Dan's Papers - December 7, 2007 - Row, Row, Row Your Boat

There is a no-joke rowing race coming up, which is an attempt to beat the world record for rowing across the Atlantic Ocean using only the strength of man and oar. Roy Finlay, Denis Richardson, Ronnie Desiderio and Chris Cuddihy, all East Enders, are in focus mode as the date of their departure, December 15, gets closer. The four men will be embarking on the journey of a lifetime, rowing across the Atlantic Ocean in their boat, appropriately named Orca. Orca is the fastest of waterborne mammals. Orca is also an acronym for Ocean Rowing Challenges America.

Since March, Mr. Finlay, a native of Scotland and a 45-year resident of Shelter Island, along with Mr. Richardson, has been in his garage/workshop on Shelter Island building a multi-hull, Polynesian-style rowboat that will carry them along the reliable tradewinds that run between the Canary Islands to the Caribbean. The boat has been shipped to the Canary Islands and the men here have been preparing for their journey and devoting an incredible amount of effort to fundraising.

Their plan is to not only beat the record by rowing across in 30 days instead of 35, but to also beat the French-made boat known as La Mondiale, which not only will be racing against them this year, but also is the boat that set the record of 35 days and 8 hours. La Mondiale is bigger then the Orca, and has only one hull while the Orca has three, which puts it at a disadvantage. There is some public debate on whether two hulls are better than one, but Finlay plans to settle it once and for all when he and his crew take on the Atlantic Ocean with three hulls.

Weight is another issue and the crew of Orca has taken every measure to make the boat as light as possible. This includes how they plan on eating and drinking during the journey, meaning they plan on consuming more food in the beginning of the race to bring down the weight of the boat. Finlay told me about this issue in an interview, "We're bringing a combination of freeze dried food, including Chef Boyardee ravioli. The weight of the food is our enemy, so for the first ten days, we plan on eating 150 lbs of the 300 lbs of food that we are going to be carrying, and the rest we will ration from there. The record is 35 days and we've provisioned the boat for thirty days, which adds a seriousness to beating this record. The whole thing is about weight. To save weight, we aren't bringing water with us and instead are using one of four hand pumped water desalinators that a man can pump for an hour and create enough water for 24 hours for that man. When we looked at the weight that would be added for a battery as well as the weight of an electric water maker and the solar panels that it would require, the hand pumped water was our best option, weightwise. We're bringing four, all of them to back up each other."

To navigate the vessel, the crew will have two men rowing and one man steering at all times, and the boat will be supported by state of the art navigation systems, which will even allow access to the Internet, where the crew plans to update a blog. You can view this website at www.atlanticorca.com as they travel along on this incredible journey.

I spoke to Finlay to find out if music was going to be something they planned on bringing. "Oh music is a big thing. We have a boat system that runs off solar and we are also all going to bring our iPods. I have 1,000 songs on mine and I am open minded about music. I try not to give away my musical tastes, but I do imagine myself at night listening amongst the stars while rowing, with nothing but the Atlantic Ocean around me. I'll probably listen to some classical music or even something wild like Enya. For the harder sessions of rowing, I'll be listening to some rock."

A lot of skill goes into steering the boat, based on the weather. While one man rows, it will be to their advantage not to exert so much energy if they have a tail current and wind behind them, which will add not just to the brute strength required to do this task, but also to the finesse and skill necessary to complete it.

The four-man crew have all taken leaves from their jobs to go for this life changing experience and have committed a fair amount of their own money to making this dream become a reality. Visit www.atlanticorca.com to donate to the crew to help ensure success. In the meantime, you can be sure that a crew of four is about to embark on the greatest adventure of their lives.