Press Articles

Rowers in search of transatlantic record

BY WILL HILLIARD , The Telegram

Four British adventurers rowed out of St. John’s harbour Tuesday evening in the hopes of going down only in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We know what we’re doing and we just want to get out there and catch these favourable winds while we can,” said rower Nigel Morris, a 38-year-old docker by trade, as he and his mates stepped aboard their sleek, yellow, souped-up 10-metre rowboat, the Skandia Atlantic Spirit.

The four seek to break the 100-year-old record of 55 days for the fastest transatlantic crossing in a rowboat. They’re aiming to reach Falmouth, England, in 35 days or less.

The four-man crew of the Skandia, (from left) Rob Munslow, Nigel Morris, George Rock and Mark Stubbs, leave St. John's harbour Tuesday evening. They are trying to beat the record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.
(Photo: By KEITH GOSSE/The Telegram)

Weather conditions were reportedly good Tuesday night, with the crew encountering moderate northerly winds for the first stage of the row diminishing to light winds today. Conditions are forecast to remain favourable for the next two to three days.

If successful, crew members Morris, Mark Stubbs, George Rock and Robert Munslow will be the first to complete an Atlantic crossing to mainland Great Britain.

There are two Atlantic rowing records.

The east to west crossing is held by 11 Frenchmen, at 35 days. The west to east crossing record, technically and physically more challenging, is 55 days.

The Skandia four plan to row non-stop, two on, two off, in two-hour shifts.

“We ain’t getting rescued by no one,” boasted Rock, 39, a technician with British Telecom, when asked if they were insured to cover the cost of their rescue in that eventuality.

They apparently are not.

Transatlantic rowing attempts have been criticized for being dangerous and expensive — the expense coming when coast guard personnel and equipment are called on to rescue the crews during attempts that go wrong.

Some countries, such as France, have passed laws making it mandatory for daredevils to be insured to cover the cost of their own rescue.

Every summer, the Canadian Coast Guard doles out thousands of dollars rescuing adventurers from botched journeys.

The ocean route these particular daredevils are taking has claimed at least five rowers’ lives over the years, and includes an encounter with the Grand Banks, whose wicked waves were portrayed in the film The Perfect Storm.

The crew arrived in St. John’s 10 days ago but their departure was delayed by the weather.

Team leader Stubbs, 37, is a firefighter and former Royal Marine and Falklands war veteran. Munslow, 23, is a fitness expert whose employer wouldn’t give him the time off, so he quit.

The current west to east world record was set by the two-man team of Harbo and Samuelson in 1896, in a six-metre wooden whaler called the Richard K. Fox. They landed on the Isles of Scilly.

That record was tied by solo rower Tom McClean 90 years later in a boat called Skoll 1080.

The Skandia voyage can be followed on the World Wide Web at www.oceanrow.com.

June 12, 2002