The World's Toughest Row
About the race
Starting December 2024, we will row 3000 miles completely unassisted across the Atlantic Ocean from San Sebastian in La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain to Nelson’s Dockyard, Antigua & Barbuda.
We will be on our own from the day we depart La Gomera until the day we reach Antigua's shores, facing openocean conditions. We will be challenged by ocean swells that are likely to be large enough to capsize ourboat!
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The World's Toughest Row" brings together teams from all walks of life united by the same objective.
Teams battle with sleep deprivation, salt sores, and the physical extremes inflicted by the race. Mentally rowers are left with their own thoughts, an expanse of the ocean and the job of getting the boat safely to the other side. The mental and physical endurance required tests all teams to their limits and will result in the successful crews achieving a life changing experience which will never be forgotten.
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Our team of 4 adventurous men will take over 1.5 million oar strokes to power ourselves across theocean, burning over 10.000 calories a day.
Rowers will row for 2 hours, and sleep for 2 hours, constantly, 24 hours a day. The average rower loses around 8kg during a crossing.
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Distance:
5000 km/3000 nm
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Race start:
12.12.2023 in La Gomera, (Canaries)
Finish:
Antigua (Caribbean)
Race organisers:
Atlantic Campaigns
BOAT
An ocean rowing boat is far away from what we call a rowing boat. The about 9.6 metres long and 1,75 metres wide vessel has two cabins at either end. One cabin for sleeping and the other one for navigation and other electronics.
Rannoch Adventure from the UK designed the lightest, fastest and – most importantly – safest boats in the market for crossing the Atlantic.
It has solar panels to generate energy for both the water maker (which turns sea water into drinking water) and the navigation systems. Safe navigation is ensured by a fixed GPS and other navigation tools. All boats are equipped with a GPS device. You can follow the progress of each team through the official race app.
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TRAINING
To take such an extreme journey, we must be prepared with our best physical fitness and mental resilience.
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Physical preparation
Strengthening of the posterior muscle chain, mobility training and endurance training are the very basic of our physical training, along with a lot of rowing, rowing and rowing.
RYA courses
Another part of preparation includes mandatory RYA courses in the UK:
a marine radio short range certificate (SRC), first aid knowledge, sea survival training and essential navigation seamanship skills. We learn how keep track of our safety and health including making alerts and safety calls with a VHF radio, carrying out CPR at sea and treating injuries or conditions such as hypothermia, infections or saline wounds. Extreme conditions at sea require life raft training, practice of survival techniques, how to use ocean and weather routing charts and a lot more.
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Mental preparation
Since our preparation for the crossing, we are supported by a German mental coach working for Lufthansa. Mental resilience is key for effective communication and team building, especially for up to 40 days on a very small vessel in a very big ocean.
EQUIPMENT
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"A fully functioning water maker takes 30 minutes to make 20 litres of water."
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For a long time at sea we must be equipped with plenty of food rations, navigation & communication gadgets and safety equipment.
Our boat kit includes a liferaft, an emergency grab bag that holds safety equipment such as EPIRB, handheld flares and more, life jackets, safety harnesses, on-deck EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon), PLBs (Personal Locator Beacons), race tracking beacons, flares, fire extinguisher, medical kit, daylight signalling mirror, AIS (Automatic Identification System), satellite phones, VHF radio units, GPS units, electric and manual watermakers, navigation lights, batteries, solar panels, emergency water, hand and foot steering system, autohelm steering system, spare oars, fixed and handheld manual operation bilge pumps, compass, ventilator, gas cooker, buckets (aka toilet), para-anchor, drogue, tool kit and musical entertainment.
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