ORS statement re North Atlantic West-East rows

ORS has endeavored over the years to gather and distribute various information that we believe can be helpful to future ocean rowers; we do NOT see our selves as “a governing body”, therefore we are unable (nor do we want ) to “direct” Oceanrowers as to what rows they should do, and when to do them.

 Specifically I refer to the record number of oceanrows that have started or will be starting from the east coast of Canada and America this year. This is the route where the most oceanrowers have been lost at sea (6). The danger comes not at the start of an oceanrow but potentially toward the end of an oceanrow. The specific statement we make is that no oceanrower(s) should still be at sea off the coast of Europe in September, and definitely not in October. Being at sea at this time means taking a considerable risk. It is well documented that there can be, and usually are bad storms during and after September. The obvious difficulty for oceanrowers at this time of year is their ability to self right an upturned boat, something that can and does happen during a big storm. (Tori Murden, for example, 900 miles from France was turned over 18 times in a day in a hurricane). It is expected that during row to Europe any ocean rowboat will capsize at least once.

I would guess that all the oceanrowers doing this route now or about to start believe they will complete their row before September, but Joseph Le Guen, for example, expected to be 72 days at sea and in fact was 103 days at sea for his Cape Cod to France row. So it might well and often takes longer than anticipated.

It is recommended by ORS that any oceanrower(s) carry an EPIRB and an Argos beacon. It has come to my attention that Emmanuel Coindre has no Argos but does have an EPIRB, Jean Lukes has an Argos but no EPIRB; no doubt they will each say it is a matter of budget restraints for them. I feel that ORS should make it clear that we work closely with Coast Guard agencies throughout the world and when they are called on for help they always ask us at ORS the basic questions “who is on board,  what emergency equipment do they have - Argos, EPIRB, phone do you have photo of the boat etc ?”. Emmanuel was rescued by US Coast Guard last year, to take less emergency equipment than last year must be considered a retrograde step; Jean Lukes has been rescued 4 times so far, during his years of trying.

 Let us be clear on what an EPIRB does for an oceanrower. In an emergency it sends a signal for 48 hours to a satellite, this is picked up by the appropriate coastguard agency who directs the closest ship to rescue the crew. We have during various rescues missions had position updates sent directly to the rescue ship, bearing in mind a rescue ship could well be days sailing away from the to be rescued rower(s) It was Argos positions that found Simon Chalk’s boat in the Indian Ocean. Without Argos, transmitting all 12 days since the boat had been abandoned, it would not be possible to retrieve it.  

More importantly, if there were to be a rescue call, having both an EPIRB and an Argos activated itself is confirmation that a genuine rescue is asked for. For example while Pavel Rezvoy was in Caribbean sea recently we got a call from HM Coast Guard Falmouth telling us Pavel’s EPIRB had been activated; we called him on Sat phone to find out his EPIRB was wet from a capsize off  St Lucia, and unknown to him was activated automatically. We passed this information to the Coast Guard, and with this confirmation the Coast Guard stood down, but not before they themselves called Pavel and were satisfied that no rescue was asked for.

 The Argos gives us tracking data and for those wanting to record a record it also serves as confirmation that no device, such as parachute, kite or improvised sail has been used. We  now use the advanced ELSA programs supplied to us by Argos, that tells us what speed and heading an oceanrower(s) is making.

I do hope that all rows heading for Europe have a safe arrivals.

Kenneth F. Crutchlow