North Devon solo rower faced huge waves, mechanical failure and lost 15 kilos to win the World’s Toughest Row

An Exmoor adventurer has singlehandedly rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic to win the World’s Toughest Row, burning out three electronic tillers and 15 kilos of his own body in the process.

Sam Glover took 42 days, three hours and 15 minutes to make the incredible crossing from the Canary Islands to the Caribbean in what is one of the most extreme endurance races in the world.

Sam, who owns the Tors Park Apartments at Lynmouth, won the solo category of the epic race after facing giant waves, days without sleep and the raw fury of the elements.

So far he has raised almost £60,000 for social enterprise charity UnLtd.

The World’s Toughest Row saw 38 crews – including 11 solo rowers and 12 teams of four - set off from La Gomera in the Canary Islands in December to make the arduous voyage to Antigua and Barbuda in the Caribbean.

On board his 24-foot vessel named The Entrepreneur Ship 2023 and affectionately called ‘Lucy’, Sam, aged 49, set off on December 13.

From the outset he faced the constant threat of capsizing as well as mechanical failures, minimal facilities and the relentless toll on his body.

The solo was originally meant to be a pair – Sam had trained for the race with his friend Jake, who he sponsored for the event in 2019.

Unfortunately Jake had to withdraw from the race just four weeks before it started due to unforeseen circumstances, so Sam had to redo 72 hours of rowing in just three weeks to qualify as a solo entrant.

Just days after arriving in the Caribbean on January 24, Sam has been speaking to the North Devon Gazette about the build up to the event, the euphoria of crossing the finish line and the many challenges on the journey.

He said: “Once over the line the feeling was incredible! I felt a mix of relief, sadness that it was over and elation.

“My first thoughts were of my family waiting on the dockside and how much I wanted to see them and hold them in my arms.

“To be honest, it still hasn't really sunk in four days later. I've been going down to support the other rowers coming in, I can see their stories in their eyes as they look at the crowd that's there to greet them, the same emotions that i had, many of the same memories I hold.

“Many are still locked away inside; I still can't remember quite a lot of it...”

The race attracts contestants from all over the world, but as Sam explained, even just getting to the start line is a huge commitment of time and money.

He said: “There is so much to organise, so much to learn, a relentless training regime and of course an enormous amount of specialist equipment to buy and learn to use.”

With Jake unable to take part as planned, there was even more work to be done than originally expected – and once at sea, the ocean had no plans to take it easy on the rowing crews.

Sam said: “During the first week, the fleet was hit by a massive low pressure system which generated 20 to 35 knot winds and three to five metre waves.

“Quite a shock if you haven't been out on an ocean before, a completely different scale to anything I've experienced sailing in coastal waters or in the med. I had heard about 'knock downs' and being 'pinned' but I hadn't experienced either if these in training.”

A knock down means the boat has been slammed by a wave and knocked over or fully capsized, while pinned means it is caught by a cross wind and unable to gain the heading wanted.

Sam was knocked down and pinned dozens of times in those first few weeks.

A very real threat to his challenge came from mechanical failure, which saw all three of his auto-tillers that steer the boat fail. He said these are essential for any ocean rower but even more so for someone on their own.

Sam explained: “I had been swapping them around for the first 2,100nm (nautical miles) to try and make them last the journey, but they died one by one. I had to strip down all three to make one good one - I called her Franken-Tilly. That one lasted until 70nm from the finish. Once she failed I had to manually steer and row.”

The end may have been metaphorically in sight and a strong north east wind was pushing ‘Lucy’ in the right direction, but the Atlantic hadn’t quite finished with Sam yet.

He said: “The hours leading up to the finish were punishing. I had been awake for two days and couldn't stop falling asleep.

“I worked out that I could get the boat to drift on the right heading for about eight minutes before it wondered off course. I decided to set regular alarms and catch a few minutes sleep and wake every eight minutes to reset the heading.

“I did this for a few hours; it worked long enough for the sun to come up and for me to see the far off lights of Antigua some 11nm in the distance and the sight of my first land based bird.

“This gave me an enormous boost of natural energy which eventually got me to the finish.”

There was more drama to come, with a difficult harbour entrance to negotiate and he had to do it with no assistance, otherwise he would have been disqualified from the race.

Sam recounted the last minutes of his adventure: “The finish was very tricky indeed as I didn't have any steering and the wind funnels directly down the entrance to English Harbour.

“I had to fight with everything I had to get over the line, which was only 100 metres inside the harbour mouth. The wind knocked me this way and that, but somehow I managed to haul us over the line so the safety boat would be able to help.”

Once ashore and reunited with his family, he felt good, but slowly his body began to remind him it needed to rest and recover – he had lost 15 kilos. Much of that was muscles the body hadn’t needed for rowing, but does need for walking, so he needs to rebuild those.

He added: “The level of fatigue is difficult to describe but my body clearly is going to need a lot of rest. I've been sleeping a lot and very deeply.

“Your mind has been focused on one thing: rowing, surviving and hopefully thriving at sea. Suddenly, normal life has coming rushing back in and I need to re-adapt to that normal again.”

And what next? “This is really difficult,” he said. “An ocean row is completely different from pretty much anything else I can think of. I loved the endurance aspect, the challenges that naturally come with anything to do with the sea and the competition which was fierce.

“I have some plans brewing... Watch this space...”

You can still donate to Sam’s fundraiser for UnLtd at www.justgiving.com/page/samssoloatlanticchallengeforunltd