Oceans, Deserts and Marathons Dartmothians who have conquered them all
I
n January 2004 four men conquered the elements, set world records and laid to rest their own demons to row the Atlantic in just 36 days.
For one it would be the culmination and triumph over more than 5 years of hard graft and personal disappointment, and the key to moving on in his life. For two of them it would be just the start of the physical challenges they would set themselves. The Dartmouth Four of Phil Langman, Iain “Yorkie” Lomas, Sean Barker and Jason Hart rowed in the Ocean Rowing Society’s John Fairfax Regatta from the Canary Islands to Barbados.
The crew were the first ‘four’ ever to row an ocean and their time was an astounding 36 days: only a crew of 11 French Navy cadets had done it faster in 1992, and that team followed a course more than 100 miles shorter.
When they rowed their boat Queensgate into Barbados, after 36 days and 59 1/2 minutes, they had broken the previous record for that route by four clear days, won the race and were the first ‘four’ to row an ocean.
The bearded men were shown smiling in the Barbados sunshine, though they were more emotional than that the night before as they crossed the finishing line.
“The Dartmouth Four... the first ‘four’ ever to row an ocean”
The group had been tantalisingly close to even that record after leaping into the lead in the race in its early stages, and the Dartmouth Chronicle had weekly updates giving the readers a glimpse of how the ‘boys’ were doing.
The ‘boys’ had got their victory the hard way. They had paid for their boat by instalments and had fitted it out themselves after their evening training sessions. They had all worked long and hard and done it their own way – deciding collectively what equipment to take and which to leave behind to reduce weight, ignoring safety advice from the race organisers in order to gain minutes a day over their rivals. For Jason Hart it was probably sweeter than for his colleagues, as he had failed in an attempt to row the
Atlantic 2 years before. He had been forced to burn his boat after being left mid-ocean by his rowing partner – who was also his cousin. The two had sunk thousands into the row and it caused a bad family rift after their return. Jason said burning the boat was like ‘the death of a
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