Links

The official Atlantic Rowing Race 2005 site This includes links to other teams' sites.

The Ocean Rowing Society

Woodvale, the race organisers' site

Diary of Tiny Little's Atlantic Row earlier in 2005 - you have to take your hat off to a man who can row across an ocean and be this entertaining at the same time!

The website of the boat Puffin - a 12ft (today's boats are 24ft and that seems small) boat which 2 English men attempted to row across the Atlantic from the US to UK in 1966. The boat was found about 5 months later upside down in the ocean and recovered: "only the boat survived". Amazingly, its log survived. Ocean rowing veteran Graham Walters is currently out in La Gomera with Puffin, which he is restoring (it is little more than a slightly leaking hull) and is planning to row it to Antigua starting in January 2006. Worryingly, trials carried out on the boat, which had been specially built to a new design for the expedition, after it was recovered, indicated that although it might have self-righted after the fateful collapse if the external bouyancy bags it had been designed to have had actually been fitted, and although the crew were incredibly unlucky to be caught in Hurricane Faith, in which she was capsized, the boat was generally felt to be almost impossible to control in cross seas when only 1 man was rowing. Our VERY best wishes are with you, Graham. The pictures below were taken in La Gomera before the start of the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race.

Puffin is dwarfed by James Cracknell's boat

Graham Walters in Puffin after a short sea trial established that her hull was leaking

Puffin is VERY small

Books about Atlantic Rowing

The Naked Rower, Rob Hamill - the story of his successful campaign to win the first ARR in 1997 in which he and his partner beat Harbo and Samuelson's 101 year old record (see below). Published in NZ, but available in the UK from the Ocean Rowing Society (see above). Available online via www.kineli.co.nz though the P&P costs are a bit steep if you're not in the Antipodes.

Rowing it Alone, Debra Veal - the story of her much-publicised participation in the 2001 race. Available from Amazon.co.uk

A Fighting Chance, John Ridgeway and Chay Blyth - the fascinating tale of their crossing from the US to Ireland in 1966 in an OPEN boat (a Yorkshire dory of tried and tested design). They rowed most of the way in WELLIES! Out of print but copies come up on ebay all the time.

The Penance Way, Merton Naydler - the heartbreaking story of David Johnstone and John Hoare's fateful 1966 attempt at crossing the Atlantic from the US to Britain that ended in tragedy after 102 days. They rowed some of the time in JEANS, and their cooker had no gimbal! Out of print but copies come up on ebay all the time.

Daring the Sea, David W Shaw. A modern-day account of the first Atlantic rowing crossing by Norwegians Harbo and Samuelson from New York to the Scilly Isles in 1896, which took them 55 days. Out of print but copies come up on ebay. They encountered an iceberg, but only had one pair of mittens between them, which they lost when their open boat capsized at one point.

Oar-Some: The World's First Four-Man Crew Ever to Row Any Ocean, Jennifer Dawn Brumham. About their row earlier in 2005. Available from Amazon.co.uk
 

Newspaper articles about the 2005 Atlantic Rowing Race

James Cracknell and Ben Fogle in the Daily Telegraph
Week 1 - High Points? Not many so far
Week 2 - Forget all about rowing naked, it's murder

Week 3 - We've seen no one since we set off (interestingly, this article claims that they had gone through the 2000 miles to go mark, though they didn't actually reach this point till over a week later, and that they were unaware of where they were in the race because they hadn't seen any other boats, though their website indicates that, like all other crews, they were being kept informed of placings regularly by their shore team)
Week 4 - We could see the whale's eyes, mouth... the barnacles on its back
Week 5 - Christmas day was murder - we almost quit (interestingly, this indicates that they had already passed the half way mark, though at 22.12 on the day the article was published they still had 8 miles to go) and Pulling together (this article's statement that the crew don't want to know their race position, but this appears not to tie up with comments from Atlantic 4, who are 50 miles ahead of EDF and say that EDF is ringing them daily for weather reports up ahead, and EDF's own website that says they're doing deliberate tactical pushes)
Week 6 - Our bums are sore, our teeth are manky, but we're ahead (a timely revelation given the spotlight on oral hygiene aboard the sea cow this week, which also indicates that EDF had 1085 miles to go at the time of writing, although at 16:45 on the day of publication, they still had 1165 to do. Maybe we should be reading the paper 36 hours after publication?)
Week 7 - The boat tilted so far back I was staring at the stars in which Ben Fogle looks forward to the "final two week" despite probably only being about 6 days from the finishing line
Ben Fogle: Action Man (The Independent), published on Day 46 when EDF had just under 500 miles to go, yet the writer speculates that they might not reach Antigua till Day 65, based on average daily mileage so far, despite the fact that on Day 46, C2's arrival time based on average daily mileage so far would be Day 55. But you can't expect journos to construct spreadsheets. Contains nothing not previously published about their race, though it does mention C2 (using info straight from the EDF website), but has some interesting biographical stuff about Fogle.
Week 8 - Rowers return: Fogle and Cracknell tell how they nearly drowned This mentions that their desalinator broke 9 days before the end of the race.
After nearly 50 days on the Atlantic, the rowers embrace. 'You saved my life,' Fogle tells Cracknell This suggests that 2-year old Croyde Cracknell was out on the yacht in seriously nasty seas to greet his father - in fact, he stayed safely asleep in his buggy on shore with his grandmothers. Most of those on the (new) yacht are believed to have been seasick.


Daily Mail

Victorious rowers tell of transatlantic drama - a story about Cracknell and Fogle which incorrectly states that they took 51 days to cross the ocean: their time was actually 49 days, 19 hours and 8 minutes.
Atlantic rowers in dramatic rescue

BBC
Rowers overcome shark and ships - about Team C2, who plan to limit their endeavours to overcoming large quantities of fish and chips in the near future.
Cracknell's incredible journey

Fury at "favouritism" for Fogle - which includes a number comments attributed to Clint which did not make.
Fogle and Cracknell in race scare

Several other stories about crews in the race can be found if you go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/ and type Atlantic rowing into the Search box.

A report on the FISA (the governing body of international rowing)'s website.

At the double in epic voyage - a short piece about C2 in the Law Gazette.