Sunday came and the sun started to set over the harbour as the show came to a close, it seemed a life time ago that we were rowing the boat around Southampton marina and mooring up the boat next to the largest of the Sunseekers on show. Reflecting back we had a fantastic 10 days, the weather, the people and the experience that both of us have enjoyed was well worth the long hours.

Thanks to all that helped us on the various days throughout the exhibition and for those who stepped in while we were otherwise engaged with commitments elsewhere, the show wouldn’t have been such a success for us without you.

So the boat is back at Rossiters and it’s back to the monotony of our day jobs as the boat show has finally come to an end; both of us exhausted but content in a good job well done. However, with less than seven months to go until the start of the race the pressure has stepped up and we need to push on with raising the sponsorship still required, although still quietly confident that all can be achieved.

This quote by Anatole France to me sums up the whole project and is to be our motivation to get us to the start line in April,

‘To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe’

We are one of the Southampton Boat Shows featured boats at this year exhibition.  We will be their for the duration of the show, from Thursday 11th - Sunday 21st September.  We will have the boat moored up on berth 397 next to Sunseeker.  If your in the area or planning to visit then please come over and say hello and we may even let you have a go in the boat!

For more information please click here

We officially launched the boat at the Captains Club Hotel in Christchurch last Saturday. The day was started with a few words from us and then polar explorer Ben Saunders gave some inspiring words to around 175 guests who had all fought through the traffic to be there. We launched the boat into the river Stour and did a row past while Swing Unlimited belted out some fabulous tunes and the guests enjoyed some delightful themed Indian food.

The day was finished off by the raffle/auction with the main prizes being a weekend stay at the 5 star Captains Club Hotel, a signed Leicester Tigers rugby shirt signed by Martin Johnson (kindly donated by the Matthew Hampson Trust) and finally one of the highlights of the day the ‘cast signed’ latest Harry Potter book ‘The half blood prince’ which was sold for £1600. The raffle/auction raised a total of £2800 with 10% of the proceeds going to Orchid.

In total we raised an impressive £7,500. We would like to thank everyone who attended and made the day such a success and also a big thank you to all at the Captains Club Hotel for the superb venue, food and drink!