Is Ocean Rowing an Exercise in Futility?

There is no doubt in my mind that crossing an ocean alone in a small boat with only oars for propulsion (without sails) is one of the hardest voluntary sporting task anyone can undertake. (I assume that is why this has become my most-read blog. I first wrote it in the early 2000’s, but only have the stats since 2016. It has averaged about one view per day since 2018. Please note that this is a very tricky subject to study and write about, so this page has been edited and re-written several times.)

Ocean rowing demands endless hours of unremitting, monotonous toil on an unforgiving ocean at a painfully slow pace–-especially for singlehanders who are lucky to average one knot (1.15 mph /1.85 kph). This means they will take about 100 days to cross from the Canary Islands to the Antilles, or California to Hawaii—known by seamen for centuries as “trade-wind routes.” This map shows the world’s trade winds and currents, which correspond exactly with the routes followed by the rowboat voyagers. This is not a coincidence!

Warning: the following analysis contains well-known oceanographic and nautical facts, which may offend so-called “ocean rowers” and their supporters. If you can study the whole article and still wish to deny my facts, I am prepared to publish all reasonable responses that include the writer’s real name and background.

These strong and reliable trade winds that propelled sailing ships for centuries now carry sailing boats of all types across oceans and around the world. These winds and the underlying currents also push every floating object, including buoys, fenders and row boats, on their way night and day, regardless of how hard the crew rows–or even whether they row at all! But surely you can row a boat as fast as you can swim, you say? Yes, for an hour or two, if it is very light weight and the water is flat! But the world’s strongest male swimmers can cover 100 kms on open water with no assistance from currents at 3.5 kph, or almost 2 knots–a speed that most ocean rowers can only dream of. With the current helping, swimmers can achieve averages of 2.5 knots over long distances!

The “First Atlantic Row”–Harbo and Samuelson in 1896

This fairly bizarre nautical activity/extreme sport has its origin in 1896 when two Norwegian fishermen departed Manhattan in a wooden 18-foot dory heavily-loaded with canned food and water. They landed on the Scilly Isles in SW Britain in 55½ days–a feat that was and still is “officially proven by their logbook and a journal dictated by Harbo.” That’s how the myth was made, and enabled today’s commentators to make statements like the first link I found online: “They rowed as many as 135 miles a day, but mostly averaged 50 a day.” That’s according to the ironically named “Hook, Line and Sinker website.” Am I the only observer who wonders how the two 1890’s fishermen could possibly row so incredibly quickly in a heavy planked dory with hefty wooden oars while weighed down with traditional clothing, large amounts of solid food stored in waxed paper, limited amounts of water in cans or jars? The answer is self-evident, but no one dares to challenge the 1896 myth…..Learn More Here

In 1966, 70 years had passed before anyone tried to repeat this feat. Two very tough British soldiers, Chay Blyth and John Ridgway, made this voyage in a 20-foot open plywood dory and jump-started the rowing craze that we see today. It took them 92 days–a surprisingly long time compared to that miraculous 55 day crossing,. In the 21st century, the technology is light years ahead, but it still took a team of four highly-trained competitive rowers in a carbon fiber boat eating only ultra-light foods to beat that “record” in 2010.

Crossing the Vast Pacific Ocean

Another British adventurer Peter Bird began his rowing exploits on the Atlantic in 1974, then moved onto the vast Pacific in the 1980’s, stating with one E-W attempt where he was rescued by the Australian Navy in the Coral sea after 294 days afloat.  This saga did not dissuade him from deserting his family and attempting a series of increasingly obsessive attempts over the next 20 years on the stormy crossing from Japan to the USA. He logged a total of 938 days at sea in a rowboat long before the internet arrived–a record that I sincerely hope is never broken. His life came to an end in 1996 when he disappeared somewhere between Hawaii and Alaska. I think it is fair to point out that there are also many other so-called “challenges” available on this route.

But note that Japanese sailor Kenichi Horie has been crossing the North Pacific in some very strange boats since 1962 when he arrived in San Francisco 19-foot long sailboat after 93 days at sea. Since that sensational first trip, the intrepid sailor has crossed the Pacific numerous times on environmentally-friendly vessels, including everything from one powered by solar panels to others made from aluminum cans, plastic bottles and beer kegs. In 2022, to mark the 60th anniversary of his first trip, he sailed the reverse route on another 19 footer in 69 days at the age of 83. (If you find this all rather irrelevant in the middle of an examination of rowing, I challenge you to read on and ask yourself why?)

