Crew rows 30 days to set report in boat race from San Francisco to Hawaii
HONOLULU – A group of athletes rowed a boat from San Francisco to Hawaii in record time.
The four-person crew was part of the Great Pacific Race, a rowing competition in which teams of two and four compete in identical boats on a lonely journey across the open sea.
The teams live for the duration of the race without direct external support.
Captain Jason Caldwell said he and his three teammates – Duncan Roy, Angus Collings, and Jordan Shuttleworth – rowed in two-person, two-hour shifts – 24 hours a day – throughout the voyage.
“When you’re a team like us looking to win a race or maybe break the world record, you have to keep the boat moving,” said Caldwell. “We did this without a break, without a single break for these” 30 days. “
Caldwell said the rowing was the easiest part and the two hour breaks in between were the toughest. Then the crew had to find ways to eat, sleep, stay healthy and clean.
“It’s all about preserving your body,” he said. “You lack sleep, you are malnourished, you are dehydrated. You have wounds all over the place, stress-broken ribs. Everyone has ailing injuries and it just keeps getting worse and worse. You’re basically trying to hold on. Your body tries to hold out until you reach the finish line. “
Caldwell’s Latitude 35 racing team beat the previous racing record by more than a week when it arrived in Waikiki on Wednesday.
The team completed the 2,400 nautical mile journey in 30 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes. The previous racing record in 2016 was 39 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes.
Caldwell holds other rowing records, including crossing the Atlantic.
“The Pacific is very different from the Atlantic. The Atlantic is very consistent, ”said Caldwell. “But the Pacific just isn’t constant at all. It’s much more brutal. Its highs are much higher. Its lows are much lower.”
