31 Yorkie (second left) and his Atlantic crew Yorkie at the helm in the Yukon 1000 challenge


Together with Dartmouth pals


Phil Langman, Shaun Barker and Jason Hart, Yorkie became part of the first four-man crew to row the 2,970 miles across the Atlantic Ocean from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Barbados. Te gruelling challenge began long


before they launched. No suitable four-man ocean rowing boat existed because nobody believed such a crew could complete the crossing, so they designed one themselves. Tey then had just six months to raise £25,000, secure sponsorship, build the boat and train around full-time jobs. “We’d row through the night,”


Yorkie recalls. “We might go round Start Point and get back about five in the morning, have a shower and then go to work.” Once at sea they entered the


unknown, unsure whether they pos- sessed the mental resilience to spend more than a month in a tiny boat. Life settled into an unforgiving


routine of rowing, eating and sleeping in short shiſts. Huge waves, relentless weather and exhaustion became normal. “You’re a thousand miles from


anywhere,” Yorkie says. “You’ve got to get somewhere. You can’t stop.” Remarkably, the four friends never


fell apart. Some expedition teams never


speak again aſterwards. Yorkie’s crew remain close friends more than 20 years later. “We always said if there were any


problems we’d just speak up and sort them out.” Aſter just 36 days and 59 minutes


they reached Barbados, a record for the fastest Atlantic crossing by a four-man crew. Tis legendary feat etched their names into the Guinness World Records. “We set out to break the record


and we did it,” said Yorkie. For many, that would have been


adventure enough. But for Yorkie and his friends, it was just the beginning.


“We set out to break the record and we did it,”


Tree years later came the


Kalahari Augrabies Extreme Marathon in South Africa - a 250-kilometre multi-stage race in temperatures reaching 50°C that Yorkie completed alongside Phil, Sam Ryall and Mike Firmstone. “It wasn’t sandy like people


imagine,” he says. “It was rocky, but it was beautiful.” Ten came another idea. Te group combined the London


and Paris Marathons by running between them, completing the equivalent of eight marathons in eight days. In 2010 Yorkie, Phil, John and


Julian Hollis cycled from John O’Groats to Land’s End, climbing Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon en route, along with kayaking Loch Ness, Windermere and Lake Bala, “I found that hard because I’m not


really a cyclist,” he laughs. Six years later, Yorkie and Phil


headed to Canada for the world’s longest – and toughest – canoe race,


the Yukon 1000. Paddling 1,000 miles through remote wilderness brought fresh challenges. Camping meant avoiding bears. “We’d pull up absolutely exhausted,


then see a huge bear print and think, ‘We’re not staying here,” Yorkie remembers. One night a wolverine wandered


into camp. “I slept through it,” he grins. “Phil


chased it away.” For Yorkie, these adventures have


never been about suffering for its own sake. “I think aſter the Atlantic we just


wanted to see how far we could push ourselves.” Tat Atlantic crossing also inspired


another commitment. While training offshore, Yorkie


oſten reflected that if anything went wrong an RNLI lifeboat would come to their rescue. Aſter completing the


recent opening of the new Dart Lifeboat Station


Princess Anne at the


Yorkie greeting


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100