A Falmouth lifeboatman has completed a challenge as part of a team rowing non-stop for roughly 60 hours – and bigger is yet to come.
Elliot Holman is part of a crew of four in training for the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge this December.
He is a helmsman and trainee coxswain on the Falmouth RNLI lifeboat crew and is well-known face around the town, working as a duty manager at Falmouth Marina, as well as being an active member of the Falmouth sail racing scene.
For the challenge he is joined by his colleagues Hollie Luff, Mike Hatch and Rachel Lasham, who are all employees of Premier Marinas that has bases around the UK.
Together they form the team In Our Element, and in December they plan to row across the Atlantic Ocean, from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to English Harbour in Antigua.
The team are hoping to complete the row in around 45 days and will face extreme conditions, lack of sleep, fatigue, many blisters and of course, a bit of home sickness.
The In Our Element team from Premier Marinas
They are taking on this huge challenge to raise funds and awareness for the University of Portsmouth’s Centre for Enzyme Innovation, which has engineered a groundbreaking – and naturally occurring – method of breaking down plastic into its original building blocks, which can then be remade into new plastic products.
The hope is this should eradicate the need to make new plastic from fossil fuels, and by using ocean plastic pollution as a resource it could see a potentially end to plastic pollution.
As mariners, who both work and play on the sea, and with a huge love of the ocean, this is a cause that is very close to their hearts.
As training for this, the four-strong crew had initially planned to row six days unsupported from Swanwick in West Sussex – as Mike is based in Brighton – to the furthest point of Falmouth, where Elliot lives.
Elliot is a helmsman and trainee coxswain for Falmouth RNLI
However, the weather and conditions meant a reduced plan schedule had to be introduced, which saw them set off early last Tuesday from Southampton and arrive in Dartmouth on Thursday afternoon.
During this time they lived solely on their Rannoch R45 Ocean rowing boat, eating, sleeping and even using the bathroom – aka 'The Bucket' – not stepping foot onto land until they reach their destination. They rowed for 24 hours a day in shifts of two hours each.
Speaking to the Packet, Elliot's wife Lauren said: "As part of the essential training for the challenge in December, the team are required to clock a minimum of 120 hours on the water and this training row was their chance to practice a number of drills and get a real feel for how the 'big row' will be at the end of the year."
The team are currently undertaking a fundraising campaign and are also seeking corporate sponsors, with a number of sponsorship packages available via their website www.inourelement.co.uk
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