Atlantic Rowing Race 2009

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Solo Teams

Charlie Pitcher
United Kingdom



Boat Name:

Normal, well balanced 6 foot Englishman full of stupid ideas! 
Why am I doing the race? - It's the 1st good idea I've had!

"What has pushed me the most over the last few years to compete in the Atlantic Rowing Race was being told I may never walk again, after I had a major motorcycle accident 2 years ago.

Pairs Teams

Richard Hume and Tom Barnes
United Kingdom



Team Name:

The Atlantic Freedom Team is Mark Story and Steve McCann. We are aiming to raise £100,000 to help build a much needed holiday haven in Cornwall for children with life limiting or life threatening conditions called Ellie’s Haven. In addition, we want to raise money for Help For Heroes, supporting a returning wounded servicemen and women.

We are both up for this challenge as a way of doing something positive in the community and as a way of testing ourselves both mentally and physically. Mark and Steve are friends from Torpoint in Cornwall, an area with a rich history in Ocean Adventuring!

Why we are doing the race - Rowing the Atlantic Ocean has long been our ambition since first hearing about our old school teacher, Mark Mortimer, who along with Martin Bellamy made an inspiring crossing of the Atlantic in 1997 with 'Salamanca'. We see the Atlantic as one of the world's toughest challenges and the fact that its a race is what really appeals to us!

Jim Houlton and Paul Milnthorpe
United Kingdom

Mick Birchall and Anthony Wright
United Kingdom

Norman and James Beech
United Kingdom



Team Name:

Francois Lamy and Benoit Dusser
France

After watching the ‘Go Commando’ boat complete the Atlantic trip, followed by James Cracknell & Ben Fogle we were hooked and decided to give it a go.  We know this will be a challenge of a life time and we’re up for it!  We are a couple of ordinary Firemen who love our food and do a bit in the gym.  None of us have ever rowed before! Mad?  Maybe!  Our view is you live once so live it! We can’t wait to get stuck in. We are hoping to raise as much money as possible for our chosen charity Claire House and complete an amazing challenge.

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Simon Jones and Joe Hughes
United Kingdom



Website: www.atlantic09row.com

Joe Hughes, a 23 year old project Engineer for Lorne Stewart and from St Austell in Cornwall. 

My rowing experience mainly consists of rowing 32ft pilot gigs, since the age of 12 years old, I regularly participate in the local regattas around the south west and also the world championships in the isles of scilly every May bank holiday.When the rowing season is over I am a keen rugby player and play for my local team ‘St Austell Rfc’ this keeps me fit and strong all year round and also provides different challenges for me and my body, but I’m sure the Atlantic will throw down some challenges of its own.  

Simon Jones, a 34 year old self employed Architectural Technologist from St. Austell who is a self confessed fitness fanatic. 

I enjoy racing in three different boats that are 32ft pilot gigs, 18ft flash boats and 15ft skiffs, all of which only bear one similarity that they are all fixed seat rowing positions with the flash boat and skiff racing having various styles of rowing.  I also compete in the Cornish Grand Prix running events ranging from 4 miles to marathons, this has vastly improved my stamina and mental strength.  Should I ever have any spare time away from rowing and running I visit our local fitness centre to spend up to an hour at a time on the rowing machine and the bike as well as performing a full circuit of the weights. 

The Reasoning:

 Back in 2004, I was talking to a rower from Roseland Gig Club called Chris Barrett who explained that he was going to enter a rowing race across the Atlantic with a friend called Bob in a 24ft boat.  I was intrigued and every time I saw him I would pester him with lots of questions to try to appease my curiosity.  Since that time I have read books, seen documentaries, interrogated lots of previous competitors, which has lead me to a final conclusion, the only way to satisfy my curiosity is to take part in the event. 

About a year ago, after careful consideration, I decided to tell a few of my best friends in the rowing community about what I wanted to do (as most would think I have gone completely cuckoo), in the hope that one of them would have the same symptoms of insanity that I am obviously suffering from.  Immediately, all of my friends were interested and showed an unprecedented amount of support, which was a huge relief to myself as it meant that we cannot all be mad, with Joe going one step further by offering to row with me. 

Together, what we are embarking on is not only a once in a lifetime adventure, but with our humble working class backgrounds could be a huge inspiration to many others from our community to take on all manner of challenges in their own lives and we have the opportunity of raising the awareness of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which to us is an almost forgotten illness because it is not seen, but affects so many as it can at times be a disabling injury that stops participation of activities for so many young people.

