first deliberate solo crossing of any ocean was completed by John Fairfax of Britain on 19 July 1969. He rowed from Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands to Hollywood beach, Florida in 180 days. In the same year Tom McClean, also of Britain, rowed from Newfoundland, Canada arriving in Blacksod Bay, Ireland on 27 July 1969. Despite having left almost four months after Fairfax he came within 8 days of beating Fairfax to the title of first solo rower of any ocean.

On 10 July 2005 the Vivaldi Atlantic four-man team (Nigel Morris, George Rock, Steve Dawson, Rob Munslow) set the record for fastest unsupported row from St John's, Newfoundland to the longitude of Bishop Rock lighthouse, UK. They left on 31 May 2005, arriving back on 10 July 2005 in a time of 39 days 22 hours and 10 minutes. The Vivaldi Atlantic four also became the first four-man team ever to row the North Atlantic west to east. This record still stands as the fastest unsupported row across this 1850nm North Atlantic Route.

On 3 December 1999 Tori Murden of the USA became the first woman to row any ocean solo when she arrived in Guadeloupe, having set off from Tenerife in the Canary Islands 81 days earlier. In March 2006 Julie Wafaei of Canada became the first woman to row across the Atlantic from mainland to mainland.^[4]

The fastest unsupported row from the US to England was set in 2005 by The Ocean Fours (NL) (Gijs Groeneveld, Robert Hoeve, Jaap Koomen, Maarten Staarink) with the Vopak Victory. They left New York on 27 May and crossed the Bishops Rock longitude 60 days, 16 hours and 19 minutes later. This record was beaten by Leven Brown and his crew in 2010. Their boat 'Artemis Investments' left New York on 17th of June 2010 and arrived in St Mary's on the 31st of July 2010 in a time of 43 days 21 hours 26 mins and 48 seconds. Which remains the record to date for the longer 2850nm and original North Atlantic route.^[5] During their voyage they were capsized twice in storms.^[6]

The World Record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to the West Indies was set in 2011 by 'Team Hallin', a crew of six aboard the trimaran 'Hallin Marine', with a crossing time of 31 days 23 hours 31 minutes. The World Record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic Ocean from Morocco to the West Indies was also set in 2011 by a six man crew aboard 'Sara G', with a crossing time of 33 days 21 hours and 46 minutes. The crew of Sara G posted the record for the most days rowed of 100 miles per day consecutively, now standing at 12 days.

La Mondiale set the original record in 1992. After much work and refurbishment this beautiful old boat was ready to go to sea again in 2008/9 and race two state the of art modern lightweight boats both of which optionally sported smaller crews but were specifically designed to beat La Mondiale. An 'informal' race took place from the Canaries to the West Indies that saw storms and tactical guile. La Mondiale, despite her age, crossed the finish line first some three days ahead of the nearest rival. She was skippered by Leven Brown. La Mondiale was subsequently lost at sea in 2009 due to the loss of her rudder, all hands were safe, but one of the sports most historic boats was 'retired' by the ocean, proudly unbeaten.

In 2010, Katie Spotz rowed solo mainland-to-mainland Dakar, Senegal–Georgetown, Guyana, 2,817 nautical miles (5,217 km) in only 70 days. She is the youngest solo rower so far.

Atlantic rowing races

Rowing the Atlantic first became mainstream when the first Atlantic Rowing Race was launched by Sir Chay Blyth, after reflecting on his own ocean row that propelled him to international renown. This was the Port St. Charles, Barbados Atlantic Rowing Race. Thirty double-handed teams lined up at the start line in a "one design" rowing boat just outside of Los Gigantes marina on Sunday 12 October 1997. The race was won by Kiwi Challenge, rowed by Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs after 41 days at sea. Second place went to the French crew of Atlantik Challenge, Joseph Le Guen and his partner, a double convicted murderer, Pascal Blond.

Later Atlantic rowing races:

• Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Race 2001 - Won by Matt Goodman & Steve Westlake in Telecom Challenge 1

• Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2003 - Won by James Fitzgerald & Kevin Biggar in Holiday Shoppe Challenge

• Ocean Rowing Society's Atlantic Rowing Race 2004 [3] - Fours event won by Queensgate (GB); Pairs event won by Christopher Morgan and Michael Perrins in Carpe Diem (GB)

• Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race 2005 - Pairs race won by Clint Evans and Chris Andrews in C² (GB)

• Shephard Ocean Fours Rowing Race 2006 - Inaugural North Atlantic Rowing Race won by team O.A.R. Northwest (Jordan Hanssen, Brad Vickers, Greg Spooner, and Dylan LeValley) rowing James Robert Hanssen

Pacific Ocean rowing

Following his successful Pacific Ocean crossing, John Fairfax set off from San Francisco in California on 26 April 1971 with Sylvia Cook. After three stops (in Mexico, Fanning Island and the Gilbert Island of Onotoa), the two arrived on Hayman Island in Australia 361 days later on 22 April 1972. In doing so Cook became the first woman to row any Ocean. One of her commercial sponsors was Yardley of London who had just introduced a new creme based moisturized make-up named "Next to Nothing". Headlines in the trade papers of the cosmetics industry touted "Woman rows the Pacific wearing 'Next to Nothing' ".

