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Frozen out – the rower on a solo polar mission

By Kathy Marks in Sydney

Oliver Hicks, plans to row the Flying Carrot 15,000 miles around Antarctica if he can overcome the objections of maritime authorities in Australasia

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Oliver Hicks, plans to row the Flying Carrot 15,000 miles around Antarctica if he can overcome the objections of maritime authorities in Australasia

After years of meticulous preparation, Oliver Hicks is ready to launch an attempt to row solo around the world. First, though, the young Englishman must surmount a last-minute obstacle: the bossy paternalism of authorities in Australasia, where he intends to start his expedition.

Mr Hicks, from Suffolk, had planned to set off from New Zealand on his audacious voyage, which will take him across the Pacific Ocean and down into the icy waters of Antarctica. But maritime officials refused to allow him to leave, saying his trip was too perilous, for himself and for those likely to be called on to rescue him.

Following a swift change of itinerary, the 27-year-old decamped to southern Tasmania, where authorities were equally lukewarm. The maritime safety body, Marine and Safety Tasmania, urged him to reconsider his "inherently dangerous" plan yesterday. However, unlike their New Zealand counterparts, who could have detained him, Australian officials cannot prevent him from leaving.

Mr Hicks was lying low yesterday, putting the final touches to his hi-tech boat, the Flying Carrot, in which he hopes to become the first rower to circle the globe. But interference from officialdom – fuelled in part by rescue missions that had to be launched during the Vendée Globe round-the-world yacht race – is unlikely to deter him from setting off before the end of this month.

At the age of 17, he cycled 1,000 miles from Land's End to John O'Groats. At 21, he ran six marathons (150 miles) back to back across the Sahara desert. Four years ago, he became the first person to row solo eastbound across the North Atlantic: a 124-day trip in a second-hand boat.

But none of that compares with what lies ahead now: up to 22 months alone at sea, a diet of dehydrated food, multi-vitamins and the occasional fish, and a 15,000-mile route that takes in the iceberg-strewn Southern Ocean and the "Furious Fifties" – the winds that rage between 50 and 60 degrees south.

The 24ft Flying Carrot is, of course, no ordinary boat. The fibreglass vessel has a self-righting hull, solar panels and a wind generator to power Mr Hicks's communications equipment. It is steered by a computer-controlled autopilot and is equipped with 10 pairs of oars, a sail (for emergencies only), a laptop and two satellite phones. The bow cabin will have an emergency grab-bag containing survival equipment.

Even with all the technological assistance, it will be a gruelling trip. The English adventurer plans to paddle for nine hours a day, covering 30 miles daily for 500 days, braving biting winds and mountainous swells. He will take a break mid-year, pausing for a few months on South Georgia, in the southern Atlantic, to restock his supplies and avoid the worst of the southern hemisphere winter.

That assumes that all goes well, of course, a view not shared by the official body, Maritime New Zealand. Its strategy and communications manager, Lindsay Sturt, told The Sydney Morning Herald: "The risks inherent in Mr Hicks's proposed voyage are substantial and the likelihood of rescue being required is significant."

Mr Hicks – the youngest person to row across an ocean – arrived in Tasmania just before Christmas and put his boat in the water last week, after two weeks in quarantine in Hobart.

According to Hobart's The Mercury, the Flying Carrot will be towed to its launch site at Recherche Bay, near Tasmania's southern tip, by a support vessel, Blizzard, which will escort it out to sea. Then Mr Hicks will be on his own, as he crosses the Pacific to Cape Horn, traverses the hazardous Drake Passage, then heads down into the Southern Ocean.

In his blog, he explained why the voyage appealed to him. It was, he wrote, "extraordinarily difficult; long duration – like the old-fashioned explorers; solo – to raise the bar as high as possible; a first – never been done before; an ocean adventure; exciting, exhilarating, frightening and, at times, mind-numbing".

Wandering spirits: Adventurers in trouble

*Adelir Antonio de Carli

In an attempt to set a record for the longest time spent flying with balloons, the 41-year-old Brazilian priest attached 1,000 helium-filled party balloons to his chair and set off from Paranagua, Brazil, in April 2008. Fr de Carli was trying to fly the 465 miles to Dourados, hoping to raise funds to build a chapel for truckers in his parish. He disappeared after bad weather blew him off course and his body was found three months later off south-eastern Brazil.

*Steve Fossett

An adventurer who made a number of daredevil record attempts, Fossett met his end while preparing to break the land-speed record. He disappeared in September 2007 while flying his single-engine plane, looking – it is believed – for a site to stage the attempt. In 2002 Fossett, 63, a friend of Sir Richard Branson, became the first person to fly solo around the world in a balloon. His remains were found last year near where his plane crashed in California.

