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UK rowers attempt to sail around UK in record time

When their 2,300-mile sail from San Francisco to Hawaii was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic, endurance athletes Duncan Roy and Gus Barton opted for a staycation of the extreme sort – attempting to row around the UK in record time.

With only two weeks of preparation behind them, the pair are more than 38 days into the 2,000-mile challenge, which started on 14 June from Ramsgate, heading south along Scotland’s east coast.

For Roy, 29, from near North Allerton in North Yorkshire, and Barton, 30, from Balham in London, the feat – encompassing rocky shorelines and busy shipping lanes – was a natural alternative to the cancelled Latitude 35 attempt to cross the Pacific.

“We had everything lined up, the boat was at the start line in San Francisco,” said Roy, a former British Army royal engineer and two-time Guinness World Record holder in ocean racing. “We’d been planning that for well over a year – we’d done our training camps. We thought, well actually, if we’re here, a circumnavigation of the UK could be a good challenge.”

A project like this one would usually take nearly two years to pull together. But because it offered sponsors the chance to back a feel-good attempt in the midst of a crisis, they quickly rallied around them. “People loved it because it’s crazy,” added Roy.

But even with a boat and the equipment they need – including the satellite telephone Roy spoke from on Tuesday morning – the challenge has been greater than either he or Barton, a former professional rugby player and personal trainer who has also sailed the Atlantic, had anticipated.

So far they have apprehensively sailed past the third largest whirlpool in the world – Corryvreckan – off the Scottish western isles, and endured the “pretty spicy” turbulence of the Ramsey Sound, a tidal passage separating Ramsey Island from mainland Wales.

“I think people’s perception of rowing across an ocean is like ‘wow, that’s incredible’, whereas rowing around Britain doesn’t seem as prestigious. But I can tell you now, rowing around Britain is the hardest thing Gus and I have ever undertaken. It’s so technical.”

Between rowing shifts – which are on average 1,200 strokes over 18 hours a day – Roy and Barton are attempting to consume around 6,000 calories daily from ration packs hydrated from desalinated sea water and huge tubs of peanut butter and grabbing four-hour pockets of sleep.

Being so close to the coastline, rather than sailing through an expansive ocean, is proving to be “like a carrot dangling in front of you” too. “We’re looking at the land now and seeing cars whizzing past. Last night we could’ve just pulled in and had fish and chips,” said Roy.

But in some ways, he added, being stuck indoors during the national lockdown has well prepared them for the trip. Before setting sail, the pair had met twice since last October after being picked for the Latitude 15 training camp.

“Even though we’re going around the entire UK, we’re stuck on a seven-metre long boat together. It’s very comparative to a lot of what people have experienced,” said Roy. “I know more about Gus than I know about friends I’ve known for 10 years now.”

The new friends have also so far raised £10,000 through their sail for NHS Charities Together – Roy’s choice after witnessing the work his ITU nurse girlfriend was doing during the height of the pandemic – and the mental health charity Sport in Mind, which Barton chose after his friend’s father took his own life in February.

They hope to raise much more, but are downcast on the belief they will beat the current world record for sailing around the UK, which is 41 days, 4 hours and 38 minutes.

With the breadth of the country’s eastern coast – 450 miles – to row, adverse weather conditions have set them back. The goal now is to finish before 1 August, when Barton is scheduled to be the best man at his brother’s wedding.

Roy added: “In this sport, you’re so completely at the mercy of the elements. While it’s nice to get a certificate at the end, the real prize is just finishing.”