In 1976 Patrick Quesnel completed a crossing from Washington State to Hawaii, a journey of 2,200 miles (3,500 km) which took him 114 days.^[7]

In 1977 Colin Quincey became the first to cross the Tasman Sea, the segment of the Pacific Ocean between Australia and New Zealand. He departed Hokianga, New Zealand, on 6 February 1977 and 63 days later arrived at Marcus Beach, Australia on 10 April.^[8]

The first person to row the width of the Pacific Ocean solo was Peter Bird of Britain. Bird set off from San Francisco, California and arrived at the Great Barrier Reef Australia 294 days later on 14 June 1983. Bird would later die attempting the west to east journey across the Pacific.

Controversially, Briton Jim Shekhdar later made the claim to be "the first person to row across the Pacific single-handed". Shekhdar had rowed across the Pacific non-stop, solo and unassisted arriving in Australia on 30 March 2001. Some within the sport felt that Shekhdar had not given due credit to the achievement of Peter Bird and the term "unassisted" also came under some scrutiny.

Erden Eruç is currently rowing across the Pacific. He departed San Francisco, California on 11 July 2007, bound for Australia. Eruç has been plagued by unfavorable currents and is having difficulty crossing the equator (more specifically the ITCZ). Eruç previously rowed across the Atlantic ocean.

Roz Savage rowed from San Francisco to Hawaii in 2008, the first woman to do so solo, and from Hawaii to Tuvalu in 2009. She completed the third leg her trip (from Tuvalu to PNG) in 2010 and so became the first woman to row across the Pacific Ocean unassisted.

Chris Martin and Mick Dawson rowed a 2 man boat from Choshi, Japan to San Francisco Harbour in 2011. Their journey took 189 days and in doing so they achieved the Guinness World Record^[9] for the first team to row across the North Pacific Ocean.

Indian Ocean rowing

The Indian Ocean was first crossed by Anders Svedlund of Sweden in 1971. He set off from Kalbarri in Western Australia on 29 April 1971 and arrived near Diego Suarez, Madagascar, 64 days later on 23 June.^[10]

Sarah Outen, a 24 year old Briton, left Fremantle, Western Australia on April 1, 2009. Rowing her 19 ft (5.8 m) boat Serendipity, she arrived at Bois des Amourettes, Mauritius, 124 days later on August 3. She became the first woman soloist to attempt and successfully complete the crossing. She is also the world's youngest solo female ocean rower.

The current speed record for rowing the Indian Ocean is held by the 8 person crew of Audeamus ('Let Us Dare'), who took a little over 58 days to set the new record in 2009. The crew consisted of Bernard Fisset (Belgium); Doug Tuminello, Brian Flick and Angela Madsen (USA); and Helen Taylor, Ian Couch, Simon Chalk and Paul Cannon (UK).

Audeamus is the first boat ever to row unassisted, land to land cross the Indian Ocean, landing just a few weeks ahead of "Team MSS". It is also the first, multi-person boat and the first mixed boat to row the Indian Ocean and the first 8 person boat to row any Ocean. All are Guinness World Records.

Helen Taylor and Angela Madsen are the first women to row across the Indian Ocean, landing just a few weeks ahead of Sarah Outen. There are several other Guinness world records associated with the boat.

On 19th April 2009 Andrew Delaney and Guy Watts began their unsupported ocean row from Geraldton, Western Australia across the Indian Ocean to Mauritius as 'Team MSS'. They successfully managed to break five world records and two race speed records. The highlights of their achievements being that they were the first pair to row unassisted land to land across the Indian Ocean and they were winners of the ‘pair’s class’ in the inaugural Indian Ocean Race.

The pair was supported back in the UK throughout the race with wind, tactics and psychological support from Tim Howard and Jeremy Christey (of Talking-Therapies Ltd*).

Rowing in three hour blocks, one on one off, for the 3,780 nautical miles (7,000 km) in particularly hostile conditions, Guy and Andy battled through 12 meter swells, violent storms and winds exceeding 40 knots (74 km/h), in their ocean rowing boat ‘Flying Ferkins’.

It was one of the world’s toughest nautical challenges and a world first for Ocean rowing crossings. See [www.indianoceanrace.com] for further details.

Ocean rowing in popular culture

The British rock band Marillion released an eighteen minute song called "Ocean Cloud" on its 2004 album Marbles based on Donald Allum's almost fatal third crossing of the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland in 1987.

See also

• Human-powered watercraft

References

1. ^ Completed Ocean Rows in Chronological Order Ocean Rowing Society
2. ^ Ocean Rowing Angus Adventures
3. ^ Completed Ocean Rows in Chronological Order Ocean Rowing Society
4. ^ Ocean Rowing Angus Adventures
5. ^ BBC News - 31 July 2010 [1]
6. ^ Newspaper Article - Hereford Times - Friday 6th August 2010 By Paul Ferguson [2]
7. ^ Quincey, C. (1977). Tasman Trespasser, page 202. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton.
8. ^ Quincey, C. (1977). Tasman Trespasser. Auckland: Hodder & Stoughton.
9. ^ Guinness World Records 2011 page 118
10. ^ Completed Ocean Rows in Chronological Order Ocean Rowing Society

External links

• Ocean Row Events
• Worldoceanrowing.com
• The World Rowing Network
• The Association of Ocean Rowers
• Woodvale Events
• Ocean Rowing Handbook
• The Ocean Rowing Society

• • [4] Don Allum's log at the above.