- Frank Rothwell, a 74-year-old from the UK, wasn’t sporty as a child but got into sailing in his 30s.
- He switched to rowing in his 70s, and has now rowed across the Atlantic, solo, twice.
- He raised money for Alzheimer’s Research UK by rowing for 12 hours a day for 56 days.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Frank Rothwell, a 74-year-old British businessman who owns the soccer club Oldham Athletic. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I didn’t get much chance to do sports as a child. But when I got to my 30s, I got interested in sailing. And now, at 74, I’ve rowed solo across the Atlantic, twice.
In 1990, my family chartered a yacht off the coast of the Whitsunday Islands in Australia for two weeks. We enjoyed it so much that we bought a yacht.
I started doing longer sailing trips, about six weeks. At this point, it was only a hobby and I was using all my holidays to go sailing. I own my own business so I could take as much time off as I liked, but I was close to retiring then anyway.
I met a bloke in a pub who’d just sailed the Northwest Passage, the sea that goes between Alaska and Russia. I couldn’t stop thinking about doing it too, so I did. And then I sailed from the UK around South America, and then a figure of eight around the Americas and through the Panama Canal.
By the time I got home, I’d had enough of sailing. It’s really hard to find people willing to come sailing with you, because they think it’ll be a holiday like in the ads. But you need someone with sailing experience, who can take months off work, and who will still want to go out when it’s rough and pouring with rain and they’re seasick. So I wanted something I could do by myself.
I switched from sailing to rowing
Then one night, I met a woman in a pub who had a mate who was going to row the Atlantic solo. I thought it must be achievable if someone who had no sailing experience was planning to do it.
So a couple of weeks later, in 2020, I entered the same race, the World’s Toughest Row. I was doing it purely for my own benefit, but when I found out all the other teams were raising funds for a charity, I thought I should too. I knew it would be so easy for me to raise money because I’m a wealthy bloke and I have wealthy friends.
I decided on Alzheimer’s Research UK because Alzheimer’s affects everybody — the person who has it themselves, their family, their neighbors, everybody. On my first trip, I raised £1.1 million.
You had to record a hundred hours of rowing to take part in the race, but I enjoyed the training so much that I ended up doing 400 hours in proper open-sea conditions.
I also trained by doing hill runs, and weight lifting — I did lots of pulling movements with weights heavier than how much I would be pulling when I rowed.
I rowed all day, every day, for 56 days
For my first Atlantic row, I set off on December 12, 2020, from La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands. It took me 56 days and I arrived in Antigua on February 6, 2021. At 70, I was the oldest person in the race.
My second row was earlier this year, at 73 — I finished on February 15, 2024, after 64 days of rowing, and raised over £383,000.
You don’t rest on the boat; you’re either rowing or you’re sleeping. I used to try to row between eight and 14 hours a day, depending on the sea conditions. Some days I made good progress and went 70 miles forwards, somedays I ended up going eight miles backward.
On a typical day, I’d wake up around 7:30 a.m. and phone base control to assure them I was still there. Then I’d phone my wife, Judith, for 10 minutes as she woke up, and have breakfast — dry granola out of the tin and coffee with cold water.
Then I’d row until 10 or 11 a.m. until the sun got warmer and I needed to put on more clothes to completely cover my skin. I’d have a snack, maybe a couple of chocolate bars, and carry on rowing.
I had to row quite slowly, around 2.5 miles an hour. If you’re going to be rowing for 12 hours, you have to go at a speed you can keep up easily. It’s easier to row in a boat than on a rowing machine because you have inertia helping you.
During the rowing, I snacked on macadamia nuts, because they’re full of calories. I’d get through a kilogram of those a week for lunches. If I wanted to sleep, I’d try to have a nap just after noon, when the sun is at its hottest.
I’d row until teatime, when I’d have two or three pot noodles made with warm water. All the water I had was 23 degrees (73 degrees Fahrenheit) — always warm. One of the things I really looked forward to when I finished was drinking something cold.
I was completely alone
I called my son every day for advice. He’d spend an hour every day checking the weather, and so I’d call him for five minutes when he talked me through the route I should take.
I had no other support. A safety boat came to check on me when I was asleep once, but other than that, I didn’t even see an airplane.
During my second row across the Atlantic, the boat capsized twice in 24 hours. I was in the cabin, so I was ok because the boat would always flip back over, but I lost one of the safety features of the boat and my sea anchor. I felt a bit depressed afterward, so my wife suggested I should have a day off. But I got halfway through the day and thought, “What am I doing?,” so I got back on the oars, stopped being soft, and banged on.
My family isn’t keen on it, but I’d love to row again.
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