Three novice rowers hoping to cross the Atlantic have been training in Brightlingsea – and receiving help from local organisations.
The team – Adam Cresswell, Henry Cheeseman, both 29, and Sam Gibbons, 28 – have signed up for the World’s Toughest Row event, which starts from the Canary Islands in December.
Sam, who lives in Hertfordshire, is the team’s local connection. His uncles are Adrian and David Gibbons – the former is the current commodore of the Colne Yacht Club and the latter a former commodore of Brightlingsea Sailing Club. The yacht club has been providing storage for the boat, and local firm Clear To See has been supplying sponsor stickers.
“The boat has attracted a lot of interest so far from people passing by the town hard when we’ve been launching and coming back in,” said Sam. “The race is 3,000 unsupported miles across the mid-Atlantic Ocean to Antigua and will take us 35 – 40 days, rowing in two hour shifts.”
Training in Brightlingsea – left to right, Henry Cheeseman, Sam Gibbons and Adam Cresswell
The trio is raising money through sponsorship for three charities – the Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) Trust, Seb’s Foundation and Cure Parkinson’s. One of Sam’s family has MSA and Seb’s Foundation was set up in memory of a teammate of Henry’s in the Harlequins rugby team.
“It’s all about pushing our limits and proving what is possible,” said Sam “We wanted to show that things like this are possible and that if you are prepared to dream big and take action you can build a campaign, get sponsors on board and go from being complete novice rowers with no money and no boat to taking on something as big as rowing an ocean.”
The team are still on the lookout for sponsors – contact Sam at [email protected] for more information.
