The World’s Toughest Row – ex Member takes part in Atlantic Ocean challenge
(scroll down for the latest updates …)
While most Members were marking the festive season in more traditional and comfortable ways, former Roehampton Club Member Rob Cross is rowing across the Atlantic Ocean as part of the ‘The World’s Toughest Row’ (the former Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge) and is aiming to raise significant sums for charity in the process.
Rob is the elder son of long-standing Club Members, James and Victoria Cross.
With friends Rob Treasure and Charlie Newman, Rob is one of a trio called TEAMV3NTURE. The trio met at Sandhurst in 2019 and all are serving British Army officers: Cross in the Welsh Guards, Treasure in the Rifles and Newman in the Royal Artillery. The team hopes to become the first serving military trio to row any ocean.
‘The World’s Toughest Row’ is a 3,000 mile race across the Atlantic from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua. The race started on Wednesday last week (11 December 2024) and – with good fortune and much effort over Christmas and New Year – TEAMV3NTURE and their boat, Stephen, aim to complete the crossing in 35 to 40 days (NB 35 days would beat the record for a trio).
Stephen is named after Rob Treasure’s father who died of cancer in 2021, and TEAMV3NTURE is competing to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support in Stephen Treasure’s memory. The trio aims to raise £200,000 or more, with 70% (£140,000+) of all donations going to Macmillan and the balance being shared equally between the team’s three regimental charities.
It took over three years of planning, organisation, training and fund-raising by TEAMV3NTURE to get to the start line and Christmas Day will be Day 15 of the race.
On Day 6 of the race (17th December) Rob Cross and his teammates were in eleventh place out of 37 boats. Of the boats ahead of them, only one is another trio – the others being teams of four or five rowers.
If Members are interested in following the race while in progress, the free YB App is excellent and very easy to use: download at YB Races App | YB Tracking and search for the World’s Toughest Row Atlantic 2024. Each team’s location, speed, ranking, distance to travel, etc. can then be seen at a glance. The data is updated every 4 hours. TEAMV3NTURE can be followed on Instagram/X/Facebook: @teamv3nture.
If any Member would like to support the team’s charitable fund-raising the link is: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/macmillanv3 Any support that the Roehampton Club community is able to give would be hugely appreciated.
Update: 7th January
Members may be interested to have a progress report regarding former Roehampton Club Member Rob Cross and his participation in ‘The World’s Toughest Row’.
‘The World’s Toughest Row’ is a more than 3,000 mile race across the Atlantic from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua. The race started on Wednesday 11 December 2024 and Rob and his fellow TEAMV3NTURE oarsmen now have less than 1,000 nautical miles to go! The trio is currently in 9th place overall (36 boats remain in the race) and, as at 08.00 on 7 January 2025 (Day 28 of the race), the trio has already covered over 1,830 nautical miles and has 987 nautical miles to go. To give some perspective, the distance already covered is equivalent to having rowed from Penzance in Cornwall to St John’s in Newfoundland!
Recent highlights have included two live radio interviews from the mid-Atlantic, not least with well-known Club Member Matt Frei on his Saturday morning LBC Radio show.
The team rows in a shift pattern which means each member rows for 14 hours a day; and important routine tasks aboard ‘Stephen’ include keeping her solar panels clean for vital power generation and clearing barnacles from her hull (which involves swimming). The team has been accompanied by dolphins and has been visited by a Storm petrel. They hope to see more whales and hope to avoid a marlin strike (other boats have been struck).
The weather conditions were not kind in the first half of the race: a combination of adverse winds and Saharan dust clouds have forced the fleet to track further south than usual. As a result the team faces the prospect of having rowed some 3,250 statute miles in total when they finally reach Antigua later this month. However, weather conditions are currently more favourable; and the team is in very good spirits as it embarks on the final leg of the journey.
If Members are interested in following the race while in progress, the free YB App is excellent and very easy to use: download at YB Races App | YB Tracking and search for the World’s Toughest Row Atlantic 2024. Each team’s location, speed, ranking, distance to travel, etc. can then be seen at a glance. The data is updated every 4 hours. TEAM V3NTURE can be followed on Instagram/X/Facebook: @teamv3nture.
TEAM V3NTURE is seeking to raise money for MacMillan Cancer Support and have raised over £54,000 to date. The target is £140,000 for MacMillan, and if any Member would like to support the team’s charitable fund-raising the link is: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/macmillanv3. Any support that the Roehampton Club community is able to give would be hugely appreciated. A huge thank you to those who have already donated.
Rob Cross is the elder son of long-standing Club Members, James and Victoria Cross.