Ocean Rowing or Ocean Blowing?

Could a rowing team of four strong men keep up with this 5-foot tall octogenerian in a very small sailboat? Of course not. No matter how good your rowboat may look in sea trials and video clips, your rowing team will soon fall far behind until he disappears over the horizon. Yes, you will be loaded with a ton or more of food, water and gear, your boat is rolling heavily and it is often not possible to keep both oars in the water. “That is not a fair comparison,” you say. He is using the wind. Well, the average man in the street would surely disagree with you, while I contend that these extreme athletes are very likely to DRIFT much further than they ROW! This “inconvenient truth” challenges the essential nature of these expeditions and demands that the rower maintain a constant state of denial that he/she is the boat’s prime mover, but is never mentioned by the press or the crew.

And that is with a fair wind. Rowing an empty skiff into a light headwind is hard, rowing it into a moderate headwind with a full load of gear is impossible. In a strong headwind, any rowboat will drift backwards at 1-2 knots unless a sea anchor is deployed. Luckily, even without sails, the rowboat’s high-sided cabins still catch enough of the wind in a breeze to push the boat along easily at 1-2 knots, even allowing it to surf down waves occasionally. The solo crews (and pairs) may well be rowing for all they are worth for 8-12 hours a day, but their efforts are actually far less effective than the power of the wind and current. So a solo rower is unlikely to do much more than keep the bow pointed in the right direction in typical ocean conditions–no matter how much effort they put out.

Ocean rowing went mainstream in 1997 after Sir Chay Blyth launched the first Atlantic Rowing Race from the Canary Islands to the Antilles. He signed up 36 boats in classes for one, two and four crew and the British media absolutely loved “the challenge. “The interesting thing about rowing the Atlantic is that people have only two opinions of it. Either they think it’s fantastic and would love to do it, or they think it’s bloody brainless and stupid and what’s the point,” Blyth said at the start. “If you survive, it was great sport. If you don’t, then of course you made a mistake.” Chay went on to apply his manifesto to sailing and had far more success with a fleet of big steel yachts racing around the world. Of course, they went the wrong way–against the winds and currents, to increase “the challenge” and build even more character!

“The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Rower”

My first personal encounter with “ocean rowing” was on the lower Columbia River, my home waters, in 1991. I discovered this modern rowing obsession had attracted interest in France, perhaps because of the traditional rivalry with Britain. The French adventurer Gerard d’Aboville broke his sponsor’s news embargo after he arrived off the Columbia River in an October gale. I attended the press conference in Astoria, where he related the harrowing 180-day voyage from Japan, and revealed he had capsized 38 times, each time rolling the boat upright by pumping water ballast while shut up in the upturned cabin. He was upside down when he was found by a big fishing boat off the Columbia Bar, and clearly could not navigate the well-known sandbars and breaking waves. He symbolically resumed rowing off Ilwaco in SW Washington state for a ceremonial arrival, breaking one of the vague rules of the sport.

Nonetheless, he was one of the inspirations for my decision to become a professional nautical journalist full time-a career I pursued seriously for the next 30 years. I’ve reluctantly watched as the wide, stormy Pacific has continued to provide a target for these obsessed, arrogant water sports aficionados despite the danger, hardship and the inevitability that in the remote chance of reaching American waters the rower will be unable to enter any of the harbors at the end of the drift. (For any form of water transport, including all the amazing craft sailed by the great Japanese expert Keinich Horie, this would mean failure, but rowers travel in their own private bubble.)

Up to 202, a total of nine soloists had failed to make much of an impression on the 5,000-mile course, including two women, and one Frenchman named Coindre had made it–more or less. The latest was American Sonja Baumstein in 2015, who quit after a week because of “unexpected” bad weather. All of them cheerfully pay for a tow of 10-100 miles out into the favorable current, and would gladly take another at the finish if they could, then demand to be listed as “non-stop, without aid” by the Ocean Rowing Society. Lia Ditton is the latest to proclaim her intention to be the first woman. (See below)

Around 1996, I ran into Hawaiian Mick Bird purely by accident after he sailed to Port Townsend with his wife. He built a plywood rowboat and in 1997 tried three times before he could get away from the coast. In 1997 he covered the first leg of his dream trip: a 64-day, 2,500-mile journey, from Fort Bragg, California to Hawaii. (I recall I saw a rowboat perched on a container in a boatyard in Hawaii when I visited early in 1998 with my folding bike to ride up 13,750′ Mauna Kea from sea level and enjoy my first tropical island.) Years went by and eventually he made it half way around the earth by island hopping in the SW Pacific to Cairns, Australia. He went back tp his family but returned to carry on around the top of Australia and into the Indian Ocean and Java in 2003, before he realized his twin five-year old girls actually needed him more than he needed to finish the trip.

