Today Charlie Pitcher wins the Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race of 2009! This is a very significant achievement as he’s finished ahead of all other boat classes in the racing fleet as a solo rower, which includes two- and four-person boat teams. It took him just over 52 days to complete his crossing. This is just an amazing achievement, and a really strong testament to the new boat design he was able to commission specifically for this race.
Team Northern Atlantic are equally excited about Charlie Pitcher’s performance as we are hoping to have a similarly designed boat built for our row across the Northern Atlantic next June. Our hope is that since Charlie Pitcher was able to row the Mid Atlantic Route in just over 52 days as a solo rower, with troublesome storms at the beginning of his race to boot, we stand a chance, if only a chance, at beating the 55 day, 114 year-old record over the Northern Route in a similarly designed pairs boat. That is, of course, unless Simon Chalk and Team Britannia III (a twelve-person boat) don’t claim the new speed record for themselves this June. In which case, I guess Mike and I will have to row all that much harder!!!
With James being an ERG monster with close to 500K meters on his belt I figured I’d blog a bit on what he long forgotten which is how it feels to be an ERG newbie who just started. To begin ERGing follow these easy 5 steps:
buy a decent condition “concept 2” rower on craigslist
sneak it into the house when wife and kids are out
somehow convince wife to let it stay in the corner of the living room (because you know it will not be used a lot if its in the basement)
row 10K while watching TV
repeat step 4
I managed to row 80K so far and most of my body parts are in agreement, the exception is my lower back which screams at me to stop around 5K in.
Being an ERG novice I already managed to make some mistakes. After taking the seat out for cleaning I put it back the wrong way in. This introduced friction in very wrong places. Initially I convinced myself to “tough it out”. It took my tail bone 20K to realize the bump in the chair should not be there. Scratch that to another learning experience.
This upcoming movie about Chris Martin and Mick Dawson’s Trans-Pacific Row, from Choshi, Japan to San Francisco, looks awesome, especially for ocean rowing fans!
If you read our blog with any regularity, and who doesn’t?, you will recall this post regarding the plans of these guys from Finland who are trying to row their traditional Finnish Rowing Boat up the intracoastal waterway from Florida to New York. Based on the schedule they previously supplied, it looks like they are a bit behind schedule so far. But who cares? I recently got an email from a guy named ‘Rick’ who claims the team have left Bahia Mar Marina in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, last Thursday, February 18th, 2010. Here are the pictures Rick sent me of the crew preparing their boat for departure and them rowing off into a new rowing adventure.
Their boat looks big and stable. Let’s hope she’s seaworthy if not comfortable. Here’s to the journey men!
Sepi Soutaja and Crew Prepare to Depart Bahia Mar Marina, Ft. Lauderdale (2/18/2010)
Finnish Rowing Team Prepares Boat for Departure from Bahia Mar Marina. Taking in a little fire water to get their mojo up, no doubt.
Today we secured our first down payment on a new boat build with Global Boat Works in Devon, UK. If all goes well, they will start building our ocean rowing boat for us around May of this year. We are cautiously optimistic about having a new boat built as it is a time and energy consuming process, not to mention money consuming as well (hint, hint to potential title sponsors!). But it sure beats building a new, or renovating a used, boat ourselves! We realize it will probably be a difficult process, especially dealing with a boat builder overseas, but we believe the pain incurred now will pay dividends next year when we set off on our unassisted row across the Northern Atlantic from Battery Park, New York City to the Isles of Scilly. Jamie Fabrizio, the boat builder at Global Boatworks, comes highly recommended by all I’ve talked to in the Ocean Rowing Community. I’ve also seen some of his boats in person, like James Burge and Niall McCann’s ‘Komale’, at the Bristol Zoo, and Dave Clarke’s ‘Positive Outcomes’, in Macclesfield, and definitely understand the reason for the high praise he receives for his work. Moreover, Global Boat Works have also designed and built Charlie Pitcher’s solo boat, which is now less than 300 miles from Antigua in the Atlantic Rowing Race 2009, and who, incidentally, is leading the whole fleet by a healthy margin (especially given that he is rowing solo).
So today we begin a journey, in earnest, to make it into the history books by beating the 114 year old speed crossing record of 55 days set by Harbo and Samuelson in 1896. It’s crazy. We are undoubtedly in over our heads and probably more than just a little bit naieve about most aspects of this challenge. Nevertheless, it’s serendipity, if not synchronicity, that we find ourselves at this point in time with this crazy notion of rowing across an ocean to chase Harbo and Samuelson’s 55 day crossing record. And personally, just like in rowing an ocean, I’ve had head winds and some gales to contend with prior to getting some good forward momentum on this project. But now, at least for now, it feels like a wind is starting to build and blow us forward a bit. Steady as she goes!
I stumbled upon this blog today (oddly female-centric I thought, but that’s ok, I dig females), which pointed to a Popular Mechanics article on ocean rowing boats and the gadgets involved in both sustaining life while at sea for months on end, as well as making life a bit more comfortable. From solar cells, to batteries, to laptops and satellite phones, I can’t help but wonder if all the equipment is really necessary. I wonder if I could have the true grit to make such a crossing with merely a sextant, compass, some oars, food and a hand-pumped water maker. What would Harbo and Samuelson take with them if they were on the eve of their crossing today?
Charlie Pitcher is one of the solo rowers in the Atlantic Rowing Race 2009, which is currently taking place. He is rowing in the Open Category in a one-off boat design, which seems to be extremely performant for this type of race. If you notice in the video below, this new design puts a rather bulbous cabin in the bow of the boat, whereas in traditional ocean rowing boat designs, the cabin is in the stern. This bulbous bow cabin, in addition to the low stern, allows the cabin to serve as a sail of sorts facilitating forward movement when the wind is blowing in the right direction. She’s a beautiful boat, and I find the design, as well as how she’s performing in this year’s race, fascinating!
My partner Mike brought this great article to my attention today. It’s about a man named Herb Hilgenberg who provides highly accurate forecasts to mariners over single sideband (SSB) radio.