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Phil Pring (31) & Ben Cummings (35)
Cornwall, United Kingdom

Boat Name: Vision Of Cornwall
Website: www.visionofcornwall.co.uk

Charity: Cornwall Blind Association

As gig rowers inspired by stories of survival, we both wanted to experience the mid Atlantic from the perspective of a small boat. By taking part in the 2009 Atlantic rowing race we hope to raise funds for the Cornwall Blind Association.

We are two mates from university who are looking to raise money and awareness for two fantastic charities.  Little did we know when we first met that four years later we would be about to embark on the challenge of our lives.  The sheer vastness of the task laid bare before us just seemed too appealing to let slip, and we firmly believe that through this we have the opportunity to support those who, on a day-to-day basis, significantly better the lives of young people all across the South East.  Neither of us have ever rowed before, but hey, in the immortal words of Jeremy Clarkson: “How hard can it be?!”

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Ole Elmer (Danish/Canadian) & Brian Heron (Danish)



Team Name: Boogie Woogie
Boat Name: Boogie Woogie
Website:  http://www.teamboogiewoogie.com

Ole was born in Denmark in 1948 and have lived in Canada for the last 40 years where he baked 7 billion waffles before retiring. Now Ole is an adventurer biking south America with Brian 38 years old from Denmark.it was on one of those trips Ole met Tori Holmes and Steve who told Ole about the Atlantic Rowing Race. This sounded like a great thing to do so Ole asked Brian and he agreed and here we are rowing across the ocean. We look forward to meeting a lot of great people doing this adventure and one of the highlights will be, (besides Christmas and New Year) our birthdays as we both celebrate on January 11th, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. We have agreed that each person is allowed to invite only one guest for the party due to lack of space in the rowing boat, so we are both excited as to who shows up !

James is rowing for St Barnabas House Hospice in recognition of the amazing work they do for patients admitted into their care.  Having first hand experience of the treatment his father recieved and the impact that care had on the entire family, James would like to make a contribution toward the new 'Building A Dream' project.  St Barnabas has been running as an independent charity within the current building since the seventies and the time has come when that Hospice is struggling to meet the demands placed upon it.  To continue the work they are doing St Barnabas are in the process of constructing a new £13.5 Million Hospice, for which much funding is still required.

I’ve just turned 40 but I’d like to get it straight that I’m not going through a mid life crisis! I have always, always wanted to do something of this magnitude and what could possibly be bigger than rowing the Atlantic? I know it’s going be the hardest thing I’ve ever done and boy, is my bum going to suffer… but that’s kind of the whole point as far as I’m concerned. I want to feel I’ve really achieved something in my life and if I can raise some money for Macmillan and get an amazing tan along the way, then bring it on!

Mel:

Roger Haines & Tom Lee
United Kingdom

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Nick Jackson & Jonnie Miller
Cardiff, Wales



Team Name: Atlantic Dragon
Boat Name: Patience
Website: www.atlanticdragon.co.uk
Charities: Cancer Research Wales & Cancer Research UK & Help 4 Heroes

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Fours Teams

Dom, Benjy, Andy and Paul
United Kingdom

Photo coming soon!

Team Name: Team Insight
Charity: British Heart Foundation and the National Star College, Cheltenham
Charity Website: www.bhf.org.uk and www.natstar.ac.uk
Website: www.insightatlantic.com

Paul:

Paul was born in Tewkesbury and, apart from 4 years living in the United States, has always lived in Gloucestershire.  His interests include Canoeing/Kayaking, Mountaineering, Scuba Diving and travel. He has completed several expeditions in the Himalayas and long distance canoe journeys in Europe and North America.

Paul initially considered the possibility of rowing across the Atlantic some 10 years ago, but then life got in the way.

 Andy:

I’ve wanted to take part in the Woodvale Atlantic Challenge since I first heard about the event when I watched the documentaries of Cracknell and Fogle completing the event in 2006. So when the chance to participate came up I jumped at it.   It’s an opportunity to raise a significant amount of money for two extremely deserving causes (the National Star College and the British Heart Foundation) as well as being a fantastic adventure. This will be the most adventurous thing I’ve done to date!!  One life, live it!

 Benjy:

Well, I've always liked a challenge and what greater a challenge than rowing 3000 miles across a stormy sea in 50 foot swell, especially when you consider the fact that only dozens of people have completed the challenge. I don't like to bypass unique opportunities and this feels like something that's too good to miss. The challenge just seems to culminate so many avenues of interest, from the challenge of the theory training and technical equipment to the rowing and general levels of fitness.

 Dom:

Dominic has dreamed of undertaking this challenge for a number of years and can’t quite believe that it’s actually happening. He became a family man approximately 4yrs ago and his inspiration for doing the challenge is to be able to inspire his own children to grab life with both hands and just live it!! He also wants to go down in his family’s history as that mad ancestor who rowed an ocean... and survived!!