We'll remind you all of this from time to time, since we'd be happy for you to share it, but here are a few places you can contact us from.
Website. www.atlanticrevolutions.com
Facebook Atlantic Revolutions
Twitter @AtlanticRevs
e-mail atlanticrevolutions@gmail.com
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Web design and meetings
We have not been inactive since I last wrote.
Met last week to thrash out the website that is live but not finished at www.atlanticrevolutions.com. Edd from purplemedia365 has created the skeleton and Steve has added pictures and some more flesh.
Our launch date officially or at least according to our masterplan is the 15th November.
Tomorrow Steve and I head to Christchurch to meet with Charlie Rossiter at Rossiter Rowing Boats on the south coast and then immediatley after drive to Falmouth to meet up with the sponsors of our seating. ICE Trikes. A busy day ahead but one that we are very excited about.
As soon as the website is completed we will hit the fund-raising trail in earnest.
Met last week to thrash out the website that is live but not finished at www.atlanticrevolutions.com. Edd from purplemedia365 has created the skeleton and Steve has added pictures and some more flesh.
Our launch date officially or at least according to our masterplan is the 15th November.
Tomorrow Steve and I head to Christchurch to meet with Charlie Rossiter at Rossiter Rowing Boats on the south coast and then immediatley after drive to Falmouth to meet up with the sponsors of our seating. ICE Trikes. A busy day ahead but one that we are very excited about.
As soon as the website is completed we will hit the fund-raising trail in earnest.
Friday, 11 October 2013
Watch this space
Pre-launch
I shall have to get Steve feeding into this so that he can relay first-hand what he has been looking into. I know that he has been debating the start point for our crossing with Justin. Morocco or The Canaries?? Strong currents down the western seaboard of Africa by all accounts that could be difficult under any circumstances to break free from, but under pedal power even harder.
I'm guessing that pirateers are also much more prevelant off the African coast adding another danger factor that I'm not that keen to add on.
I've been putting together a costing of ALL the constituent pieces of equipment and ancilliary costs and as an aside to that debating with myself about charity sponsorship and who or how to incorporate this aspect of the challenge. It's otherwise been busy elsewhere with our website being built and facebook page and twitter accounts opened. Watch this space.
I shall have to get Steve feeding into this so that he can relay first-hand what he has been looking into. I know that he has been debating the start point for our crossing with Justin. Morocco or The Canaries?? Strong currents down the western seaboard of Africa by all accounts that could be difficult under any circumstances to break free from, but under pedal power even harder.
I'm guessing that pirateers are also much more prevelant off the African coast adding another danger factor that I'm not that keen to add on.
I've been putting together a costing of ALL the constituent pieces of equipment and ancilliary costs and as an aside to that debating with myself about charity sponsorship and who or how to incorporate this aspect of the challenge. It's otherwise been busy elsewhere with our website being built and facebook page and twitter accounts opened. Watch this space.
Friday, 4 October 2013
Thruster
Ocean rower No. 2
Justin Coleman, also known by the rowing fraternity as ‘Thruster’, I’m guessing because of his connection with a previous attempt to pedal the Atlantic, see this entry http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Justins-3000-mile-pedalo-adventure-to-conquer-Atlantic-12092012.htm was in Grantchester as part of what he described as his life as a semi-professional stand-up comic.
After yesterday’s meeting with ’Tiny’ Little, we are collecting ocean rowing scalps at a great rate. We are incredibly grateful to Justin for his time and advice.
Key advice in no particular order: get a boat early. People will take you seriously when you have a boat. It will also allow you to conduct trials one spring/summer before working on the boat the following winter in time for further sea trails the following year prior to launch day.
Write a pre-nup! You need to decide what happens if one of you pulls out with regards to division of money etc.
A charity association is as important part of the PR as is the company sponsorship.
Test the boat. Work out your steering options. In a rowing boat the oars are as important in changing course in a hurry to take a wave stern on as they are for providing power. If you’re pedalling how will we address this?
Finally I also threw out a fast ball and asked him whether or not he would be interested in being the third man, in the event of a crew failure. In principle, he said, YES.
Justin Coleman, also known by the rowing fraternity as ‘Thruster’, I’m guessing because of his connection with a previous attempt to pedal the Atlantic, see this entry http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Justins-3000-mile-pedalo-adventure-to-conquer-Atlantic-12092012.htm was in Grantchester as part of what he described as his life as a semi-professional stand-up comic.
After yesterday’s meeting with ’Tiny’ Little, we are collecting ocean rowing scalps at a great rate. We are incredibly grateful to Justin for his time and advice.
Key advice in no particular order: get a boat early. People will take you seriously when you have a boat. It will also allow you to conduct trials one spring/summer before working on the boat the following winter in time for further sea trails the following year prior to launch day.