I then met Erden Eruç, the Turkish–American adventurer, during the early days of his five-year effort 2007-2012 as he became the first person in history to complete a circumnavigation by bike and rowboat. Of course that title that was immediately challenged by other candidates like Canadian Colin Angus, who had also rowed and biked around the world years earlier. I met Colin fter his reading in Powell’s bookshop in Portland, and later saw him at his stand in the Wooden Boat Show in Port Townsend. It displayed his kits for a range of plywood rowing/camping/sailing boats that look very sleek and functional.

In 2009, I was happily unaware (and would not have cared anyway) that the first rowers from Japan had reached land at the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco–the intended destination for all the rowers on this route. Chris Martin, 28, Mick Dawson’s rowing partner, said “It hasn’t been done before.” I don’t know if he meant the route or the two-man crew. The voyage apparently is the first unaided and un-escorted trans-Pacific voyage in a rowing boat, the journalist concluded without checking. It took 189 days of unremitting toil and hardship to keep the boat south of the natural drift track towards Oregon. On the last weekend they ran low on food and were down to their last tea, a serious situation for two Englishmen. They sent out a message and a helicopter flown by a Napa Valley winemaker met them 90 miles west of California and dropped two Big Macs, a couple of Bud Light beers and 150 pounds of other food…..so much for the “unaided” claim.

Japanese Tsunami Reveals True Speed of Drift on North Pacific

In 2011, on March 11, I was cycling through southern Chile and about to cross the Andes to Argentina when I saw the news of the magnitude 9.1 earthquake that had just struck off the northeast coast of Japan. Chile was on alert for the predicted arrival of the resulting tsunami after it had overtopped seawalls, disabling three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, and drowned 18,000 people. So what does this have to with ocean rowing you may well ask? According to the current theory: “Japanese flotsam quickly  entered the easterly current of the North Pacific Sub-Tropical Gyre, where the NOAA models predicted material from the 2011 Japanese tsunami to reach our shores about the spring of 2013.” However, Seattle oceanographers Dr. Curtis Ebbesmeyer and Jim Ingraham, known for tracking shipments of Nike shoes lost off ships in mid-ocean, said that prediction doesn’t adequately account for the affect of wind. “How high an object rides in the water can play an enormous role in how winds and current affect that object’s movement. Both winds and currents move items at the sea’s surface, but winds are faster than the currents they drive.”  (Flotsametrics and the Floating World, 2009). He believes the first of that debris started to make landfall on this continent in the autumn of 2011-after about 200 days at sea–just 20 days more than Gerard d’Aboville!

The Amazing Power of Wind and Current on the Atlantic

In 2019, Jean-Jacques Savin, 71, crossed the Atlantic in a barrel-shaped boat that had a ballast fin keel but no means of propulsion. The skipper literally “cast his fate to the winds” when he departed the Canary Islands. He encountering contrary winds and currents for a month before he picked up the tradwinds and spent three months heading steadily west. In a good breeze he covered up to 50 miles in a day while fishing, reading or cooking. His quixotic journey was inspired by Alain Bombard, the French doctor who floated the same route in a rubber inflatable raft without any food or water in 1952. He proved a shipwrecked sailor on the Atlantic could survive on raw fish and rainwater until the wind blew him to an island or shoreline.

On the central Pacific, long accidental drift voyages west by South American fishermen whose motors have quit have been reported in the last 20 years. The too relied on wind and current to cover thousands of miles while suffering great hardships, often drifting aimlessly in circles for days or weeks. 

