The female rowers – Gemma, Jane, Clare and Olivia – are in Puerto de Mogan and have spent the last week prepping their boat, packing food, kit and equipment onboard “Fire Ant” and have been avidly weather-watching.  Several practice sessions outside of the Marina have taken place and are nearly ready to leave.  Based on the current weather, the plan is for them to leave Gran Canaria on the morning of Tuesday 26th January 2016.  The gallery below shows what the girls have been up to!

The “Toby Wallace” crew all arrive tomorrow so a few days in port for both crews will be a busy time!! And the boys get to wave the girls off too……exciting!

Announcing today an EXPEDITION row from California to Hawaii heading out in June 2016.

We are looking to recruit a mixed crew of 14 to row onboard Britannia III, a proven ocean row boat with a fine pedigree.  

It will be skippered by Simon Chalk, the worlds most experienced ocean rower.

£9,995 per person, no ocean rowing experience necessary.

Some endurance / event / sporting background advantageous.

Email us at info@oceanusrowing.com for further details.

FORM A TEAM AND RACE THE NATION ACROSS THE ATLANTIC OCEAN

* Be crowned the fastest team across the Atlantic Ocean from the comfort of your own gym.

* Race 4 girls 3,000 miles across an ocean.

* Race against your rival club, military teams, universities and colleges.

* Young and old, adaptive and able.

*Can non-rowers beat rowers?

The Atlantic Challenge 2016 all women crew are launching an event and would like YOU to get involved.

Be a part of the Atlantic Challenge 2016 story. Jane McIntosh from RAF Northolt and her crew are going for the Atlantic Crossing Rowing Female World Record which is currently set at 45 days 15 hours 26 minutes. They are also raising money for two fantastic children’s charities, Barnardo’s and the Forces Children’s Trust. Let us support our children, together.

The girls will row 24 hrs a day, 12 hrs for each rower, unsupported, fix broken equipment, rehydrate their food, suffer from lack of sleep and experience salt sores.  They would like you to form a team and travel the journey with them from the comfort of your gym/club.

This competition is to race across the Atlantic, 4,800 km in the fastest time / furthest distance in 45 days.  Plus raising awareness of the charities and as much money as possible.

Categories to enter

* Women’s crew

* Men’s crew

* Mixed crew

* Adaptive crew

* University/College crew

* Junior (under 18’s) crew

* Most charity money raised by a team

This 45 day event will commence the same day as the girls leave Gran Canaria on or around the 23rd January 2016.  The aim is to try and complete the distance before the girls arrive in Barbados in hopefully less than 45 days. There is no limit on team members; the more participants the quicker you will cover the distance.

Entry fee per crew member: £10.00

Students and juniors: £8.00

Proceeds will go to charity. Winning teams will receive a commemorative tankard, an invitation to the Welcome Home party to get the chance to chat to the rowers, radio shout outs and hopefully their photo in the nationally sold Rowing & Regatta magazine.

Registration details

– All team names will appear on the ‘Oceanusrowing’ website to compare your times with other teams.

– To allow for administration time, entries must arrive before 12 noon Sunday 10th January 2015.

– 10 person minimum team entry by 10th January 2015, more team members can join the team up until the 20th January 2016.

– Please send entries to: Jane McIntosh, Sgt’s and WO Mess, RAF Northolt, West End Road, Ruislip, London, Middlesex, HA4 6NG.

– Cheques payable to ‘Atlantic Challenge 2016’, bank details are available for bank transfers.

An Atlantic Challenge pack, including charity sponsorship forms, participants score cards to record distances travelled and fund raising ideas. Please could the captain of the team take charge of the score cards, as they will probably be involved with the training sessions. Obviously integrity is the key to this event.

To open the challenge to a wider audience and encompass all training, running can be included in the distance travelled.  On the water training and outdoor running can also be included.

Charity money raised can be paid directly into the Virgin Giving page, details of which can be found on this website (click here) where updates on the girls’ progress can be found. Please collect your donation/sponsorship money and pay with one entry including your team name so the amount can be easily recorded for entry into the ‘Most charity money raised’ category.

Photos and blogs of your adventure are most welcome, please send these to – bownovice@hotmail.com, they will then be posted on the ‘Atlantic Challenge 2016’ Facebook page throughout the event. For your entry form and event pack please email Jane McIntosh on bownovice@hotmail.com or contact her on Facebook page ‘Atlantic Challenge 2016’

Let’s pull together and burn those Christmas calories in aid of the great cause!

