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                 The ORS Int. is the official adjudicator of ocean rowing records for Guinness World Records

 

The Western Sun is the leading free paper in the South West of Tenerife

Rowers trapped in sea of paper

 
 

THREE would-be ocean rowers are sitting in the port of San Sebastian, La Gomera, engulfed in a sea of paperwork.
They aim to set off this week on a 3,000-mile row to Antigua in the West Indies – but their chances are not high.
Last time they tried it, on December 20, they were hauled back to port by the coastguard on the orders of Antonio M Padron y Santiago, Capitan Maritimo for all four islands forming the province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
He said they had no paperwork permitting them to undertake the hazardous journey.
A fourth rowing boat that left on the same date evaded the coastguard’s dragnet and is now well out to sea.
Its crew, Britons Ed Baylis and Stu Turnbull, were lucky. They avoided having their boat impounded and being issued with €30,000 fines, which happened to the others, Briton Graham Walters, Indian Bhavik Gandhi and Victor Gavrishev, from Kyrgyzstan.
*The man at the centre of it all, Graham Walters...
L>R: Victor Gavrishev and
        Graham Walters
It was the second fine imposed on Gavrishev. He was unwillingly towed back to port when he made his first attempt to start the row earlier in December. As reported in the last issue of The Tenerife Sun, his €30,000 fine then was negotiated down to €697.
But the second impoundment caused another problem. The delays through bad weather and coastguard interventions meant his visa ran out and he had to leave the island to get a new one.

Now the landbound rowers are awaiting the result of negotiations this week between Capitan Antonio and Kenneth F.Crutchlow, of The Ocean Rowing Society International, which is supporting the rowers in their bid.
“It has all been most unfortunate,” said Mr Crutchlow, shortly before flying from England for his meeting yesterday with the Capitan Maritimo.
“It all boils down to a matter of paperwork, which has never been asked for before from any of the 167 rowers who have set off to row the Atlantic since 1969. Many of those have rowed from Los Gigantes and Playa San Juan in Tenerife and lately from La Gomera.”
Capitan Antonio, who controls arrivals and departures at seaports in the province of Tenerife from his office in Santa Cruz, is insisting on seeing documents verifying insurance for the voyages, certificates of seaworthiness for the 27ft rowing boats and proof that they are all equipped with proper safety equipment.

“Unfortunately, because of language difficulties, nobody knew exactly what was needed,” said Mr Crutchlow. “Rowers had never been asked to provide actual documents before Capitan Antonio, who speaks and reads English perfectly well, took up his position in charge of maritime affairs for Tenerife.
“But they have all been rushing around to get what we now understand to be all the correct paperwork and I’m keeping my fingers crossed for them that they will be given the all-clear to go as soon as weather permits.”

The continuing delays on account of bad weather and now the documentation have injected a sour note into what was intended to be a journey by Graham Walters, 59, to commemorate the ill-fated voyage of Britons David Johnstone and John Hoare, who perished in 1966 during the first attempt to row the Atlantic in the 20th century.
Their 15ft craft, Puffin, was later recovered and put on display in a maritime museum. The Puffin is now owned by Ocean Rowing Society International. Graham restored Puffin in his home town of Leister and towed her to Cadiz and on the ferry to Le Gomera to make the 40th anniversary commemoration voyage.

The rowers now landbound in La Gomera were to have joined him on his journey. Others, too, intended to leave with them from La Gomera but, in view of the documentation problem, diverted to Puerto Mogan, Gran Canaria, which comes under different maritime authority, to start their row from there.

Andreu Mateu, aiming to become the first Spaniard to row solo across the Atlantic, had an early alert on the problems bubbling up and grabbed at a window in the bad weather to get away from La Gomera on December 2 in his boat Isidoro Arias.

Weatherbound in Gran Canaria but confident of being allowed to go have been the two-man crew of Dutchmen Wendel Röntgen and Gijs Köning.
They were joined by Hungarians Gábor Rakonczai and Andrea Pálos, who left Rota in mainland Spain on November 27 bound for Antigua, calling in at Morocco, then Lanzarote for repairs on December 18. Hearing of the problems in La Gomera they decided to go to Gran Canaria to launch their final push.

Also there are Frenchmen Olivier Bertonnier and Bruno Froideval, who plan to row to Guadeloupe in the West Indies.
“It is such a shame that all these rowers have been hit so hard by restrictions at La Gomera,” said Mr, Crutchlow. “La Gomera has always been seen as the most appropriate starting point for an Atlantic row because it was from there that Christopher Columbus began his famous voyage of discovery. Mr. Crutchlow added “As any school child knows ‘in 1492 Columbus sailed the Ocean Blue’. In the United States there is a National holiday to celebrate this historic crossing.

“All the rowers, including those at present stuck there, have had nothing but friendly support from the captain of the port at San Sebastian. He and his staff came down to the dockside to wave goodbye to the rowers and wish them luck when they left on December 20. He could have had no idea that they were going to be hauled back so ignominiously by the coastguard just 7 hours later.”