In 2015 when another Brit, John Beedon, pushed off from the iconic Golden Gate Bridge (SF) I was once again unaware and uninterested that he rowed in a large circle–where flotsam gets trapped in another ocean gyre– in “the strongest El Nino condition in a decade.” He expected to compete the journey to Australia in 130 to 140 days, but his 208-day odyssey forced him to battle  tropical storms and rotating currents that added 1500 nautical miles to the 6100-direct route time. Luckily he had “developed an affinity with the ocean on his Atlantic row, which he felt needed to be explored more!” He could have mentioned he was also exploring the his ability to survive on a low calorie diet, as he arrived in Cairns weighing barely 130lbs and looking close to death by starvation. Alas, his attempt to make the crossing” solo, unassisted and non-stop” failed because he needed resupply north of Vanuatu. Still, he emphasized that his vehicle was “a pure rowing boat, no auto pilot, no dagger board, no wind catching design elements,’ (Well, we all thank Neptune for that! I’m sure the sea gods would not allow a man with a dagger board to succeed, even if he was refusing to eat fish!)

In 2016, I learned that Schooner Creek Boatworks in Portland was building a high-tech carbon/foam 28′ rowboat to a unique, untested heavy-displacement design with a full-length keel by  Eric Sponberg that was designed for a displacement of two tons fully loaded. In 2019, the owner, Jacob Hendrickson, began rowing from from Neah Bay on the NW tip of Washington SW across the Pacific Ocean. His expensive boat was hand-built and crammed with electronics. Jacob and his boat attended the local boat show where I asked him why he was doing this. He explained that “it would be a great way to see wildlife and give him time to decide what direction his life should go.”

He departed from Neah Bay on the NW corner of Washington in order to go further than Beeden, but was averaging only 10-15 miles per day for the first 130 days. He picked up speed in the trade winds, occasionally logging 6 knots on his GPS feed. Closing the Australian coast after ten months, he anchored for four days on the Great Barrier Reef waiting for the wind to change direction so he could row into the port of Cairns. When he re-started, he was still unable to steer in the right direction and ran onto a remote beach where he was found by the Coast guard and towed to Cairns. (This is a common occurrence on the approach to this wild dry coast.)

However, he did indeed make a successful solo crossing non-stop from the USA to Australia and set a record for longest, slowest travel by water at 336 days. Some of us might consider this a very unhealthy length of time at sea alone in a tiny space, but such comments are never mentioned by the press. You might think news of his record-breaking trip would have gone viral. Actually, the only media that showed any interest were the local Cairns paper, the South China Post of Hong Kong, and Oregon public radio in the USA. The sad truth is that unfortunately, it barely made a ripple in the rest of the world. Question: Why do you think the media was so under-whelmed by this heroic feat of endurance?

Jacob pronounced himself “pleasantly surprised by the sheer volume of wildlife encounters. There wasn’t a day that passed without something beautiful to witness. It gave me a wider perspective on what it means to live on Earth.” Another comment he made after the trip was: “It was more a desire for personal growth and self-reflection and trying to figure out how I really want to live my life. It taught me that if your soul is drowning in the mundane, if you’re tired of ignoring that inner voice yearning for something more, just remember: This is your life; only you can decide. Set your sights and get to work; who knows what heights you’ll achieve. One thing is certain, you’ll have learned what it means to truly live, and that is priceless.” (After 336 days? Right!)

The next rower to show up was Lia Ditton, who happens to be BRITISH like me. She has a vast amount of sailing experience including the Singlehanded Transatlantic Race in 2005 in a very fast trimaran, but explained that she was unable to find a sponsor after that feat. She had more success with the media and found sponsors for her rowing goals. She actually came to Astoria in 2019 to scope out the port before she began a row down the coast to San Francisco–the second of two training trips down the entire west coast before her 2020 row to Hawaii. I admitted I still had serious doubts about rowing, but wished her well and she made that crossing in 83 days–a speed record for a female. This success was one of her reasons for continuing to train and plan the dangerous crossing from Japan to the USA, she wrote later. This is the hardest rowing route in the world, where the west wind will often get completely beyond what a rowboat can handle.

Meanwhile, organized rowing races with standard boats and large entry fees continued to originate in Britain, always on the fairly safe and predictable 2,800-mile Atlantic trade wind route. The crews often consist of family members, sports club teams, female friends etc. (This is the kind of risk the British press love to describe as “The sport where ordinary people perform extraordinary feats,” and encourage people with no experience to follow in their wake. Then a “very ordinary” Frenchman decided to spoil the party….

