7th December 2011

LYME REGIS: They're out in front!

Atlantic rowers take early lead on day one

By Francesca Evans

FOUR intrepid rowers from Lyme Regis made a brilliant start to the world’s toughest rowing race, taking first place after just five hours.

Chris Walters, Elliot Dale, Tony Short and Brian Fletcher, known as The Corinthians, set off on the 3,000 mile Atlantic Challenge on Monday afternoon, and were in first place just hours later.

The team left La Gomera in the Canary Islands at midday on Monday and, by 5pm, were leading the race.

They managed to stay out in front for about 18 hours during their first night at sea, rowing in pairs for two hours on and two hours off in their specially made boat “Spirit of Corinth”. They dropped to second place on Tuesday as the View From Lyme Regis went to press.

Proving that age is just a number, the team are all in their 50s and 60s and, with a collective age of 231, are the oldest to have ever taken part in the gruelling race.

It is expected to take about 50 days to reach the finishing line at Barbados, meaning they will be about half way on Christmas day.

Leading team member Chris, whose life-long ambition is to complete the Atlantic Challenge, has been sending out high-spirited messages on social networking site Twitter. After seven hours he said it was “going really well” and on Tuesday morning he said he had “really enjoyed the night rowing”.

Mayor of Lyme Regis, Councillor Sally Holman, said: “The Lyme crew are doing brilliantly. We are tracking their progress on the website and we are rooting for them all the way.”

Track their progress at http://taliskerwhiskyatlanticchallenge.com/

PICTURE: THE OAR-SOME FOURSOME - The Corinthians during one of their charity rowathons before leaving