The Boat

Design & Build Information The Atlantic Rowing Race class, was designed specifically for the Atlantic Rowing Race event back in 1995 by Exmouth based boat builders and designers, Phil Morrison and Peter ''Spud'' Rowsell. The basic design is simple and incorporates two rowing positions with compartments at either end, the one at the front for storage, the larger one at the rear for sleeping. There is also storage and ballast kept under the rowing positions. The boat is designed to be fully self righting and largely self draining. There is no cover for bad weather! Key Dimensions Length - 23.4ft (7.1 m) Beam - 6.3ft (1.9m) Weight (fully laden) - Approx 750kg Options New boats are available for the race and can be purchased in kit form from the race organisers. These can either be built by the team or the help of with the help of professional boat builders. Given the time involved and our poor history with Airfix kits, Andrew and I have opted against this option! Secondhand boats are available, their quality and build can vary dramatically depending on age, number of crossings and, of course, how they've been kept between races. We believe we've found a fine example in "Bilbo Baggins" (aka Row 4 Cancer), first raced in 2001 (crossing time 64 days, 12 hours) by Frenchmen, Benjamin Marty and Oliver Villain. Recently raced in 2005 by Richard Mayon-White and Liz O'Keefe, their time of 60 days and 18 hours is a tribute to the work they did in preparing themselves and the boat for the race. We hope to learn a lot from them and continue the crossing success. We've spent a lot of time working on her and in hindsight (and a top tip), I would recommend having the boat at home somewhere if at all possible - you don't need organising weekends when you can work on the boat with so much else to arrange. Having the boat there to work on in the evenings and at adhoc times would have made the project so much more convenient and less stressful! We've stripped her down, re-painted, re-wired, cleaned and checked almsot everything. The sea is a brutal environment and even the best quality fittings have been degraded in someway and have had to be cleaned or replaced to ensure integrity. If we had a penny for the number of times we've been in and out of the chandlers for screws and fixings we'd have no problem covering the cost of this event! As the old saying goes "Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents P#ss Poor Performance", nothing could be more accurate for this event. We have re-registered Row4Cancer as Jaydubyoo, the connection being that, due to our double barelled surname, we were both referred to as JW (jay-dub-yoo) at school and, for Andrew, at work too. - Progress updates for the boat and our general preparation can be seen on our diary page, the link on the left of the page.