Write a pre-nup! You need to decide what happens if one of you pulls out with regards to division of money etc.
A charity association is as important part of the PR as is the company sponsorship.
Test the boat. Work out your steering options. In a rowing boat the oars are as important in changing course in a hurry to take a wave stern on as they are for providing power. If you’re pedalling how will we address this?
Finally I also threw out a fast ball and asked him whether or not he would be interested in being the third man, in the event of a crew failure. In principle, he said, YES.
Who will we meet along the way
Arch-Bishop and a comedian.
Not necessarily the same person, though the Dr Rowan Williams may indeed be a humerous man.
Grantchester Green Man http://www.thegreenmangrantchester.co.uk/and we just met up with Justin Coleman. Oh and on the way through Cambridge we saw the previous Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
I’m not sure whether like the President of the US or the Pope, once the Arch-Bishop always the Arch-Bishop, but in any case can we take that as a good omen and wish you a pleasant saunter through town. Why is it that we expect our leaders to be big in physical stature as well as authority and are surprised by how ‘normal’ they are. I guess that’s reassuring. ‘Normal’ people can be the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, so maybe, normal people can pedal a boat across an ocean. Of course by anyone’s reckoning Dr Rowan Williams is an extra-ordinary man, but I hope you get my drift.
Not necessarily the same person, though the Dr Rowan Williams may indeed be a humerous man.
Grantchester Green Man http://www.thegreenmangrantchester.co.uk/and we just met up with Justin Coleman. Oh and on the way through Cambridge we saw the previous Arch-Bishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams.
I’m not sure whether like the President of the US or the Pope, once the Arch-Bishop always the Arch-Bishop, but in any case can we take that as a good omen and wish you a pleasant saunter through town. Why is it that we expect our leaders to be big in physical stature as well as authority and are surprised by how ‘normal’ they are. I guess that’s reassuring. ‘Normal’ people can be the Arch-bishop of Canterbury, so maybe, normal people can pedal a boat across an ocean. Of course by anyone’s reckoning Dr Rowan Williams is an extra-ordinary man, but I hope you get my drift.
Thursday, 3 October 2013
Meeting a hero
Planning Stage 1
We had our first big planning session today, including the media strategy and a date to launch by. This blog is the first part of it. Look out for webpage with twitter and facebook feeds and spread the word. Welcome aboard.
We selected our Norwich planning room for good reasons. The Alexandra Tavern http://www.alexandratavern.co.uk/ is also the home of ‘Tiny’ Little ocean rower
and erstwhile mentor to the likes of Roz Savage http://www.rozsavage.com/ and a good number of other rowers since. His online blog http://www.tinysatlanticrow.com/ is widely regarded as one of the best ocean rowing stories.
Tiny has kindly offered to support us with advice whenever we need it and is happy for us to base ourselves in his watering hole. He brews 7 different Ales to boot, so why not.
His early advice: get the right boat. Get it surveyed and don’t necessarily buy a boat with lots of kit. He told a salutary tale of the life-raft that he rowed across the ocean for 114 days. Its maintenance and safety schedule well in date, he lent it to another rower with the proviso that if its survey date ran out, the guy would pay for the survey. It duly did and when checked it was found to be full of holes and completely useless. 70KG of extra weight that it turned out had been of only psychological benefit!
So buy a boat and then get your key equipment new. Every time.
Second piece of advice. Nothing will prepare you for the first week at sea, but do what you can to prepare. Get the boat out into the SW approaches or in a SW swell after a period of rough weather and test it and you…properly.
We had our first big planning session today, including the media strategy and a date to launch by. This blog is the first part of it. Look out for webpage with twitter and facebook feeds and spread the word. Welcome aboard.
We selected our Norwich planning room for good reasons. The Alexandra Tavern http://www.alexandratavern.co.uk/ is also the home of ‘Tiny’ Little ocean rower
and erstwhile mentor to the likes of Roz Savage http://www.rozsavage.com/ and a good number of other rowers since. His online blog http://www.tinysatlanticrow.com/ is widely regarded as one of the best ocean rowing stories.
Tiny has kindly offered to support us with advice whenever we need it and is happy for us to base ourselves in his watering hole. He brews 7 different Ales to boot, so why not.
His early advice: get the right boat. Get it surveyed and don’t necessarily buy a boat with lots of kit. He told a salutary tale of the life-raft that he rowed across the ocean for 114 days. Its maintenance and safety schedule well in date, he lent it to another rower with the proviso that if its survey date ran out, the guy would pay for the survey. It duly did and when checked it was found to be full of holes and completely useless. 70KG of extra weight that it turned out had been of only psychological benefit!
So buy a boat and then get your key equipment new. Every time.
Second piece of advice. Nothing will prepare you for the first week at sea, but do what you can to prepare. Get the boat out into the SW approaches or in a SW swell after a period of rough weather and test it and you…properly.