*Jean Le Cam

Covering a distance of 26,000 miles and having claimed the lives of three participants, the Vendée Globe is considered the world's most gruelling yacht race and has earned the nickname "the Everest of the Seas". Out of the 30 racers who started this year's event, 18 have dropped out. One of these is Le Cam, who last week became trapped in the hull of his boat in extreme weather. He was stuck there for 16 hours before Vincent Riou, another participant, rescued him.

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Comments

Around the World??? Certainly NOT!
[info]erdeneruc wrote:
Saturday, 28 February 2009 at 11:50 am (UTC)
Dear Kathy: "to row solo around the world" you wrote above.

For a route to be an around the world row, it will have to cross the Equator. If such a route also includes a pair of antipodes, it would then be a circumnavigation. These are the Guinness World Record positions on such human powered surface journeys. AdventureStats does not distinguish between a circumnavigation and an around the world journey.

An important precedent to this surface journey ruling also comes from the world of sailing. World Speed Sailing Record Council requires that an "Around the World" sailing record claim must have crossed the Equator. Rule 26(a) in "the courses offshore" section of the WSSRC Rules Book is quoted below:

"Around the World, eastbound and westbound"
"To sail around the World, a vessel must start from and return to the same point, must cross all meridians of longitude and must cross the Equator. It may cross some but not all meridians more than once (i.e. two roundings of Antarctica do not count). The shortest orthodromic track of the vessel must be at least 21,600 nautical miles in length calculated based on a 'perfect sphere'. In calculating this distance, it is to be assumed that the vessel will sail around Antarctica in latitude 63 degrees south. A vessel starting in the Southern Hemisphere has to round an island or other fixed point in the Northern Hemisphere but only once that will satisfy the minimum distance requirement." (see: http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/rulesbook/index.html)

WSSR position is in agreement with the Guinness World Records position on Around the World surface journeys, and it demands that a distance farther than the length of the Equator to be covered in such a journey.

When Maud Fountenoy claimed that she would break Dee Caffari's record, she was rightly challenged by the WSSR about her alleged "around the world" sailing record attempt. According to WSSR, the path Maud would have taken around Antarctica similar to Oliver's planned route would have only been around 12,000nm (not 18,000nm), would not have crossed the Equator and therefore would not be considered an around the world sail.
(See: http://www.sailspeedrecords.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=29:wssr-newsletter-no-128-maud-de-fontenoy&catid=2:news&Itemid=5)

I hope that Oliver succeeds in his quest, however the rest of us should qualify carefully what will have been accomplished. It is only with due sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct that we will preserve the challenge of rowing around the world for the future generations.

Oliver has chosen a formidable challenge to row on three oceans and around Antarctica. He has chosen a worthy challenge, and that is reaching for greatness in itself. He needs no more props, no more gimmicks to make his journey noticed. My hat is off to Oliver for his courage to begin and I honor his journey. Let's keep it there and let's tell it as it is...

Best regards.

Erden Eruç
Around-n-Over
http://www.Around-n-Over.org/circumnavigation.htm
Around the World claim - disputed
[info]jason6123 wrote:
Monday, 2 March 2009 at 08:04 am (UTC)
While Mr Hicks, if successful, will achieve a noteworthy feat by circumnavigating Antarctica by rowboat, he will not, unfortunately, complete 'around the world' by any stretch of the imagination. Guidelines for human powered circumnavigations, of which rowing can said to be one, are provided by AdventureStats of Explorers Web:
http://www.adventurestats.com/rules.shtml#around

The minimum requirement for such a claim would be to cross the equator twice, cross all lines of longitude, complete the minimum distance of the equator's circumference. For a human powered circumnavigation claim, he would also have to cross a pair of antipodal points en route.

Nevertheless, I wish Mr Hicks every success in what is undoubtedly a remarkable challenge.

Jason Lewis
Expedition 360: First Human Powered Circumnavigation of the World (1994-2007)
Frozen out ? the rower on a solo polar mission
[info]onlytomas wrote:
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 at 10:07 pm (UTC)
It is a dangerous expedition, but I hope he will succeed. Clearly he already has demonstrated his character, but frozen waters present much more difficult challenge than running six marathons or row across the North Atlantic. It is a very brave attempt indeed, but I can see where objections are coming from. This trip is not a walk in the park and if from the very beginning we expect that ?likelihood of rescue being required is significant" the purpose of this trip must be really worth it. Tom from buy to let mortgage.

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