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."
