START DETAILS ANNOUNCED
GB ROW 2013 – THE WORLD’S TOUGHEST ROWING RACE
EPIC 2,000 MILES NON-STOP AROUND BRITAIN’S COAST
STARTS at Tower Bridge, London
on SATURDAY, JUNE 1st at 08.00 BST
Six crews of brave men and women in rowing boats PLUS a team in a PEDALO will race 2,000 miles from London around the British mainland and back to Tower Bridge to try and set a new world record.
The first crew to beat the fastest-time record of 26 days 21 hrs 14 mins will win a £100,000 BONUS – the world’s richest rowing prize.
TIMETABLE FOR THE START ON SATURDAY JUNE 1:
GBRow 2013 starts at slack water at Tower Bridge, at approximately 08.15 hrs on Saturday June 1.
- The seven boats will leave HMS PRESIDENT RNR – the Royal Naval Reserve Station on the north bank of the Thames just below Tower Bridge – at just before 8am.
- They will float upstream and muster around HMS Belfast until the tide turns, which should be about 8.15am. The race will start when the first boat goes under Tower Bridge.
- The boats will then come over towards the north bank to salute well wishers at HMS PRESIDENT RNR before heading over the south bank and down to the Thames Barrier.
You will be able to follow the race online at this website.
ALSO look out soon for details of the FREE app you can download to track this amazing race as the odyssey unfolds over 2,000-miles around the coast of Britain.
Latest News
May 9: The Islanders team in the Black Oyster successfully completed a 48-hour sea trial in the North Sea.
Josh Taylor, Alan Morgan, James Plumley and Gavin Sheehan rowed from Mersea Island near Colchester, north towards Felixstowe before heading out into the North Sea.
Alan said: “It went extremely well. Although this was our first time on the boat as a crew, old team habits soon kicked in and things ran like clock work.
“While using a drogue and para-anchor are new to us, we have all grown up on boats- so it wasn’t a hard to come to terms with the new equipment.
“The day before we set off we held a charity night at our local sailing club – Dabchicks Sailing Club – where we raised over one thousand pounds in one night.”
May 2: The Islanders’ four-man crew will be launching their boat, The Black Oyster, over the bank holiday weekend at Mersea Island in Essex.
Josh Taylor, Alan Morgan, James Plumley and Gavin Sheehan will spend 48 hours in the boat during their weekend sea trials. They will row from Mersea Island, near Colchester in Essex to the mouth of the River Thames. Check out their website on www.islanderschallenge.com
May 2: The pedalo crew Team Ocean Pedal Challenge that hopes to circumnavigate Britain, will undergo its first trials on Derwentwater in the Lake District soon, before pedalling to the Isle of Man during May.
April 8: Hallin 2 Passes Scrutineering
Congratulations to Team Hallin on becoming the second crew to pass scrutineering ready for the race.
Our scrutineer Phil Pring inspected Hallin Marine II, following her 110 nautical mile sea trial over Easter and passed her and her crew fit to compete in GBRow 2013 in June. Read more about the trial on Team Hallin’s page
March 26: Hallin 2 Launches
Tuesday March 26, 2013 Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.
David Hosking, the father of Sophie who won gold in the ladies lightweight double sculls at London 2012, is competing this summer in GB Row 2013 to attempt to beat the 26-day record for rowing non-stop around the British mainland.
On Tuesday March 26, Sophie launched Hallin2 the 24-foot long boat Hallin Marine 2 in which David and crew Neil Ward, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlyne will be competing in GB Row 2013.
The six crews of rowers are all chasing a £100,000 bounty – the richest prize ever offered in rowing anywhere on the planet.
This monster payout will go to the first crew to smash the current world record for the 2,000-mile odyssey, which stands at just under 27 days.
To beat the record, the winning crew will have to average around 80 miles a day through the busiest shipping lanes on earth and some of the world’s most treacherous tidal passages.
And that’s not taking account of the notoriously unpredictable British weather.
The six rowing crews will be accompanied by a sea-going pedalo.
The three-man crew of the pedalo, Team Ocean Pedal Challenge, will be the first ever to try to pedal non-stop around the British mainland.
The race will be contested by three crews of four, two pairs and a crew of six – plus the three-man pedalo.
THE CREWS ARE:
Boat no 1: The Coast Girls: Beautician Charlene Ayres, 23, from Cardiff and adventurer Sally Kettle, from Kingston, will row their boat Pendovey Swift.
