Rowing
What it’s like to row 3,000 miles across the Atlantic with your brothers
Scottish siblings Jamie, Ewan and Lachlan Maclean are the fastest trio to ever row the Atlantic – crossing in just 35 days. Here's how they did it without killing one another...
The Macleans like doing things in three. On January 16, 2020, the three brothers from Scotland set three world records at once – becoming the first three brothers to row any ocean, and the youngest and fastest trio ever to row the Atlantic. It took Lachlan, 21, Jamie, 26, and Ewan, 27, just 35 days to reach Antigua from La Gomera, in the Canary Islands. Previously, the fastest trio to row the Atlantic Ocean took 41 days.
The brothers battled storms, sickness, technical issues, sleep deprivation and sheer exhaustion to finally arrive in the English Harbour on the south coast of Carribean island.
Speaking to Red Bull from Antigua, the brothers, who had no real experience of rowing prior to the challenge, revealed they didn’t have any expectation of doing as well as they did.
"Most of our friends and family had booked flights that were arriving too late, so we didn’t think anyone would be there for us,” said Ewan. "But there was a massive crowd of people cheering and a cacophony of horns. Our mum had managed to get there early – we thought we were hallucinating when we heard her voice. It was the most amazing experience."
Stepping onto land for the first time in 35 days presented another challenge. “We had land sickness for 24 hours,” added Jamie. "We were wobbling around all over the place and could hardly walk. That, paired with the overwhelming emotions, meant we were pretty out of it."
The row was two years in the making
The MacLean brothers rowed the Atlantic Ocean in an impressive 35 days
© Lost Clock Productions
The idea to row the Atlantic was sparked two years ago when Lachlan, a Philosophy student at the University of Glasgow, spotted a poster for an Atlantic rowing challenge. He quickly persuaded Jamie, a trainee architect, and Ewan, a design engineer and singer-songwriter, to join him.
A major reason for taking on the challenge was to raise money for two Scottish charities; Feedback Madagascar and Children 1st. The brothers came up with their brand name Broar – a mixture of “brothers” and “oar” – and so began 18 months of hard training.
You can still function off three hours' sleep consistently, as long as you’re fuelling and hydrating yourself
Originally from Edinburgh, the brothers had a passion for the outdoors but no real rowing experience. Their gruelling fitness programme – designed by ocean rowing coach and world record holder Gus Barton – included gym and physio sessions, with three hours of fitness per day, plus a 300-mile row around the west coast of Scotland, to help get those nautical miles in the tank.
Endurance training became an obsession
But it was the special endurance training from mountain athlete Chloë Lanthier that really set Broar apart from their competitors, and gave them a rather unusual game plan.
The capacity of human endurance is amazing, and it was incredible to experience it
“The standard strategy in ocean rowing is to row for two hours, then have two hours off, and to put on as much weight as possible before the race,” Ewan said. "We didn’t do that. We took the endurance route, meaning we were very lean before the race, and went long instead of hard. We rowed two hours on, with only one hour off."
To compete with bigger teams, the brothers only slept for 3-4 hours a day
© Lost Clock Productions
Chloë’s expertise in endurance sport also helped the brothers when it came to sleep deprivation. Since the trio were using the same type of boat as teams of four and five, they had to put in a lot more hours on the oars to be able to compete with them. So they slept less.
“We only slept for three or four hours per day,” said Lachlan. “We also didn’t sleep during the day, like some other teams did. Knowing – through Chloë’s expertise – that you can still function off three hours sleep consistently, as long as you’re fuelling and hydrating yourself well, was crucial to our training. It reassured us that we could push ourselves that hard."
The first week at sea was a killer
Salt sores are just one of the challenges the MacLean brothers had to face
© Lost Clock Productions
Despite their training, once at sea it took a while for the brothers to get into their routine. "It’s hard to describe how tough that first week was,” said Ewan. "You have sore knees, an aching back, your hands start to degrade and you get salt sores all over your body. You’re literally going through hell. But after about a week, you start getting used to it. The aches and pains go away, your body adapts to being sleep deprived and you get into your routine. The capacity of human endurance is amazing, and it was incredible to experience it.”
