Atlantic Rowing Race 2007


A new build Atlantic pairs boat costs in excess of £16,000. In order to reduce this huge cost and allow us to donate more of our raised funds to charity we will be buying our boat in "flat-pack" kit form. By building our own boat we will be able to reduce this expense by over 60%, saving around £10,000.

Most of the ocean rowing boats used today are built from the same successful design, dating back to 1995.

Boat builders Phil Morrison and Peter Rowsell produced an easy and relatively inexpensive system of precut marine plywood kits.

As the crossing has to be 'unsupported' (i.e. no outside assistance from departure to arrival), all food and equipment has to be stowed aboard from the outset.

Although 150 litres of water is carried for ballast, using this is a last resort. A small desalination unit is carried to convert salt water to fresh. This is powered by solar panels but can be hand pumped in emergency.

Safety is, of course, paramount and so a number of devices are carried in case of an emergency. A satellite telephone provides day to day communication with our shore team and through which we can recieve messages of support (see Contact Us).

An Argos Beacon is fitted and provides continuous position updates to the ORS. This is the system they use to show the relative positions of the fleet on their website. Also on board is an EPIRB emergency transponder which can be triggered in a "worst case" scenario.

Among the general equipment we also have two GPS units for navigation, a single burner gas stove, VHF radio, a radar reflector, various lifejackets and harnesses, a four man liferaft, 8 oars (2 pairs for use and two sets as spares), several fire extinguishers and blankets and enough food for around eighty days.

With that lot aboard, the boat weighs arond 900 kilos - nearly a tonne to row almost three thousand miles.