Months of gruelling preparation finally came to fruition on Friday as the four-man Transatlantic rowing team from Dubai set off from Senegal in their pursuit of four world records.
Led by Dutchman Patrick Bol, the DP World sponsored team launched their 4,250 kilometre challenge in the hope of drawing attention to the threat posed by plastic to the planet’s oceans.
Mr Bol has been joined in his ambitious adventure by three Britons, Andrew Ruinoff, Matt Wilds and Lewis Knollman.
They hope to become the fastest team to cross the Atlantic when they arrive in South America less than four weeks after setting off from West Africa.
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There is no torture quite like a Transatlantic row - and I should know
Dubai rowers target four world records in Atlantic challenge
UAE-based athletes aim to become first Arabs to row 5,000km across Atlantic Ocean
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Other records in their sights are the most consecutive number of days where more than 100 nautical miles are rowed, the first team to row a multi-hull boat from Senegal to a northern port on South America and the first to cross the Atlantic in under 27 days.
At the launch, Mr Bol and his team-mates were happy to get their challenge underway in the vessel Year of Zayed following more than 12 months of hard work.
“This is the result of over one year of preparation, so we are as ready as we can be,” he said. “The conditions at the start were almost perfect.
“We have designed and built a very revolutionary eco-friendly boat. We want to go fast and break records but we want to do something even better than that for future generations.
“We want to give attention to the huge problem of plastic in our ocean. It is something we can all do something about.”
Aside from the hours spent in the gym and out on the water to prepare for 14 hours per day of continuous rowing, the logistics of pulling together sponsorship for the custom build trimaran boat, to sustain and support four men for a month has not been easy.
At a cost of $500,000 (Dh1.8 million), and built from the same high tech materials used in Formula One, it has been an expensive process – with the launch from Senegal signifying an end to the planning stage of the epic challenge.
The Row4Ocean team is hoping to make a tangible difference to ocean pollution by supporting a recycling scheme in Karachi and a clean-up operation of the Indus River, one of the most polluted rivers in the world.
Updates on their progress can be followed at https://www.facebook.com/row4ocean.
