Army

Rudder repairs put rowers back on course

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The Row2Recovery team are back on course in their Atlantic rowing challenge after repairing a broken rudder.

Yesterday the six-man team faced the spectre of failure as elation over the arrival of supply ship Aurora with fresh drinking water gave way to despair when the rudder failed.

Now what the team call their “toughest” 48 hours experienced at sea is over and the team is back underway.

In his latest blog Ed Janvrin writes: “Through teamwork, determination and bloody minded will to succeed we have managed to secure the rudder back on the boat, who knows for how long, but for the time being we are able to carry on.

“A massive thank you goes to “Mr Fixit” Graham Walters and the crew of the Aurora, who worked tirelessly to ensure our rudder was repaired and give us the opportunity to get back to rowing.

“It’s been an incredibly trying two days but it is such an amazing feeling to hear the guys rowing up on deck as I send this blog. Wow! I really had a moment earlier on when I just thought….what if?

“We’re not out of the woods yet, the rudder could fail at any minute, but we have a solution and we also have new found levels of morale to power us to the finish line.

“We had a few attempts at re-fitting the rudder, and Aurora’s first effort at fixing it wasn’t going to do the job. The structural integrity of the rudder just wanted strong enough.

“But after Graham and the crew worked on it overnight, shortening it by a third to reduce buoyancy, and shoring it up with some metal pins, we were able, through a lot of hard work, to fix it back onto the boat late this afternoon (Monday).”

The team have now passed through 500 nautical miles to go to Barbados.

Follow progress at www.row2recovery.com

THE TEAM:

Lieutenant Will Dixon

Will, 27, was badly injured when an IED detonated under his vehicle 10 days before Christmas in 2009.
He was a platoon commander with Third Battalion, The Rifles when surgeons at Camp Bastion performed a below knee amputation on his left leg. He phoned home and explained to his parents he had “picked up a bit of an injury”.

Corporal Neil Heritage

Neil was a member of the Royal Signals bomb disposal team in Iraq when a suicide bomber detonated a device a few feet away. It was November 2004 and his wife was six weeks pregnant with the couple’s second child.
He required a double above-knee amputation and doctors initially predicted he would never walk again. Neil, 30, is now a school athletics coach and keen endurance athlete.

Corporal Rory Mackenzie

Rory was a company medic attached to the 1st Battalion Staffordshire Reg.
While on a routine patrol in Basra City in Jan 2007 he was blown up by a Road Side Bomb. The blast traumatically amputated his right leg.
After an extensive rehabilitation period he is now back at work as an instructor at Keogh Barracks, teaching fellow medics.

Lance Corporal Carl Anstey

Carl was hit by the blast from a rocket-propelled grenade in Musa Qala, Afghanistan, in January 2009 the after his 24th birthday.
Carl, now 26, was a member of First Battalion, the Rifles. The damage from shrapnel shattered his femur and severed his sciatic nerve. Surgery left him with a right leg almost two inches shorter than the left and he needs a leg brace to walk.

Ed Janvrin, Co-Founder

Ed spent eight years in the Gurkhas, serving once in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan.
He left the army in 2008 deeply impacted by his experiences and compelled to help the men and women who had served alongside him.
Ed joined PricewaterhouseCoopers as a business consultant in 2008.

Alex Mackenzie, Co-Founder

Alex served in the Parachute Regiment for six years, completing tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he was Mentioned in Despatches for leadership.
He left the army in 2008 but never forgot the inspirational lessons he learnt from the troops he fought alongside.
He now works for global business performance consultancy firm McKinney Rogers.