It’s a strange sort of way to see in the New Year, but Christ’s student Danny Longman hopes it will pay off. He’s forgoing the festive traditions of Auld Lang Syne and midnight revelry for a seat in a 50ft long rowing boat in an attempt to set a new world record for rowing the Atlantic.

 

The 21-year-old post-graduate student is joining a team of British and European oarsmen who, weather permitting will be setting off from the Canary Islands on New Year’s Eve, aiming to cross the finish line in Barbados within a month. Their goal is to beat the current record of 33 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes set in the same boat last year by a different crew. And as if it wasn’t enough to be spending his New Year’s Eve battling the stormy seas – New Year’s Day is Danny’s Birthday.

He admits he didn’t really think that one through before signing up when he saw an advert in a rowing magazine.

“It looked like a good laugh – though obviously I hadn’t figured the timing of everything out at that stage and rowing all of my Birthday is slightly daunting! Its tremendously exciting to be involved in this record attempt though, and that definitely makes it worth the effort. I think I’m most apprehensive about the first night of rowing after we set off. We all have to take shifts on the oars – two hours on and two hours off and I think that will be quite challenging physically and mentally”.

Danny, who’s originally from Formby, Merseyside, is a champion sprinter who’s represented the University in several Varsity matches at 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x 100 metres relay. He also rows for Christ’s and narrowly missed out on a place in the 2012 Olympics canoeing squad after getting to the final five of 4,000 contenders.

He’ll need all the stamina and fitness his sports training has built up for his latest challenge. The crew will need to row a gruelling 3,050 miles in total.

But the Captain of Christ’s Boat Club, Duncan Bull, who’s known Danny for four years is confident he’ll meet the challenge.

“He’s pretty resilient – he’ll take pretty much anything that’s thrown at him and come out on top eventually”.

Danny says he’s very grateful for the support from Christ’s Marguerites Sporting Society and all his family and friends ahead of the record attempt – but even the most intrepid adventurers still have mothers and girlfriends who worry:

“ My mum’s been asking lots of questions about safety and insurance and things…but I’m sure it’ll all be fine!”

Danny’s fellow rowers at Christ’s hope to track his progress using GPS and provide updates on his adventures.
 

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