Start of 2014

Laura Penhaul By

Hi all,

So the awaited blog for the start of 2014, we apologise that this is over a month late due to all the antics we’ve been distracted with over the last month. However, New Years resolution – to write more frequent blogs and to keep you all in the loop.

So the start of the year was a busy one! Jan 4th was the first day of the London Boatshow, which we were so fortunate and thankful to the boatshow for sponsoring us with an amazing spot for our Doris to be on exhibition.

Doris looking pretty in pink :)

Doris looking pretty in pink

Considering Doris was just a shell last year, she is now a nearly fully kitted out boat ready to take on the seas! This is all thanks to our boat builder Rossiters and our supportive sponsors Some of our kind sponsors Raymarine, Victron, Solbian, International Paint, McMurdo, Marlow Ropes, Fusion Electronics, Lewmar and iCom whom all make our boat the safest she can be.

Whilst at the boatshow we also were fortunate to have gained support from some new companies, in particular we welcome Crew Saver who are kindly sponsoring our liferaft with survival pack alongside the latest technology life jackets ErgoFit Emma during a 2hr row as part of a 2hrs on: 2hrs off 12 hour row, testing out the ErgoFit jackets. We tested out the life jackets whilst we completed our 2hr on: 2hr off 12 hour row. The jackets passed the test with flying colours, with no jaffing or irritation, we didn’t even feel like we were wearing lifejackets – so that’s perfect for a 6 month row! Next test is add in some sea water.

Courtesy of The Rowing Company http://therowingcompany.com/ for the support of the ergo, the rowing machine also gave a wealth of people of all ages and abilities, to come and have a go at rowing on an ergo machine . We also ran a 200m race which got a good competitive spirit amongst families, friends, partners. We had top winners from the week:

Fastest Male: Phil Clapp who won a HP Printer courtesy of Kamwell www.kamwell.com

Fastest Female: Sally Slack who won a Clarisonic face courtesy of Loreal

Fastest under 16’s female: Bridget Tahourdin won a waterproof bag courtesy of Overboard www.overboard.com

Fastest under 16’s male: Benedict Aldous won a pink overboard bag courtesy of Overboard www.overboard.com

Random winner selected to come out on the boat with us: Martin Attfield (best prize of all!)

Alongside the rowing competition we also continued to run our ‘Buy A Mile’ campaign and successfully a further 150 names have been added to our inspiration wall to travel across the Pacific.

Thank you to everyone that came to visit our Doris and us as a team, we love talking about the row but more importantly to spread the word about our Charities that we are doing this for. Walking With the Wounded and Breast Cancer Care, are 2 charities that support the Survivors and their families. Whether someone is injured or has overcome Breast Cancer we want to show how these individuals and many others can overcome adversity and make the most of the life they have been given. 6 months of our life to be at sea is nothing to the life challenges that these survivors have had to face, so help support our row and raise the money for these amazing charities.

Our Charities

 

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Welcome to the Coxless Crew!

Laura Penhaul By

The Coxless Crew team were previously involved with the Coxless Rowers that was developed approx. 2 years ago by Annabel Hancock and Laura Penhaul. Annabel is unfortunately no longer involved in rowing the Pacific Ocean in 2014, but the vision of the row is still continuing with Laura and the team; Natalie Miles, Ella Hewton and Emma Mitchell. Due to the change of team and in respect of Annabels’ contribution, we are continuing under a new name ‘Coxless Crew’.

An expedition of this scale is certainly called a ‘challenge’ for a reason, but as everyone says ‘it’s getting to the start line which is the hardest’, so surely that’ll mean the rowing part will be ‘plain sailing/ rowing’ .

So a sneaky peak at what we’ve been doing over the last couple of months;

Alongside developing a new website https://www.coxlesscrew.com (huge thanks to Steph http://www.designbystephaniej.com who worked closely with Ella)

Refreshing a new brand, logo and sponsorship packs (massive thanks to Steve http://www.uk.linkedin.com/in/iamcoe for working with Nat)

Making fundraising ideas a reality with our #BuyAMile (thanks to Tom for making this short film in a day, wigs and watching you cut Nats hair will be a comedy moment savored for the boat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mf33HC1LG0I !)

Plus our Inspirational Talk Night on 11th November and the amazing support of our key speakers giving up their time to share their experiences https://www.coxlesscrew.com/events/

We have also partnered with ‘Walking With The Wounded’ http://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/ as our primary charity alongside ‘Breast Cancer Care’. A blog will follow this week with more information and exciting developments.

And finally, we’ve been developing some amazing partnerships with sponsors that are generously contributing to the build of our boat and thanks to them our boat will be on the water by the end of November. Exciting times!

 

Thank you for your continued support and take a look at our new website www.coxlesscrew.com

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