The crew is made up of four
local lads who in the past have either played rugby or rowed with each other
before at various levels. "Definitely a competitive edge to the
crew". There
are 21yrs of combined rowing experience in this crew, as well as 11 West of
England rowing titles. There is also ocean rowing experience in the boat
from Jason who entered the 2001 Tenerife-Barbados pairs challenge.
See how their training is
going!! 
Meet the crew from Dartmouth who are attempting
to be the first to row an Ocean Fours boat across the Atlantic.
Shaun Barker Phil Langman Jason Hart Yorkie Lomas
The Dartmouth crew
at Plymouth, Devon
Age: 30
Weight: 12st7lb
Place of Birth: Dartmouth
Occupation: Marine Engineer with Vosper Thornycroft, and is also a partner in a small local engineering business.
Status: Engaged, living in Dartmouth with my fiancée.
Interests and Achievements: In 1987 I achieved my silver survival swimming award. I took part and completed the bronze and then silver Duke of Edinburgh awards. In 1997 completed the London marathon in at time of 4hrs and in the process raised money for Cancer Relief. At present
I like to spend a lot of my spare time in the gym keeping fit.
Interesting fact: Overcame my fear of heights by a hot air balloon flight and abseiling down some local cliffs.
Reason for rowing the Atlantic: Probably the
biggest challenge I will ever get the chance to compete in. This is a chance I
could not miss and with the team we've got I think we can get the record at
set a bench mark for further ocean fours crews.
Age: 25
Weight: 14st5lb
Place of Birth: Dartmouth
Occupation: Electronic Test Engineer at Sifam Instruments Ltd
Status: Engaged, living in Paignton with my fiancée
and two dogs, Saffy & Amber.
Interests and Achievements: I have been rowing for 14 years at Dartmouth Amateur Rowing Club, where
I have competed in the West of England Championships, winning 6 titles. I have also rowed at the South Coast Championships too, currently rowing at Senior
'A' status. I am a keen rugby player and have been playing for Dartmouth for a number of
years both as flanker and outside centre.
Reasons for rowing the Atlantic: You
don't get many chances of doing something so big and to have a chance of
becoming the first crew to complete an ocean fours crossing is massive.
Age: 30
Weight: 15st11lb
Place of Birth: Dartmouth
Occupation: Packaging Manager
Status: Happily married, living in Dartmouth
with my wife, two daughters and my dog, Levi.
Interests and Achievements: I have rowing experience in the West of England with 2 titles. I have played rugby for the Army U/21's, Combined Services U/21's, Captained Brixhams 1st XV and Captained Devon. I played for Devon in the county final at Twickenham, I now play rugby for Plymouth
Albion in national league one.
Reason for rowing the Atlantic: Frightened
of growing old without ever having achieved anything. I want to go out there
and do something to be really proud of, and there can't be many things bigger
than this challenge.
Age: 35
Weight: 13st
Place of Birth: Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire
Occupation: Builder
Status: Living in
Dartmouth with my girlfriend and two cats, Harry & Frank.
Interests an Achievements:
I have 8 years rowing experience in the West of England, winning 3 titles, also competed in the South Coast Championships. I play rugby for Dartmouth on the wing. I like to go out running
a lot and using the gym. I teach rowing at Dartmouth Amateur Rowing Club too.
Reason for rowing the Atlantic:
I
want to challenge myself to the extreme, look back and say 'yes' I've done
something with my life. When I was given the opportunity to have a go at being
in the first crew to successfully row an fours boat and get the record, it was
too big to say no.
Training
When the boat is with us we plan to start
rowing the boat up and down the river Dart just to get used the way it feels
without the rough seas hitting us from all sides. It shouldn't be too long
before we start the serious work out at sea, where we plan to row for a whole
day, building up to a full week at sea over the future months so we can get used to
rowing at night, this is going to be the biggest factor for our crew as to who
can handle the race. By the time we get to the starting line at La Gomera in
January 2004 there will be no reason, other than the elements why we can not do well in this
race.
(03/01/03)
Happy New Year!!
(13/01/03)
Training in the gym is now apart of everyday life for the whole crew, training together is important as we all try to do better when with each other is watching over our shoulders. Jason, Shaun and Yorkie are half way through their respective rugby seasons, Phil is learning the art of slide seat rowing, whilst Yorkie and Shaun are also training for the rowing season at senior A status.
