Two North Atlantic rowboats

Following on from Eric Sponberg's excellent thread about the very neat ocean rowing boat he has designed for crossing the Pacific -
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/pacific-rowboat-54346.html

There are currently a couple of rowing boats crossing the North Atlantic from New York to England.

My Norwegian friend Stein set off 5 weeks ago, singlehanded, at the grand young age of 70, to commemorate the transatlantic row of two Norwegians who rowed from New York to the Scillies in 1896 in a fairly basic open dory in the remarkable time of 55 days.
Stein is currently a quarter of the way there.... here is his Facebook page about his trip (you do not need to be signed in to see it).
https://www.facebook.com/soloatlanticrow2016

And a link to his Tracker -
https://my.yb.tl/soloatlanticrow2016/map-only/

And his Tracker on the Ocean Rowing Society webpage -
http://www.oceanrowing.com/Stein_Hoff2016/Stein_dist.htm

A team of 5 women set off from New York 2 weeks ago, and they have caught up with Stein on longitude, although they are further north - here is their Facebook page -
https://www.facebook.com/Rannoch-Womens-Challenge-206985789637946/?fref=ts
They are aiming to beat the current North Atlantic rowing record of 43 days, and also be the first all women team to row the North Atlantic.

Here is a link to their Tracker -
http://www.fleetint.com/Track?from=...&defaultMapType=satellite&defaultMode=history

And their homepage -
https://rannochwomenschallenge.com/

Their boat is a Rannoch 45 -
http://www.rannochadventure.com/boats/

Stein's boat was built from a plywood kit with epoxy, and I think it is the same design as the boats that took part in the first Woodvale Transatlantic rowing race from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 1997 (which Stein also participated in, although he was double handed then).

Both of the above boats do have very exposed rowing cockpits - ok for rowing on a warm tradewind route, but they must find it heavy going at times in the North Atlantic. Both have had to heave to with their parachute sea anchors out to slow down their rate of drift backwards, Stein especially so, as can be seen from their Trackers.

I think that a design like Eric's, with a lot more protection for the rower(s), and a significant keel (for directional and transverse stability) would have been a better choice for the North Atlantic, but hey ho, both boats are out there now, fighting hard to gain easting, and doing amazingly well in the circumstances.

 

Wow. What a voyage. That's definitely an event of a lifetime.