Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger in the Record Books
( Last Updated: 04-02-2008 )
At 17.58GMT on Tuesday 29th January 2008 Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger recorded the fastest ever crossing by an ocean rowing boat from the Canary Islands to Antigua and the fifth fastest crossing of the Atlantic from East to
West.
The five man crew were tired but elated after an exceptionally hard pull over the last 60 hours when the wind, waves and current were all against them. A crowd of over one hundred family members, friends, fellow ocean rowers, supporters and passing tourists was waiting to greet them as they pulled into quay in front of the historic Nelsons Dockyard in English Harbour. A steel band was playing in the background, flares were released and there was much cheering with many of the yachts moored in the harbour joining in by sounding their hooters and fog horns.
After the initial emotional greetings with immediate family the crew moved quickly towards the ice cold drinks that awaited them and did not take long to demolish the plateful of hamburger and chips that emerged from the nearby Copper and Lumber Store Hotel.
Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger is a state of the art ocean rowing boat. She is 29ft 6ins long and 6ft wide and is constructed of carbon fibre and Kevlar. Skipper Simon Chalk, who designed and built the boat, said, "I am very satisfied with what we have achieved. When rowing an ocean you are very dependent on your boat, the weather and your crew. The crew gave every ounce of their energy, worked really well together and have been rewarded with a really quick time. The boat has proved to be strong, fast and very stable. We have learned much from the experience and with a few alterations I am confident that she will prove to be a record breaker. Indeed with just a little more luck with the weather on this trip, especially in the last few days, we would have really challenged for the landfall to landfall sculling record."
Ian Couch said, "I am enormously grateful to have been given the opportunity to take part in one of the last true adventures available. I am obviously disappointed that we did not break the overall record for the crossing but I am satisfied with the fastest crossing on the more demanding northern route to Antigua and the fifth fastest crossing overall. I am very grateful to all our sponsors but especially Oyster Shack Restaurants, South West Regional Development Agency and Leadbitter without whose support this endeavour would not have been possible".
George Oliver, Ben Thackwray and Mike Martin echoed these views and added, "a trip like this makes you appreciate the important things in life - people, water, food and our planet. We decide early on to row on behalf of Wateraid. On a number of occasions over the past 37 days we were very low on water and enduring temperatures around 40°C so we now really appreciate the importance of having water readily available. We do hope that everyone reading this will feel able to make a contribution to Wateraid via the link on our website. Just a small donation could change lives forever."
You can read more about the Atlantic Six's journey and view photos, videos of the trip and make donations to the website via www.atlantic.six.com.
Ends 4 February 2008
Notes for Editors:
1. Crew. The five crew members are: Simon Chalk, 34, from Devon; Ian Couch, 37, from Suffolk; Mike Martin, 23, from Surrey; George Oliver, 27, from Bristol (an assistant quantity surveyor for Leadbitter) and Ben Thackwray, 27, from Leeds. The crew originally set off on 5th December as the Atlantic Six, but an injury to Andy Morris, the sixth member of the crew, in the first 24 hours forced them to abort the attempt.
2. Boat. Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger was designed and built by Woodvale Challenge in Ashburton, Devon. She is 29ft 6ins long and 6ft wide. Made of carbon fibre and Kevlar she is strong, light and has excellent self-righting ability. The crew carry all their supplies and provisions on board as the record attempt must be made without outside assistance.
3. Charity. Wateraid (www.wateraid.org.uk) provides safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education to the world's poorest people.
4. Sponsors. Oyster Shack Ocean Challenger's title sponsor the Devon based Oyster Shack restaurants chain. Boat builders Woodvale-Challenge made a substantial contribution as did the South West Regional Development Agency (www.southwestdra.org.uk) and Leadbitter Construction, a leading construction company in the South West (www.leadbitter.co.uk). Several other organisations and individuals have sponsored the project in cash or in kind.
5. Record Attempt. The 14 man British/Irish crew in La Mondiale arrived in Barbados on 25 January having completed the crossing in the record time of 33 days 7 hours and 30 minutes.
6. Atlantic Rowing Race 2007. Also out on the water are 13 other ocean rowing boats consisting of solo's, pairs and fours competing in this year's Atlantic Rowing Race. The race, which started on 2nd December 2007 from La Gomera, Canary Islands, saw the first boat in on 19 January to English Harbour, Antigua others have arrived since and the remaining boats are due to arrive in the next few days and weeks. Please visit www.atlanticrowingrace2007.co.uk for more information and to track the rowing boats across the Atlantic Ocean.
Press: For further information or to obtain photographs please call Richard Oliver, Base Support for the Atlantic Six on: Tel: 01380 812368 Mob: 07974 816947 E-mail: rao@lineone.net.