(28/04/03)
Well that's Shaun's rugby season finished for another year, mid table finish, a
bit disappointing. Jason has a few games left before he joins up with Devon for
another challenge on the County Championship. Phil and Yorkie are taking things
a bit too seriously and have now bet each other that they can put weight on, we
shall see!! There is a lot of training in the gym still with each of us a lot stronger than 3 months ago. Rowing season is just around the corner.
Yorkie & Phil are ready for the start whilst Shaun has picked up a knackered
knee from rugby which keeps him in the gym and off the water, not for long
though!!.
(05/06/03) Followers
of this site would of already noticed that we have changed race course and start
date from 2005 to January 2004. Our training has had to be adapted too, to cope
with the limited time that we now have to prepare for this challenge. We have
now raised the level of Cardio training that was doing and maintained our
weights program. Even though we have scheduled in when we are training it is
leaving us very little time to go sponsor baiting. But we have now started to
get a good team behind the scenes to help us and that has helped us overcome
that problem. So that leaves me time to get on the ergo again for another
15,000m row!!
(24/06/03) Finding the
time train is becoming just as bigger challenge as the race itself. Now we are
putting a lot of effort into trying find funds, this is leaving us short on time
to train. Social lives are now something we used to have, it seems like we eat,
breath and sleep sponsorship chasing! It will all be worth while and the excitement
of it all is still very much with us. We can not wait.
(08/07/03) We seem to be
doing a lot of cycling at the moment, getting ready for the big cycle around
Devon in a few weeks. Not sure how we are going to fare on the ride. 7 Clubs
spaced around Devon from Exeter to Plymouth and Dartmouth to Bideford with
Totnes, Paignton and Torquay in between, rowing an average 1500m at each venue,
and we are aiming to do this in just over 24 hrs carrying all our own gear. The
boat will go ahead on top of a car (bit tricky to carry!)
(03/09/03)
We have all just got over a very successful Dartmouth Regatta. We all took part
in the local Whaler rowing which takes place over 3 of the days in regatta week.
It was also a good time to advertise our challenge to which we had a good
response. Now we're back in the gym for a few weeks before the boat is ready go
afloat. Then we'll be rowing out in the bay/channel.
(24/10/03) WE'RE
AFLOAT!! The boat "Queensgate" had her 1st outing on the 18/10/03. We
ventured out past Dartmouth Castle in the channel for an over night
exercise. We left at 7pm and returned at 9am. Jason and Shaun
decided to go out again for another couple of hours until 12pm. The boat is very
stable considering we had little ballast in, and the changeovers didn't seem to
be a problem. The cabins have been lined with foam for comfort but will take
some getting used to as it's not the same as your bed back at home!
"Queensgate" is very responsive at this stage, we still have to load
her up with gear. But the main thing is she is now afloat and ready. Back in May
2003 when we decided to take this project on, we knew it would be a struggle to
get the boat ready with enough time left to practice, but it's been achieved
with thanks to every one who has been involved to getting her to this stage.
(09/11/03) Capsize
Drill. The
big question on everyone's lips is "does the boat self right with 4 people
on board. We can confirm now, that the answer is most definitely YES. And quite
quick too. We first tried the boat on her own, then with 2 crew on board, both a
success. We finally got all crew the on board and up she popped again, with no
help from the crew inside.
(05/12/03)
This is it, the last day before the boat goes. All the little tedious jobs are
just about done now. "Queensgate" was taken off the water this morning. More
supplies were put on board. We look forward to meeting up with her in La Gomera
in January.
(22/12/03)
WISHING EVERYONE
A MERRY CHRISTMAS
We are all going to enjoy this Christmas and
relax for the 1st time since May. We have all put weight on, which was our aim,
but Christmas hasn't started yet!!!!
(29/12/03)
Jason's been up on Dartmoor for the
last 2 days doing a bit of hiking, Shaun has been on his cross-trainer and in
the gym, Yorkie has gone back to Yorkshire to see his family and Phil is out
getting old, Happy Birthday Phil, 30 today!!!
(01/01/04)
AND A
HAPPY NEW
YEAR.
(03/01/04)
Difficult week for all of us. Knowing this will
be the last we see friends and family for while we're trying to cram in as much
social activity as possible, plus gym and packing, shopping for the final few
things like disposable cameras etc. We all finish work on Thursday 8th, but it's
going to be difficult to concentrate on work knowing we're off in a few days for
a life changing experience.
(11/03/04) What
can i say? The support has been over whelming. We have been back a couple of
days now and we still can't get our heads around it all. The row was as good as
we could of hoped for. The reception was even better. I wish we could of brought
the weather back home with us! We saw Stuart Boreham in after his wonderful 109
days and also Carp Dieme Chris & Mick who row in 49 days.
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