2022: There are also many individual marathons underway every year, but the only one I have come across recently is a 22-year old Australian boatbuilder Tom Robinson. He had shipped his DIY wooden longboat to Lima, Peru from where he hopes to become “the youngest person to row the full width of the Pacific Ocean.” He plans to stop at any islands he passes for some fresh food and walks. This is in contrast to Beedon and Hendrickson, whose personal rulebook insisted they had to remain on the boat regardless and never set foot onshore to claim the “non-stop” title. (Judge for yourself whether these so-called “rules” are relevant, necessary or merely masochistic.)

To make the long trans-Pacific routes from the Americas to Australia even more arduous, most of the rowers proclaim their intention to put limits on themselves by completing “a non-stop trip” with no stops at those annoying tropical islands that keep getting in the way and tempting the rower to stop for walk on the beach where coconuts are waiting to be found. Does it matter whether these rules are self-imposed or are prescribed by the Ocean Rowing Society, which imposes its will on those looking to demonstrate their freedom to take on the most appalling effort on the planet! This obscure organization has proclaimed itself a world authority and governing body–like FIFA for football, UCI for cycling, and presumes to rule–or fail to notice–the various breaches of its strict rule book. One regulation I particularly like is the ban on sun shades or awnings–for pale British rowers sitting in the tropic sun for months at a time! One female soloist told a reporter she would not take a tarp to protect herself from the sun, lest she be tempted to use it to catch the wind. (I think there is the potential for a lawsuit here by the family of someone who dies from skin cancer caused by 30o-day marathon drift.)

The myth of the “gallant ocean rower defying overwhelming odds for charity” certainly appeals to the public, but depends on the unquestioning support of the media as rowers seek ever longer and more difficult routes to “conquer.”  Despite the isolation, risk and disregard for the facts (or perhaps because of it) over 800 rowboats have attempted to cross an ocean since the 1980’s–and over one third of them have quit far from land with the expectation of a speedy rescue! This is according to the Ocean Rowing Society, which encourages and enables these dangerous marathon trips. These 265+ rescues were all expensive, inconvenient and risky undertakings. Most ships have very high sides and the crew are not equipped or trained to pick exhausted people out of the water. They have to improvise gear like cargo nets, rope ladders etc. to get shipwrecked mariners (not exhausted rowers) up on deck. A sailor on an Australian navy ship commented to me that they were forced to turn around on a passage in the Indian Ocean to rescue a hapless crew. He suggests these “clowns” should be forced to have an escort boat, since they are incapable of helping themselves.

The recent “record breakers” on the 2018 Atlantic tradewind race described their daily routine very succinctly as: “Eat-Sleep-Row and then repeat,” and had very little to add to that. WHAT’S THE POINT of all this grinding effort? you may well ask. I’ve interviewed five successful rowers in person, spent too much time reading their stories waxing poetic about the “Joy of Rowing” and listening to their interviews and TED talks online–all in a vain attempt to find out why. (Don’t take my word for this! Look at the videos, news articles, TED Talks yourself.)

I’ve noticed that the word “survival” turns up way to often to describe a successful journey, as in “How I survived 300 days in a Rowboat.” Consider why you never see this applied to sailing: it would have to read “How I survived a 300-day cruise across the South Pacific.” The recent “record breakers” on the 2018 Atlantic tradewind race described their daily routine very succinctly as: “Eat-Sleep-Row and then repeat,” and had very little to add to that during their radio interview.

So here are the best reasons I’ve found in the rowers own words: “For the challenge /To publicize a worthy cause / To push myself harder than I ever have / It’s just a test of willpower and belief/ The longer the voyage–the tougher you become/It’s fantastic when you arrive.“

As you have realized by now, I really have a problem with this list. It is nothing but cliches that have no relation to the activity the rowers perform up to 18 hours a day. These reasons can equally well be applied to literally any journey of any length by foot, ski, bicycle, horse, kayak etc. I challenge you to find a single honest mention of pleasure or satisfaction from the act of ocean rowing day after day. Indeed, the list also applies to any common challenge like raising children, joining the Marines, running a charity, or even surviving cancer.

