Inside the rowing boat where four Cornishmen will live for 45 days

  • Rower Dave Radford-Wilson gives a tour of the Invictus Atlantic

Training is well underway for four Cornishmen taking on a three-thousand mile race across the Atlantic Ocean.

The Invictus Atlantic team will leave the Duchy in December for the World's Toughest Row, raising money for the Invictus Trust - a Cornish youth mental health charity.

The competition starts in the Canary Islands and ends in Antigua and the team will be spending around 45 days onboard the Invictus Atlantic, rowing for two hours on, two hours off all day and night.

Giving us a tour of the rower, Dave Radford-Wilson, who is taking on the challenge of a lifetime, said: "It's an amazing ocean-going rowing boat- we've got a deck in the middle where two or three of us can be rowing at any one time for 24 hours a day.

"We've got cabins at the back where we can stay and sleep, the best thing about those is the doors close.

The crews will take it in turns to sleep in the rower's two cabins

"We've got two big bubbles of air so if a big wave turns us the wrong way up, it should turn us back up the right way automatically.

"We've got a certain amount of storage, but not very much. Batteries in one, a water maker in the other and then the red circular hatches will store our food."

He continued: "Life raft in the middle and then there's enough space in the end of one of our cabins for sleeping bags, some stuff, some kit and that's enough to live for six weeks."

The row is unsupported, so the men must carry everything they’ll need on board. Teammates Luke Morgan and James Brittain-Long have shared their own fears, and excitement for the road ahead.

Rower Luke told ITV West Country: "What am I going to experience? Probably every emotion under the sun from joy, tears, terror, and a lot of happiness and fun.”

The team will row for two hours on, two hours off for around 45 days.

Teammate James Brittain-Long added: “40 foot waves, huge swells, tropical storms coming across. So it will be tough, but we'll cope. We'll manage.

“We have to take all our provisions with us. So all our food is in dehydrated ration packs.

"We have to eat about 5,000-6,000 calories a day, because that's what we'll be losing. We have solar panels which go and charge the water maker. We've got to make water and fresh water by rehydrating the food. It's going to be tough going.”

The team are raising funds for the Invictus Trust, a charity set up by Sharon Coburn and her family after her son Ben took his own life after struggling with mental health issues.

The team's food will be stored in these watertight compartments.

In January the charity teamed up with another, CLEAR based in Truro, to launch a counselling service for 11 to 21-year-olds in Cornwall.

Sharon Cowburn of the Invictus Trust has shared her gratitude for the Invictus Atlantic team, who's challenge could fund its counselling service for another year.

She said: “The wait times for counselling in order to hopefully keep children and young people out of inpatient care is lacking.

"We’ve launched this pilot scheme for the counselling service Invictus CLEAR counselling service, launched in January. And here we are six months on and we've delivered or scheduled a thousand counselling sessions already.

"And Invictus Trust put £100,000 into this initiative to get it going. To iron out the wrinkles and get it as good as it can be. But obviously thereafter it needs to continue because the demand is there. And we know this.

The Invictus Atlantic team Credit: Invictus Atlantic

"£100,000 is the target for Invictus Atlantic and that would run the service for another year.”

That target will motivate the team to keep at it, even on the difficult days.

Paul Hayes, the fourth Invictus Atlantic rower said: “It's a humbling place to be out in the middle of nowhere.

"And it's yeah, it's a it's a huge privilege. And, you know, it will be a challenge. But you know, the people that Invictus Trust support face those challenges for much longer than the 43, 45 days that we're doing it for.”

Training now ramps up until the race starts on 12 December in La Gomera on the Canary Islands.

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