The Artemis Ocean Rowing Team, who used Xcell X3 Ocean Oars for a North Atlantic Expedition and broke the 114 year old record:
“We used Xcell blades on our North Atlantic Expedition and they were first rate. We were hammered by the weather and the oars came under some extreme loads and not one was broken. The performance of the blades is outstanding and the collars allow easy feathering when required. I have rowed on four ocean rowing expeditions now and rowed over 12,000 sea miles in all conditions and I won’t leave port without my Xcell X3s they are an extremely well thought out and well engineered product – second to none.” Leven Brown, Artemis Ocean Rowing Team.
Fox, the 1896 boat
Crew: Two Norwegian fishermen
Length: 18ft
Construction: Oak
Weight: 250lbs
Cooking: Small kerosene stove
Safety: Rails to help right in event of capsize, two watertight wooden flotation compartments
Navigation: Compass, sextant and copy of Nautical Almanac
Clothes: The crew wore oilskins and shared one pair of mittens
Artemis, the 2010 boat
Crew: Two Scots, one Irishman, one Faroese
Length: 23ft
Construction: Fibreglass Kevlar sandwich
Weight: 660lbs
Cooking: A super-efficient, powerful camping stove
Safety: Watertight flotation compartments, low centre of gravity for self-righting
Navigation: Charts, GPS, plastic sextant and VHF radio
Clothes: Oil skins, small gloves and thermal tops and bottoms