In fact, while re-writing this on May 1, 2022, I learned that a woman who took up running after she lost her left leg to cancer has established a new Guinness World Record for most consecutive marathons. Jacky Hunt-Broersma, 46, gets my real admiration for running 26.2-miles every day since mid-January, normally taking around five hours, and looks in really good shape at the end of this “marathon of marathons.” That fits equally well with my own far less newsworthy sporting journeys like sailing the Inland Passage to Alaska and back in 1982 and ’88, the bike and hike from Death Valley (-120′) to Mount Whitney (+14,424′) in 2001, cycling across America over three Septembers in 2018-18, Willamette River paddle-pedal Eugene-Portland-Eugene in 1995.

Safety of Ocean Rowboats

1) The appalling lack of stability, which can easily result in a capsize once, twice or up to 12 times a day. That is one of several records held by the first US female trans-Atlantic rower Tori Murden.  (The technical solution to boats capsizing in an organized event is to include a stability test in the rules and ensure automatic self-righting. This is done by the 6.5 meter Mini class of sailboats that race the tradewind route every two years.)

2) The painfully slow speed of solo rowers and inability to change course, which leads to exhaustion, hunger and disillusionment. The 1/3 failure rate means that over  hundreds of crews have switched on their distress beacons for reasons ranging from trivial to life-threatening, effectively demanding to be rescued by the closest ship. (The simple solution to incompetent adventurers who may require an expensive rescue is to insist they buy rescue insurance like many mountaineers, cavers, rafters etc. One supplier is DAN, see www.danboater.org)

3) The long-standing tradition of navigation or “law of the sea” demands that the nearest vessel must change course to rescue these hapless adventure seekers. Far from land, this is likely to be a giant container ship or naval vessel with a rigid schedule. (The simple solution is to require races or racers provide one or more escort vessels. The  problem with escort boats for rowers is that no crew would ever sign up to cross an ocean in a well-equipped sail or power boat at a speed of one knot for 100 days. It is literally impossible to go that slow in a normal boat, even if you were sampling plankton every mile.)

4) The rowers all appear to be blissfully unaware that the same honorable tradition that requires their rescue also expects anyone attempting to cross an ocean to depart in a seaworthy craft that can navigate in bad weather, and be as self-sufficient as possible. (It is impossible for a rowboat to have those qualities.) 

5) A rowboat is by definition completely unable to avoid a ship on a collision course, so the ship’s officer must take resposibility to avoid the rowboat. All other small craft make sure to stay well clear of ships. (Once again, this forces mariners to make the extra effort to visually check if they are shipwreck survivors who need rescuing, or rowers who are pretending to be shipwrecked as they drift across the shipping lanes.)

6) Don’t worry about capsizes, falling overboard, or difficulty in boarding after swimming: they build character!

I would point out that wind power is free and powered the ships that explored and charted the entire planet. Wind is also clean and green and is likely one of the solutions to climate change when turning wind turbines. If muscle-power is so wonderful, why not try powering your home with a treadmill? Speaking of treadmills, pedaling to turn a propeller is about 30 percent more efficient than rowing, as can be seen in the world records for all distances from 100 meters to 24 hours. This is also proven in the human-powered boat race R2AK This is never even mentioned by the rowing fans. Perhaps it’s simply too efficient?

WHAT’S THE POINT of all this grinding effort? I’ve interviewed five successful rowers in person, spent too much time reading their stories about the “Joy of Rowing” and listening to their interviews and TED talks online–all in a vain attempt to find out why. (Don’t take my word for this! Look at the videos, news articles, TED Talks etc. yourself.)

Question: That sounds like fun, don’t you want to have a go too? And as for the new records, sometimes a full week faster than the previous time, the media should have pointed out this was the equivalent of running a two-hour marathon! In a more traditional athletic endeavor we would be asking what kind of drugs they were taking! Of course it wasn’t their diet or their training, the answer is it was all down to the weather. But this simple fact has been concealed from the public since the very first crossings–and would be considered as a cynical put-down. This is in contrast to other high-risk sponsored outdoor sports like the “Everest Industry” where reports on the number of deaths, the employment of poor Sherpa porters, and the crowds dropping litter or dropping dead on the summit have caused a steady stream of criticism from critics within the climbing world and from the popular media.

The result is that the rowers seem to have no more freedom of action than a seaman who has been press-ganged or a galley slave!

