Rowing, 'Atlantic Challenge’, Atlantic - November 2005

Bristol UOTC

Record set as youngest to row Atlantic

Army Officer Cadets Charles Bairsto and Tom Bright have become the youngest people to row across the Atlantic. The young men, both aged 22 took 62 days to complete the three thousand mile journey from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the West Indies.

They arrived at Nelson’s dockyard, English Harbour, Antigua just after 6pm on Monday January 30th, and were greeted by assembled family, friends and tourists.

Charles and Tom set out from La Gomera at the end of November 2005 in their ocean-going rowing boat Atlantic Warrior. The boat is twenty-four feet long and constructed of marine plywood. During the voyage Charles was knocked unconscious and Tom trapped underneath the boat when it was capsized by a freak wave, but luckily Atlantic Warrior self-righted itself.

Charles (from Lincolnshire) and Tom (from East Sussex) met and decided to take on the challenge of rowing across the Atlantic while serving in the Bristol University Officer Training Corps. Both men completed their degree courses last year. Charles read Economics and International development at Bath University while Tom studied Electrical Engineering at Bristol. Both hope to be commissioned as Army officers and are due to begin their training at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst in the Spring.