2005 Woodvale Atlantic Rowing Race

The 2005 race saw 20 doubles, 4 fours and 2 solos depart La Gomera on 30 November 2005 to race to Antigua. The start was originally scheduled for 27 November but Tropical Storm Delta, and its accompanying bad weather, delayed the start. Unprecedented bad weather during the event led to 6 boats retiring from the race.

The late-November start date was chosen as the hurricane season is normally all but finished for the year, unfortunately 2005's season lasted for an unusually long time.

A majority of the crews had completed between a quarter and a third of the race when there was a prolonged spell of unfavourable rowing conditions. Rather than the typical trade winds, that would have been helping the fleet, there were strong westerly winds caused mainly by Hurricane Epsilon. These forced many of the crews to stop rowing completely and to deploy a sea anchor to prevent them from drifting backwards.

In early January many of the fleet ended up passing through the southern edge of Tropical Storm Zeta, which raised high seas and created more adverse wind conditions. The bad weather all but prevented most crews from any attempt at a world record for the crossing.

First to finish was the boat "All Relative", crewed by Justin Adkin, Robert Adkin, Martin Adkin and James Green from Beer, Devon. They had managed a fast start and were able to get clear of much of the bad weather that dogged other crews. Their lead had stretched to several hundred nautical miles before the other crews were able to start moving again. "All Relative" crossed the finish line in Antigua at 15:37:47 UTC on 8 January 2006; a crossing time of 39 days, 3 hours, 35 minutes and 47 seconds which broke the race record by just over 22 hours but fell 3 days outside the World Record. The crew also included the youngest ever person to complete the row across the Atlantic, who was 19 when the race began, and turned 20 on 7 January 2006.

Second to finish was the four-man boat "Atlantic-4", crewed by David Martin, Neil Wightwick, Glynn Coupland and George Simpson, who crossed the finish line at 02:26 UTC on 19 January 2006, a crossing time of 49 days, 14 hours, 21 minutes.

The third boat to finish was "Spirit of EDF Energy", crewed by double Olympic champion oarsman James Cracknell OBE and Ben Fogle, a UK TV presenter. They crossed the finish at 07:13 UTC on 19 January 2006, a crossing time of 49 days, 19 hours, 8 minutes. They were eventually placed second in the doubles division due to a time penalty, issued for using their emergency water ration. A BBC television programme on their experience, Through Hell and High Water, was aired in February 2006.

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