The problem I have with this list is that they are all cliches that have no relation to the activity the rowers perform up to 18 hours a day. These reasons can equally well be applied to literally any journey of any length by foot, ski, bicycle, horse, kayak etc. I challenge you to find a single mention of pleasure or satisfaction from the act of ocean rowing day after day. In fact, the list fits equally well with my own less newsworthy journeys like sailing the Inland Passage to Alaska and back, bike and hike Mount Whitney (+14,424′) from Death Valley (-120′), cycling across America in three years. Indeed, the list also applies to any common challenge like raising children, joining the Marines, running a charity, or even surviving cancer.

In fact, the recent “record breakers” on the 2018 Atlantic tradewind race described their daily routine very succinctly as: “Eat-Sleep-Row and then repeat,” and had very little to add to that. (That sounds like fun, don’t you want to have a go too? )

And as for the new records, sometimes a full week faster than the previous time, the media should have pointed out this was the equivalent of running a two-hour marathon! In a more traditional athletic endeavor we would be asking what kind of drugs they were taking! Of course it wasn’t their diet or their training, the answer is it was all down to the weather. But this simple fact has been concealed from the public since the very first crossings–and would be considered as a cynical put-down. This is in contrast to other high-risk sponsored outdoor sports like the “Everest Industry” where reports on the number of deaths, the employment of poor Sherpa porters, and the crowds dropping litter or dropping dead on the summit have caused a steady stream of criticism from critics within the climbing world and from the popular media.

To those who are truly obsessed, stopping at tropic islands for food, water or just a stroll on the beach shows a lack of commitment and is viewed as very poor form. On the long trans-Pacific routes, why not stop and explore the tropical islands, meet people from different cultures—all the wonderful reasons why people sail across oceans. Is it because that would spoil the rowers self-image of desperate people slogging away under the hot sun day after day after day? It certainly seems that these self-imposed rules are deliberately intended to make the experience harder to attract more attention. The result is that the rowers seem to have no more freedom of action than a seaman who has been press-ganged or a galley slave!

Question: That sounds like fun, don’t you want to have a go too?

And as for the new records, sometimes a full week faster than the previous time, the media should have pointed out this was the equivalent of running a two-hour marathon! In a more traditional athletic endeavor we would be asking what kind of drugs they were taking! Of course it wasn’t their diet or their training, the answer is it was all down to the weather. But this simple fact has been concealed from the public since the very first crossings–and would be considered as a cynical put-down. This is in contrast to other high-risk sponsored outdoor sports like the “Everest Industry” where reports on the number of deaths, the employment of poor Sherpa porters, and the crowds dropping litter or dropping dead on the summit have caused a steady stream of criticism from critics within the climbing world and from the popular media.

To those who are truly obsessed, stopping at tropic islands for food, water or just a stroll on the beach shows a lack of commitment and is viewed as very poor form. On the long trans-Pacific routes, why not stop and explore the tropical islands, meet people from different cultures—all the wonderful reasons why people sail across oceans. Is it because that would spoil the rowers self-image of desperate people slogging away under the hot sun day after day after day? It certainly seems that these self-imposed rules are deliberately intended to make the experience harder to attract more attention. The result is that the rowers seem to have no more freedom of action than a seaman who has been press-ganged or a galley slave!

And as for the new records, sometimes a full week faster than the previous time, the media should have pointed out this was the equivalent of running a two-hour marathon! In a more traditional athletic endeavor we would be asking what kind of drugs they were taking! Of course it wasn’t their diet or their training, the answer is it was all down to the weather. But this simple fact has been concealed from the public since the very first crossings–and would be considered as a cynical put-down. This is in contrast to other high-risk sponsored outdoor sports like the “Everest Industry” where reports on the number of deaths, the employment of poor Sherpa porters, and the crowds dropping litter or dropping dead on the summit have caused a steady stream of criticism from critics within the climbing world and from the popular media.

So here are my five best reasons NOT to row for more than 36 hours:

Wind and current are far stronger than any solo rower

Rowboats capsize easily and are not easily re-righted

Rowers often demand rescue by passing ships

Averaging 1 mph is pathetic and intolerably slow

Applying the rower’s ethic of  “the harder the better” to other outdoor sports, this is what I get:

polar trekking–ban kites and skis, walking only

bike tours–ban pedaling, push the bike all the way

horse packing—ban riding, walking only

hunting—ban bows and catapults, spears only

Of course they all sound ridiculous and contrived, but is banning sails when crossing a wide ocean any different? Sailing, is historically and ecologically appropriate, incredibly efficient and very satisfying. Put a mast and simple rig on a typical rowboat, hoist a sail, and the trade wind will easily move your boat faster than four strong men, and 5-10 times faster than a solo rower, day after day. In fact, all the great “open boat” voyages were completed by sail, not by oar!

