Thursday, 07 May 2009 A FATHER and son team will take up the mental and physical challenge of rowing across the Atlantic later this
year – and at the same time raise between £30,000 and £40,000 for charity WaterAid. LEO CLARKE reports WHEN Norman and James Beech arrive at Tenerife in December they will be prepared for the biggest adventure of their lives. For more than two months the intrepid duo will only have each other for company as they row a mind-boggling 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. The team will have prepared for the challenge for two years by the time their 24ft long boat hits the second largest piece of water on the Earth’s surface, as they compete in the Woodvale Challenge Atlantic Row. In all they hope to finish in somewhere between 60 and 65 days and thereby set two records – to beat the previous father and son trans-Atlantic row record time of 78 days, and to finish while James is still 18, making him the youngest rower to do it. Yet many dangers may await them and if the weather is horrible they could expect to see storms as near as 10 miles out to sea.
Fingers crossed that seems unlikely, because the race has been planned after the hurricane season and when the trade winds blowing from Africa are in their favour.