The brothers' daytime routine involved running their 2:1 rowing ratio. At around midnight, two of them would break for sleep while the third person rowed alone, before swapping out, until all of them had slept for at least three hours by early morning.
Porridge with dried fruit gave the MacLean brothers much-needed energy
© Lost Clock Productions
They would fit their meals into a specific window to avoid wasting energy from constantly digesting if they were continually eating. Food consisted of porridge for breakfast, isotonic fruit shakes as snacks and three or four freeze-dried meals per day. Their diet was carb-rich and primarily vegetarian – with vegetables being easier to digest than meat.
The amount of provisions the sibling took for the crossing was decided based on bodyweight. They took 60 calories for every kilo of bodyweight, for up to 65 days (the longest they were expected to take to make the crossing).
“Since we were leaner, we didn’t have to take as much food as other teams,” Ewan said. “I was only 68kg before we left – some of the other guys on the start line were 6ft 10in and 130kg! But we hardly lost any weight – Jamie only lost 1kg over the entire crossing.”
Navigation was done with the help of a sailing family friend, who would give 'Broar' weather updates twice a day. They also used a satellite terminal that connected to the internet to check the weather and what other teams were doing. “Ocean rowing is a different ball game to sailing,” said Lachlan. “You’re limited by the speed you can row at. If bad weather comes in, there’s not much you can do about it in a rowing boat."
They went into the eye of a storm
Bad weather hit hard, and hit often. Ewan’s lowest moment came around a third of the way in, just after Christmas: “We hit some bad weather so had to have two of us constantly on the oars. Then Jamie went down with a blocked gut and had such bad cramps he couldn’t row for 12 hours. Lachlan and I stepped up to take his shifts.
You have sore knees, an aching back, your hands start to degrade and you get salt sores all over your body. You’re literally going through hell
"But straight after that, Lachlan went down with a different bug – we think it was something bacterial from the water bottles. He was out for another 14 hours. So I had a super tiring period of 36 hours, combined with some technical issues, with teams gaining on us and another 2,000 miles left to row. That was tough – but I knew that the more hours I put in on the oars, the sooner it would end.”
Shortly after came one of the team’s most memorable moments. Again, they had been rowing through torrential conditions with high winds and monster waves.
"The storm came in so quickly that we lost some equipment overboard," Ewan explained. "Everything had gone dark with dense cloud. But then it went completely flat and calm, with sunshine above us, and a small butterfly floated past our boat. We were in the eye of the storm, the peaceful part in the centre. It was a very surreal but beautiful moment. Ten minutes later we were back in the squall again – a complete contrast."
Rationing music proved beneficial
Who needs Spotify anyway when you've got the bagpipes?
© Lost Clock Productions
Another mishap occurred less than halfway through the crossing, when their iPhone cables got damaged by sun and seawater. They had to row the last 20 days without music and podcasts. "Three out of four of our cables broke and the fourth was very temperamental,” said Ewan. “So we allowed ourselves one hour of music a day.”
But surprisingly, the brothers say this problem was a blessing in disguise. "It was the best thing that happened,” Ewan added. "Music is uplifting – but it’s even more uplifting if you ration it and use it as a treat. We also ended up having much more engaging conversations than if we’d been listening to music constantly, and the time passed quicker."
One of the topics discussed on those long, monotonous, sun-beaten hours at the oars was the next challenge for the brothers. "We talked about plans for the future,” Jamie said. “We’d like to perhaps pedal around the world next, by bike and a pedalo-style boat. It’s important to remember that these ideas did come about when we were in a sleep-deprived state, so they might sound a bit ridiculous. But we’re definitely game for another adventure.”
Through the row the brothers were raising money for Scottish charities Feedback Madagascar and Children 1st