Irish crew spending Christmas Day rowing in sixth in race across the Atlantic

Four Irish friends spending Christmas Day rowing a tiny boat across the Atlantic in one of the world’s toughest races lie in sixth place out of 26 international competitors.

Instead of tucking into a succulent turkey dinner and enjoying all the trappings of the festive season, four firm friends, Thomas Browne, 27, Patrick O’Connor, 28, Eoin O’Farrell, 26, and 25-year-old Seán Underwood will have a celebration with a difference.

Three of the crew are junior doctors and one is a tech entrepreneur.

Known as the Relentless Rowers crew, the team is competing in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge hoping to become the first Irish team to clinch the title.

If the challenge, one which very few have completed, was not enough to test their mental and physical strengths, Patrick, a medical doctor in CUH, said the crew “more importantly want to raise much-needed funds for the Cork University Hospital’s and paediatric unit and awareness for the mental health work Pieta House carries out”.

The team is also hoping to raise around €20,000 for the charities. The gruelling race, over 45 days, commenced on December 12.

Relentless Rowers, by Christmas Day, will have well passed the 600-nautical miles from the Spanish Island of La Gomera.

Team Antigua currently leads the pack and the only other Irish crew in the race, Team Gulliver, were in 19th place early yesterday.

The boat designed for the Relentless Crew is a mere 7.5 meters long and 1.8 meters wide and built of wood, fibre glass, carbon fibre and Kevlar.

A small cabin is the only protection teams have against the might of the ocean and sun rays.

Only 500 people have completed the feat so far - compared to almost 10 times that number having been to the summit of Mount Everest and nearly twice the number have been in space.

A spokesperson for the crew said: “The guys are going well so far and are putting in a fantastic time. What they are trying to achieve is amazing but they’ve trained hard and up for the challenge. It definitely is a Christmas with a difference for all of them on board.

“Of course, all their families are concerned for their safety but the race takes place during these dates to help reduce the possibilities of being hit by hurricanes, but that doesn’t mean they won’t encounter life endangering storms at sea.”

Donations can be made by logging on to justgiving.com/RelentlessRowers’TransatlinticRow.