Rowing a catamaran across the ocean

As the clock ticks over into the New Year an eclectic group of 16 rowers will be setting off from Morocco to row 4800km across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados. But this is no ordinary rowing adventure. This is the first time a custom-built catamaran has done it and they are going after the world record.

At the helm is American Paralympian and ocean rower Angela Madsen. Madsen, the skipper, will lead the 15 crew in an attempt to cross the Atlantic in less than 33 days to break the current world record. They plan to leave from Agadir, Morocco on 2 January 2011 finishing in Port St. Charles, Barbados.

The catamaran, named Big Blue, is the world’s largest ocean rowing catamaran and is designed and built by David Davlianidze from Shelter Island, New York State. Already sea trials have shown encouraging boat speeds of up to 7 knots.

Madsen, a paraplegic, has already notched up an impressive list of ocean rows. In 2007 she crossed the Atlantic Ocean with amputee Franck Festor. She then crossed the Indian Ocean in 2009 and earlier this year Madsen was part of an all-women crew that circumnavigated Great Britain. In between that Madsen competed in the adaptive rowing regatta at the Beijing Paralympic Games. Madsen first made the United States adaptive rowing team in 2002 competing in the first ever adaptive races at the World Rowing Championships.

The crew on Big Blue comprises of a mixture of rowing experience, age and nationalities including Americans, Canadians and an Austrian.

Από www.worldrowing.com