Tuesday, 1 October 2013
Sir Derek Jacobi
Want or Need
Sir Derek Jacobi is being interviewed on the Daily Bacon on Radio 5 Live www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/dailybacon and asked what advice he would give to someone saying they wanted to be an actor. ‘If they ‘want’ to be an actor,’ he says, ‘I would advise them not to do it. If they need to be an actor then,’ he said, ‘they need to be prepared to work incredibly hard. The inference being that to be a good actor, you need not to be able to exist without being one. I wondered if that applied to me with this Ocean Rowing challenge?
What’s the difference between obsession, addiction and need? I know one thing. It is very selfish and I don’t like that part of it. Aren’t we all driven to something?
Sir Derek Jacobi is being interviewed on the Daily Bacon on Radio 5 Live www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/dailybacon and asked what advice he would give to someone saying they wanted to be an actor. ‘If they ‘want’ to be an actor,’ he says, ‘I would advise them not to do it. If they need to be an actor then,’ he said, ‘they need to be prepared to work incredibly hard. The inference being that to be a good actor, you need not to be able to exist without being one. I wondered if that applied to me with this Ocean Rowing challenge?
What’s the difference between obsession, addiction and need? I know one thing. It is very selfish and I don’t like that part of it. Aren’t we all driven to something?
Rossiter Yachts
For Sale or Hire ?
In the interim, Steve has been in touch with Rossiter Yachts www.rossiteryachts.co.uk and I try to find out about the propulsion system on the boat and I chase up Justin Coleman to see if ‘Atlantic Song’ is still for sale. Justin gets back to me to say that the boat sold about 2 months ago and he’s not sure why it’s still on the web, but we’re grateful it is.
Justin attempted to row the Atlantic back in 2004 with Henry Dale and abandoned his attempt after about 1000 miles. His partner went on to finish it alone. I e-mail him back, dying to ask what happened, but instead ask if he would be willing to meet us so that we can glean as much experience from him as possible.
It’s amazing what you find when you start to look at other pedal attempts at the Atlantic. There aren‘t many. I mean, hardly any that have succeeded. Check out this from 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486190/Man-returns-round-world-pedal-boat-trip-13-years.html As far as I can find this is the only completed crossing of the E-W route. Completed by Jason Lewis as part of his round the world odessey that took 13 years. When he set out The Dome wasn’t even built!
Interesting to see that he travelled in an enclosed cockpit akin to the idea taken considerably further by Torpedalo, but I can’t find what happened to that one. http://www.torpedalo.com/
There are glossy web entries and some great pictures of the boat. Lots of talk of nakedness, that is old hat these days, isn’t it in the ocean rowing world? But the story dies a death somewhere in 2011/12 and I can’t find out what happened to it. According to Justin, one of the team left Bentley and the sponsors drifted away, but I’ve no proof. I wonder where the boat is now?
This craft, one of a number designed and built by Greg Kolodziejzyk did sea trials the outcome of which he discusses here, http://adventuresofgreg.com/blog/2010/09/22/pedal-the-ocean-expedition-canceled/ and there are more.
In the interim, Steve has been in touch with Rossiter Yachts www.rossiteryachts.co.uk and I try to find out about the propulsion system on the boat and I chase up Justin Coleman to see if ‘Atlantic Song’ is still for sale. Justin gets back to me to say that the boat sold about 2 months ago and he’s not sure why it’s still on the web, but we’re grateful it is.
Justin attempted to row the Atlantic back in 2004 with Henry Dale and abandoned his attempt after about 1000 miles. His partner went on to finish it alone. I e-mail him back, dying to ask what happened, but instead ask if he would be willing to meet us so that we can glean as much experience from him as possible.
It’s amazing what you find when you start to look at other pedal attempts at the Atlantic. There aren‘t many. I mean, hardly any that have succeeded. Check out this from 2007. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-486190/Man-returns-round-world-pedal-boat-trip-13-years.html As far as I can find this is the only completed crossing of the E-W route. Completed by Jason Lewis as part of his round the world odessey that took 13 years. When he set out The Dome wasn’t even built!
Interesting to see that he travelled in an enclosed cockpit akin to the idea taken considerably further by Torpedalo, but I can’t find what happened to that one. http://www.torpedalo.com/
There are glossy web entries and some great pictures of the boat. Lots of talk of nakedness, that is old hat these days, isn’t it in the ocean rowing world? But the story dies a death somewhere in 2011/12 and I can’t find out what happened to it. According to Justin, one of the team left Bentley and the sponsors drifted away, but I’ve no proof. I wonder where the boat is now?
This craft, one of a number designed and built by Greg Kolodziejzyk did sea trials the outcome of which he discusses here, http://adventuresofgreg.com/blog/2010/09/22/pedal-the-ocean-expedition-canceled/ and there are more.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)