Nottinghamshire pair preparing for epic 3,500-mile row across the Atlantic

George Nelson, aged 55 and his brother-in-law Russ Davis, aged 54, both from Mansfield, are together the Oar Blimey team and will row, unsupported, 3,500 nautical miles from Sagres in Portugal to Marigot in St Martin in the Caribbean over 80 days, starting on December 1 and finishing on February 20 next year.

In doing so, they hope to raise £250,000.

To keep the boat moving the whole time, George and Russ will take alternating turns at rowing for two hours, then resting for two hours, all the time every day throughout the three months.

Blisters, salt rashes and sleep deprivation will be the norm for this challenge and every ounce of physical and mental endurance will be required to complete it within the time.

The challenge will be far removed from their normal lives where George is an engineer and Russ an HGV driver.

Neither has undertaken anything quite like this before, although George did take part in the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race in 2015-16 so he ‘knows what it’s like to be in a very cold, rough sea where you can’t step off and go anywhere’.

But George said aiming to raise a large amount of money requires a bigger challenge to undertake.

He said: “Every single penny raised for charity is important and of great value. People do great and generous things no matter how big or small, and much money is raised. I wanted to do something that would be really significant and make a real difference to our local charities, in particular for Our Dementia Choir and Ladybrook Enterprises.”

"I wanted to do something that had the magnitude and the jaw-dropping gravitas of something like rowing across the Atlantic Ocean.

For George, the challenge is also a personal one and one of the main reasons for doing it was seeing the effect dementia has on a loved one first hand.

He continued: “My mother’s got dementia and I saw how her health deteriorated during the lockdown period.

"When it came to starting everything back up again after the lockdowns had been lifted, a lot of the clubs she used to go to had ceased to reopen.

"Added to that, my mother and a lot of her friends were reluctant to go back out of the house again because they thought they were going to get this terrible disease and die.

"That’s why we want to raise £250,000, to help dementia sufferers and activities for them, not just in Mansfield and Ashfield but across Nottinghamshire as well.”

The challenge is a completely independent event and not connected to events like the annual Talisker Whiskey Race which goes across the Atlantic from the Canary Islands.

George and Russ are starting off from mainland Europe and going further in their journey.

The boat they will be using is Rannoch Adventure R20 which is 6.5 metres long and 1.2 metres wide and is built to accommodate two people but in, as George admits, cramped conditions.

George said: “Even though there’s only two of us, it’s going to be lonely because when one is rowing, the other is eating and resting for two hours all the time so we’ll be like ships passing in the night.”

Training for the challenge has already been going for about a year with both George and Russ currently rowing a mile a day every day with the rate set to steadily rise as the start date draws ever nearer.

However, both feel the physical exertion will not be the hardest part of the row.

"Both of us have chatted this through and I think it will be the mental aspect of the row will be the toughest part, particularly the isolation when it’s dark and we’re getting thrown about in rough seas – our biggest danger will be the weather – and you’re out on deck on your own, it’s going to be quite a lonely and miserable existence at times.

"But then again, we also know we’re going to see some spectacular things out there like whales, turtles, sharks and some absolutely beautiful sunsets and sunrises.

"The one thing I’m really looking forward to is seeing the evening stars without any light pollution.”

George and Russ are preparing and self-funding the boat themselves and have been working away on it and modifying and preparing it for the challenge that lies ahead.

And in the next couple of months, they will start getting ready to get out on the water and get used to rowing long distances.

George said: “We’re going to be getting the boat out in April and going through the Caledonian Canal in Scotland and then rowing the entire length of Loch Ness and that will be our first time on the water with it and we’ll be getting used to rowing, used to how the boat behaves and what we need to do to customise it to make it ergonomic to ourselves.

"The next thing we’ll be doing after that we’ve not decided yet as we’re torn between rowing the length of the Irish Sea or going from the east coast of England to Holland and we’ll do that over five or six days and that will be a good sea trial for us.

"And after that it will be 3,000 miles across the Atlantic to the Caribbean.

Oar Blimey are now looking for sponsors and backers for their epic row.

To support the team, visit their website here, on the Facebook page here, on Twitter here and through Reddit and WhatsApp too.