Grenadier Guards rowing team



Round-Britain rowers flipped over by 10ft wave off Yorkshire
A round-Britain rowing team of Grenadier Guards had a lucky escape when their vessel was nearly swamped by a 10ft wave off the Yorkshire Coast.
02 July 2005	Mark Branagan
The wave flipped the GB Row Challenge team vessel off Scarborough, almost capsizing the tiny boat and smashing two oars. The team – three Grenadier Guards and a civilian – are attempting a new world record by rowing non-stop 2,000 miles around Britain in the boat Outward Bound, to raise £1m for charity. Oarsmen Will Turnage and Sgt James Bastin were nearly thrown into the sea by the impact on the port side. But luckily, the starboard-side oars acted as stabilisers and prevented the boat from totally capsizing. Although both carbon fibre oars were smashed to pieces and the stainless rowlock pins bent, the crew had two spare oars on board and managed to repair the rowlocks. After the setback, the team pressed on towards the Humber Estuary, still on target to complete their 2,000-mile journey at Tower Bridge, London on Monday. Sgt Bastin, 35, who had never rowed in a boat before this record attempt, said: "As we were crossing Scarborough Bay the sea wasn't particularly rough but we were suddenly taken out by a random wave which came from nowhere. "It was 10ft high and just broke over the side and almost turned us over. The bottom of the boat came out of the water and Will and I were almost pitched into the sea." Will Turnage, 25, who was also rowing, added: "Thankfully, the boat flipped back upright and the cockpit was awash with water. We lost about one-and-a-half hours while we pumped out the water" The crew have survived force eight gales and 50ft-high waves, whirlpools, rip-tides and even a water shortage caused by a lack of sunshine to power solar panels. Britain's treacherous tides and crowded shipping lanes make rowing round Britain harder than crossing the Atlantic, according to the Ocean Rowing Society.