Rowing crews from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford competed in a Boat Race with a difference recently, to be screened on Channel 4 on Saturday night.

Rather than the four and a half miles of the Thames from Putney to Mortlake in sleek rowing eights, the crews rowed replica Viking longboats over 350 miles of the North Sea from Denmark to England.

For 300 years the Vikings plundered their way across Europe, striking fear into all those who encountered them.

Their revolutionary longships enabled them to dominate the northwest seaboard of Europe, and explore as far away as North America. This project sets out to discover what it was really like for these Scandinavian warriors crossing the cold and hostile North Sea.

The modern crews each have a 13-metre replica boat made to Viking designs, and there are nine rowers on board, including women on both teams. But while the boats may have been cutting-edge technology in the eighth century, they are a world away from their modern equivalents and the teams need to learn a completely new rowing technique.

The 21st-century Vikings also spend time in a "living village" to understand the society from which these people came, and experts help to dispel some of the myths associated with them.

Since the making of this programme, one of the contributors, Steven Stuart, a rower for Cambridge, has been tragically killed in a traffic accident. His family have approved transmission of the programme.

The programme can be seen on Channel 4 on Saturday 22 July at 7.05pm.

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