Boat number 2: Team Pure Gym GB Challenge: Claire Shouksmith, from Bournemouth will row with Paul Pendleton, from Liverpool, Steve Paterson from Oxford and Ingrid Kvale from Bristol in their boat Pure Gym.
Boat number 3: Team Hallin: Ex-Royal Navy Commander David Hosking is skipper of Hallin Marine 2. He is rowing with Neil Ward, originally from Pembrokeshire but now lives in France, Julian Bellido from Gibraltar and Stuart Chamberlayne, from Couldson, Surrey.
Boat number 4: The Islanders: Childhood friends Josh Taylor and Alan Morgan from Mersea Island, Essex are joined by James Plumley, from Guernsey and Gavin Sheehan from, Cork, southern Ireland.
Boat number 5: TBC
Boat number 6: Oarsome Adventures: Skipper Heather Rees-Gaunt will row with four men: Karl Steans; Sam Clemmens; Mikey Buckley and Ian Kavanagh plus Beatrix Parry (20).
Boat number 7: Savoir Faire: Adventurer Jason McKinlay and sound recordist Josh Tarr, from Salcombe, Devon, are the only men’s pair rowing in the race.
Boat number 8: Team Ocean Pedal Challenge: Brothers Kieran and Shaun Sweeney and their friend Terence Peat are pedaling their as yet unnamed three-man pedalo around the course. They will not be eligible for prizes, though if they finish they will be first pedalo crew to row around Britain.
The teams will row non-stop and unassisted from London, around Land’s End, up to John O’Groats and back to the capital.
They will all be trying to beat the world record of 26 days, 21 hours and 14 minutes set in 2005 by a four-man crew from the Grenadier Guards who were almost drowned when their boat, no bigger than a family car, was hit by a Force Ten storm in the Irish Sea.
The race sets off from HMS President at high tide – around 8am – on Saturday, June 1. The crews will row upstream under Tower Bridge before turning around, going back under the bridge and heading out to sea.
They will row non-stop and unaided living on the food and water they carry on the boat and the first crew home in less than 26 days 21 hours and 14 minutes will win a
£100,000 bonus
There is also a £15,000 prize for the first boat home, £6,000 for second and £4,000 for the third crew to finish.
CREWS NEWS…
Pedalo team join the challenge: The six rowing crews will be accompanied by a sea-going pedalo. The three-man crew of the pedalo Team Ocean Pedal Challenge will be the first to ever try to pedal non-stop around the British mainland.
Brothers Kieran and Shaun Sweeney and their friend Terence Peat are pedaling their three-man pedalo around the course. They will not be eligible for prizes, but if they finish they will be first pedalo crew to row around Britain.
Team Hallin carried out trials on the River Thames over the Easter weekend – one of the coldest on record – when frost formed on the deck overnight while one of the crew slept on deck.
The crew rowed from their launch location at Shepperton, spending three days and nights on the water. At one point their water maker and fuel cell froze! Their route went downriver to Queen Elizabeth II Bridge at Dartford, with a variety of crew and boat drills carried out en route.
After a generally successful but cold trial the boat was taken out of the water and prepared for scrutineering, which took place successfully four days later.
The full story of Team Hallin’s sea trial is on their team page – including an account of their unexpected encounter with a robbery!
26th March: Launch of Hallin 2
Sophie Hosking launches Hallin Marine 2
Hallin Marine 2 was officially launched on 26th March by skipper David Hosking’s daughter Sophie, gold medal rower from the London Olympics.
After pouring champagne over the bow of the double-cabined, 24-four-feet long ocean racing boat, Sophie – winner with Kat Copeland of the women’s double lightweight sculls – admitted rowing round Britain does not appeal to her at all.
Sophie, 27, said: “I think he’s nuts in the nicest possible way! You wouldn’t catch me doing that but it’s his dream and I’ll be supporting him…from dry land.”
Gold medallist Sophie joined David, from Wimbledon along with his crew, Neil Ward, 47, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlyne on a training exercise in Hallin Marine 2 on the River Thames at Shepperton.
Falklands veteran David, 58, said: “I’ve been around the coast about 20 times in Naval ships and I know just how bad it can be. Once off Cape Wrath in the north of Scotland we were hit by 110 knot winds!
“But if we get good weather the record can be broken.”