Mutiny on the Bounty 1789

After the mutiny on HMS Bounty,it was the infamous Captain Bligh who saved his 18 loyal crew when they were cast adrift in the South Pacific. Bligh took command of their 23′ lifeboat and navigated 4,400 miles to safety in the Dutch East Indies in 40 days. If you think they rowed any of that distance, you are sadly mistaken. Lifeboats were always equipped with sails, and the crew sailed in the trade winds all the way.

Loss of Shackleton’s Ship Endurance 1916

The  celebrated voyage to save the trapped crew of the wrecked polar ship Endurance was undertaken in a lifeboat with an improvised canvas deck cover. The crew of six voyaged from Elephant Island to South Georgia–800 nautical miles through icy and stormy waters. They are still admired for their incredible skill and grit–in sailing, of course. Without the stout canvas sails or the boat cover, the trip would never have been undertaken. (Note that the 1983 SOLAS rule banned the traditional open lifeboat propelled by oars for being close to useless. It required all lifeboats on passenger ships to be modern, totally enclosed, self-righting, and equipped with an engine.)

The media absolutely loves this activity, and it shows in the glowing accounts they write about “everyday people taking on super-human challenges for worthy causes.” They totally fail to make any attempt to explain the downside to this rowing mania without a single dissenting voice being heard.

A Second Opinion

But why be so damned critical, you ask? Why not let them have an adventure and pretend they are using only oars? Surely rowing an ocean is an admirable sporting goal even if htey are drifting more than rowing. We should respect these adventurers for their determination and achievements…..and rescue them we they fail. How can I accuse well over a thousand so-called ocean rowers of pursuing a goal that I describe as “utterly futile?” (Definition: “Totally pointless, achieves no useful end or goal.”)

This a tough question and not an easy one to put into words. Fishermen, sailors, bar pilots, lifeboat crews all know instinctively that the ocean is not a place to play around. The slower you go, the more problems with weather, food, water, equipment you will encounter. But there is a deeper more philosophical reason why I have written this critique. Even if a would-be rower can solve all the problems I have listed, I still want to know WHY row when you can blow.

Is this whole rowing business anything more than a charade–a futile, meaningless, and desperately sad way to cross an ocean. Proudly ignoring the fact that the wind is blowing and you could be done in a month with a simple sail, but instead sitting out there for 100 days or more slaving away at the oars, so you can proclaim you never broke the rules.

I hope this has helped you understand the true nature of ocean rowing/drifting. Please join me in countering the sea of hype surrounding this delusional and pointless activity.

Sincerely,

Peter Marsh

My effort to understand this puzzle now includes the “The Martyrdom Effect” theory by Christopher Olivola PhD (University of Warwick UK) and Eldar Shafir PhD (Princeton University USA) which offers some insight into the social and psychological factors behind many types of marathon exploits. (My review of Deep Water, the 2007 Donald Crowhurst documentary, also attempted to dive below the surface of this famous nautical tragedy.)

Tall Ships for Character Building

Why on earth abandon the historical craft and tradition of sailing that will convey you across the oceans with moderate effort–bar occasional and sometimes demanding handling of the sails? Presumably because it is too easy, so must never be mentioned in connection with ocean rowing. Yes, the wind has been carrying sailors across the oceans for thousands of years! Centuries before freeze-dried food, watermakers and GPS distress beacons, Stone Age natives were crossing the Pacific Ocean under sail not paddle. On a “tall ship” you learn to climb the rigging and furl sail, tie knots, plot the ship’s route on a chart, and get along as a group. On a rowboat you learn one skill: how to row day after day after day.

For the last 20 years, I have viewed this “extreme sport” and all its enablers as more of a cult than a sport! Why do these rowers suffer the horrendous labor of endless rowing for hundreds of days just to progress at a half to one knot, or being blown backwards occasionally, when you could enjoy relaxed sailing at 4-5 knots? After all, wind power is clean, green, and free, and it blows rowboats far faster than the rowers can propel themselves. That’s why some solo rowers go surprisingly fast, while the unlucky ones spend weeks or months drifting in circles, resulting in marathon “slow boat to nowhere” journeys.