We did it! The world record is ours
The Goal
We are aiming to break the world record for a mainland to mainland crossing.
We will row from Portugal to French Guiana. The current world record stands at 50 days, 10 hours and 36 mins. We aim to row it in as few as 45 days.
We set off on 6 Mar 2017 from Portugal.
The team
Ralph Tuijn, Skipper
Ralph is 45 years old, he is Dutch, has two young children and is a registered nurse. He is a professional adventurer who has cycled more than 100,000km around the world. He has 10 arctic expeditions to his name, climbed mountains in almost every continent, he is 1 of 5 rowers in the world to have rowed more than 500 days on the ocean and has just come back from running 1,500km across Australia.
Clement Mas
Clement is a 25 year old French adventurer. He met Ralph in 2013 in the middle of the desert while cycling around Australia, 15,000 km in 99 days. Since then, he cycled around New Zealand and climbed Mount Kilimanjaro. He loves to challenge himself and use his own energy to travel. That’s why he instantly decided to join when he heard about the Atlantic Ocean rowing expedition, even though he doesn’t have any experience with the ocean, nor rowing. His father was a professional cyclist and competed in the Tour de France. When Clement is not on adventures, he works on his startup TravelMap.net, a tracking system that allows travellers to share their trips based on a map.
Niall Bates, Co Skipper
Niall is 40 years old, Irish but living in the south of France with his wife and 2 sons. He is a keen sailor having rowed since 1995 and crossed the Pacific Ocean in a racing yacht in 2012. But his dream has always been to row the Atlantic Ocean. He rowed competitively at University 20 years ago and has since used an ergo for fitness. He joined a local rowing club earlier this year and they row 3 times a week at sea. Niall loves the sea and loves pushing himself mentally and physically. When not at sea Niall is busy with his property development business.
Colin Blears
Colin is a keen sailor and endurance athlete. He has already crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a 70 foot racing yacht as part of the Clipper Round The World Yacht race, as well as sailing from Australia to China. As well as the Atlantic row, Colin is also training for an 8 marathons in 8 days challenge in the Alps later in 2017. Although new to rowing, Colin has intensively applied himself to learning this new sport and is greatly looking forward to returning to the Ocean in March for his greatest challenge to date.