Blogs

Partnership with Harwin

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GB Row is excited to announce a continued partnership with Harwin, whose engineers have been key to designing solutions to bring bespoke scientific onto ocean racing boats.

Harwin are sponsoring two of the boats FOR GB ROW 2022, the first team is Albatross, and the second Sea Legs. The crew name, Albatross https://www.gbrowchallenge.com/the-teams/albatross , not only represents the huge arm spans of some of the crew members (including Andrew Triggs Hodge, triple Olympic rowing champion), but more importantly, the albatross is a species that embodies the critical challenge that sea life is facing due to plastic pollution and environmental change. The Sea Legs crew includes para rower Sophie Harris and TeamGB Olympic bobsleigh pilot LaminDeen.

But for Harwin the partnership goes much further than any normal sponsorship, and Harwin engineers have been key to designing solutions to bring bespoke scientific onto ocean racing boats.

“Sustainability is key for all our futures. A big thank you to the Engineers at Harwin who have got behind this nutty but important project, in measuring the state of our seas around the UK. Working innovatively with the University of Portsmouth to come up with a purpose built, microplastic monitoring system on all 3 boats is amazing….. this is what precision engineering is all about, tackling problems together… this would not have happened without you. Thank you.” William de Laszlo Director, Harwin Plc and Participant in GB Row Challenge 2022.

Alex Mair, Technical Support Engineer at Harwin, commented on the micro-plastic sampling system; "Designing the sampling system has been a different kind of challenge for us, but precision engineering for harsh environments is our specialty. The pump and filters process large volumes of water and must be ultra-efficient to keep within the 100Ah power budget allocated to scientific equipment. As well as being a sustainability project, this event is a race, so size and weight are critical. In addition, the whole system has to be as quiet as possible as the athletes will be living and sleeping very close to the technology."

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Naturemetrics on-board

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GB Row is excited to announce a partnership with world-leading environmental DNA (eDNA) company NatureMetrics to help our crews shed light on the amazing biodiversity that lives around our coastline. eDNA technology lets us discover what species live in the water by analysing the tiny traces of DNA they leave behind like fingerprints in the ocean. Each day during the row, our crews will filter a few litres of water, capturing the DNA traces on the filter membrane. The filters will be sent back to the NatureMetrics labs in Guildford where they will be analysed to read the DNA sequences and identify which species are present in each location. NatureMetrics will then work with the University of Portsmouth team to combine this biodiversity data with the other datasets being collected on noise and plastic pollution, so we can investigate how these factors are affecting the species in our seas.

NatureMetrics founder Dr Kat Bruce is rowing in Team Albatross for GB Row 2022.

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GB ROW CHALLENGE PARTNERSHIP WITH THE BOAT RACE ANNOUNCED – 28th March 2022

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The Boat Race and GB Row Challenge have announced a sustainability and youth development partnership for 2022.

Three boats of 6 will race in GB Row 2022 with two Boat Race alumni, Andrew Triggs-Hodge OBE and Robin Bourne-Taylor CGC, competing in the same crew. The crews, highly diverse in terms of gender, ethnicity, mobility and background include Para athletes, Olympians and scientists. These crews represent British people as a whole and the hope is that this race will not only allow scientists to help our oceans but create awareness of the wonders of British waters and the need to protect them.

One of the crew members is Dr Kat Bruce, a rower and scientist Kat is an alumni of Oxford University and founder of Nature Metrics, an organization specializing in the collection and analysis of environmental DNA.

“Now eDNA lets anyone discover what species live in their local environment just by filtering water and sending the filter to the lab This gives us a chance to engage young people with nature while building critically important datasets that can guide policy at all levels”

Andrew and Robin, both passionate about youth development through sport, are leading on the engagement between GB Row Challenge and the Gemini Boat Race Bursary Scheme. Kids involved in the Bursary Scheme will be able to follow the GB Row Challenge in June remotely via an online tracker, where they can form their own teams to compete on rowing machines, and other forms of exercise, to log a distance to complete against the racing crews. At the same time GB Row Challenge will be helping to share educational content to explain the conservational and environmental importance of looking after our waters.

“It is great that Hodgey and I can use the experience we have from The Boat Race to help our crew prepare for this challenge. Through all the teams competing this year, we want to inspire kids into rowing and giving them a way to connect a sport that they love to such an important environmental purpose.” Robin Bourne-Taylor (OUBC 2001, 2002, 2003 & 2005)

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Exe Endurow interviewed for Allsportsnu blog

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GB Row team Exe Endurow have been interviewed for the Allsportsnu blog. You can read the full interview on the Allsportsnu website: https://www.allsports-nutrition.com/blog/exclusive-interview-with-the-record-breaking-exe-endurow-team/