Check out more videos of teams on YouTube GBRow 2013
Teams meet up for pre-race briefing at Bristol
Skippers and crews attended the GBRow 2013 crews’ seminar in Bristol on February 2 – just four months before the start of the richest rowing race ever, which starts at Tower Bridge in London on Saturday, June 1.
Will de Laszlo, skipper of the crew who in 2005 set the world record for rowing around Britain of just over 26 days passed on his knowledge of the world’s toughest rowing race to this year’s contestants.
Sgt Jim Bastin, a member of the record-breaking crew in 2005, revealed that he had never rowed a boat before rowing around Britain. His only experience was on Concept 2 machines in military gyms. As well as rowing – which he soon got the hang of – Jim was in charge of the boat’s water maker and food supplies.
Will explained how team dynamics are one of the keys to success in breaking the record. Your crew will be living in a boat not much bigger than a family saloon for at least a month.
Belinda Kirk, who led the Seagals team in 2010 to set the ladies record of 52 days explained how un-seasonal winds hampered their attempt. Her all-female crew faced headwinds virtually the whole way round the 2000-mile course.
She believes the weather during June will be the key to whether the record of 26 days 21 hours 14 minutes can be broken.
Belinda says: “The weather conditions in 2005 and 2010 were totally different. The 2005 crew had strong south-westerlies behind them as they went through the Irish Sea. We were hit by northerlies up the whole of our journey up the west coast and when we turned south at the Pentland Firth, the wind switched to southerlies!”
Six skippers and members of their crews – who will be among ten boats attempting the race around Britain chasing the £100,000 bounty – attended the meeting in Bristol to learn more about the arduous conditions they face during GB Row 2013.
During food break at the Bristol seminar, GBRow 2013 skippers and crews tucked into sample ration packs and energy drinks kindly provided by Dave Annandale of Be Well Expedition Foods.
Dave, an adventurer and mountaineer, has devised the meals from his experience on expeditions all over the globe.
He has offered crews taking part in GBRow 2013 a special discount deal on ration packs.
Dave revealed that porridge and strawberries was one of the favourite flavours sampled by the rowers in Bristol!
More info www.bewellexpeditionfoods.com or contact Dave Annandale on davea@be-well.co.uk or call 01778 560868 or m 07799 114572.
Keeping it on Course
Every boat will be provided with a precision tracking device as we have just signed an exciting contract with Yellow Brick Trackers; every boat will have its position plotted every 60 minutes throughout the race, viewable in race format throughout the event with changing positions, race placing and history, progress stats, distance to go etc etc.
Keeping it Safe
Safety is paramount in race planning and delivery, especially true for waterborne events.
NO boat will leave the exclusive start at Tower Bridge in London unless our Independent Race Scrutineer says so. And who is this guy? – it’s Philip Pring.
Phil Pring
The independent scrutineer for GB Row 2013, Phil has first-hand experience of long distance rowing challenges. Having participated in the 2009 Atlantic Rowing Race he built a boat from scratch, and has since advised GB Row entrants as to the set up of their vessels. Phil currently works as a coach for British Rowing, and will again be assisting crews to make safe passages around the UK for GB Row 2013. Phil commented: “I’m Looking forward to watching all the crews’ progress in 2013, especially the way they tackle those unforeseen challenges…”
Phil has already given the race valuable input to update supporting documents such as the Crisis Operations Plan for Crews (soon to be released to competing Crews via the website), the Scrutineers Guidance for the Race, and wide-ranging expert advice already offered to several boats having concerns about boat issues. Phil can be contacted via the our Contact page on this website or at scrutineer@gbrowchallenge.com
A Piece of History
The route navigated by the record breaking 2005 team led by Will de Laszlo has been plotted in full detail on a maritime chart.
We now have a high resolution copy of this available as one of the resources for teams entering GB Row 2013, so that rowers in the 2013 event will be armed with valuable information from the 2005 event to help them plan their own routes.
Are You Up for It?
World Record setting team the Seagals at the Tower Bridge finish of GBRow 2010
In 2010 a team of four women, skippered by Belinda Kirk, set a Guinness World Record by becoming the first females in history to complete the 2,000-mile journey in 51 days 16 hours 42 minutes. They were racing against a team of men who were forced to give up at Lands End.
Do you have what it takes to tackle the treacherous tides, brutal weather and
dangerous shipping lanes to set a new World Record?
If the answer is YES contact the organisers, The Anglo American Boat Club.