BFBS and BBC Hereford and Worcester radio stations will be following the rowing challenge and the indoor event so listen out for more information on the radio waves.

Looking forward to hearing from you and seeing whose team is the fastest!

Sponsored by 

We have been storing Fedor Konyukhov’s solo ocean rowing boat since he finished his epic 160 day Pacific row from Chile to Australia in Many 2014.  Now the time has come for the boat, K9, to be returned to Moscow…..a well travelled boat!! Oscar and Fedor Konyukhov were in town to assist with the packing of the boat which was shipped to Russia courtesy of DHL Shipping.  And a BBQ on the 1st October marked the occasion in the UK (a little chilly!).

The boat is now safe at its final destination in Russia, having arrived on 5th November 2015 and is back with Fedor at his home.  You can keep up with Fedor Konyukhov’s next adventure at his website, where he is going to be ballooning non-stop around the World in 2016!! http://konyukhov.ru/en/index.html

Some of the Toby Wallace 2016 crew rowed at the Great River Race on the Thames in London today! Well done everyone – good job and great practice for the Atlantic in January next year!!

The Toby Wallace November 2014 crew made the Guinness Book of Records 2016 – well that’s the Christmas presents sorted!! Although events have superseded this now and the owners of this amazing 24-hour speed record are Tom Hudson and Pete Fletcher who we supported on their North Atlantic row this Summer.

Tom and Pete arrived into Falmouth, Cornwall on 27 August 2015 to a great reception after leaving New York some 98 days, 14 hours and 44 minutes previously!  During their crossing they also rowed 116.74 nautical miles in one 24 hour period, picking up this Guinness World Record in the process! Great job guys :)

You can read all about Tom and Pete and their North Atlantic adventure at their website: www.dare2dream.today

Although we aren’t ocean rowing ourselves at the moment, we have had several busy months with ocean rowing and rowers!  We’ve been recruiting hard – we have a female crew set to head out after the female Atlantic record in January 2016.  We also have only ONE SPACE LEFT onboard the Toby Wallace Atlantic speed record attempt in January too.  If you are interested, get in touch sooner rather than later!

Simon Chalk, our resident ocean rower, was in New York last month advising and helping with boat preparations for Tom Hudson and Pete Fletcher, who have been on the water for nearly 18 days now – rowing from New York to the UK.  They’ve been experiencing some heavy weather in the past few days so their tracker currently looks like they are doing a “figure 8” but this is passing.  You can follow their progress and do some dot-watching at their website www.daretodream.today.

We’ve also been involved with the tenacious American woman, Sonya Baumstein – she is rowing over 6,000nm across the North Pacific ocean from Japan to San Francisco.  Leaving port in Japan today (7th June 2015), she has a long journey ahead of her but she is strong and resilient and has rowed the Atlantic in 2011 as part of the the rowing race.  Simon Chalk and Oceanus Rowing are on call as Duty Officers to Sonya for any advice and assistance during her crossing and we wish her the very best in this project – www.expeditionpacific.com.

Finally, Fedor Konyukhov has been back to Mooloolaba, Eastern Australia in May to commemorate his ocean row from Chile to Australia last year.  A bronze plaque was unveiled in recognition of his achievement – just opposite the place on the beach where Fedor landed.  We can’t believe it has been a year already!! A fantastic thing to see him arrive after 160 days rowing mainland to mainland on 31 May 2014 – a “once in a lifetime” day!

Exciting projects happening and to come…..watch this space!!

Late last month, Roland Burr went back to Wood End Primary School to talk to the children about his Atlantic Row.  All the children (as well as the teachers and office staff) were enthralled – big gasps at the talk of sharks, dolphins and the obligatory poo bucket stories!!  His main message was simple – if something inspires you, go and do it.  Nothing can stop you but yourself and we can all be adventurers!  Here’s hoping for some budding future ocean rowers from Wood End School in years to come…….

Simon Chalk has made the difficult decision to bring “Sevlush” back to port this morning at 0900hrs.  They have been having problems with the steering overnight and whilst they are still relatively close to the island, they have decided to get a tow back until matters can be resolved.  More news to follow.

Simon Chalk and Semen Deyak have left Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria at 1000hrs GMT and are now Barbados bound!  They were in good spirits this morning and are looking forward to having a rowing adventure for the next month.  They’ve got some strong weather conditions for the next week so are keen to make some meaningful progress but will be keeping safe and getting used to life on-board.  Thanks for all the good wishes and you can dot-watch them every two hours all the way across on the tracking page!!