A SHIPWRECK graveyard, Europe’s largest whirlpool, vicious tides and the world’s busiest shipping lane.
These are just four of the hazards facing intrepid adventurer Angus Collins when he starts his mission to row around Britain in less than three weeks’ time.
If successful, his challenge will raise £250,000 to save lives — and he will be doing it solo, with no assistance, in a boat just 20ft long.
As well as his own 6ft frame, Angus’s specially designed craft will have to carry 60 days’ worth of food, a desalinator to turn sea water into drinking water and all his tech equipment to plot his route and monitor the .
No one has ever managed to row solo and unassisted around the British coastline before, although many have tried and failed.
But not only is the 35-year-old the country’s most successful ocean rower, he also has a powerful motivation.
Angus, who has broken records when crossing the Atlantic — twice — as well as the Pacific, said: “Five years ago it looked like I had it all.
Suicidal crisis
“I’d broken records, I had a successful boat-building and I was travelling around the world to work with elite rowers and their teams.
“It was all I’d dreamed of, but inside I felt empty. Nothing I’d achieved gave me any happiness and I couldn’t work out why.
“I started experiencing and , and began to isolate myself from my friends and family, not replying to messages or answering their phone calls.
“I was living on a boat in , and on my 30th birthday I told my family I was celebrating it with my friends, and told my friends I was with my family.
“What I actually did was attempt to take my own life, because I couldn’t see a way that things would ever get better.”;;
Angus was subsequently diagnosed with .
He is now taking on one of the world’s most dangerous rowing challenges to raise £250,000 for the charity James’ Place, which offers immediate, free therapy and support to men in suicidal crisis.
Angus, who lives in , said: “After I’d planned to take my own life I saw a psychiatrist who told me I had nothing to worry about, as I had a good support network, a good business and good friends.
“It just reinforced all the guilt I felt at having depression, when on the surface it looked like I had nothing to worry about.
“It wasn’t until I met my partner Elsa that I finally found someone I could open up to, and she encouraged me to talk honestly about my with a couple of close friends.
“I also found a psychologist who I could work with, and got medication to help with my depression.
“But talking honestly about how I was feeling is what really helped me, and that’s exactly the kind of expert and essential therapy that James’ Place provides immediately to men at risk of taking their own life.”;;
This is Awareness Week, which provides a moment to reflect on the fact that suicide is the biggest killer of men under 35 in the UK, and that the male suicide rate in England is three times higher than the rate for females.
James’ Place estimates that one life-saving intervention costs the charity £1,800, which means that by hitting his £250,000 target, Angus will save almost 140 lives.
The charity was set up in 2018 by parents Clare Milford Haven and Nick Wentworth-Stanley in memory of their son James, who took his own life aged 21 in 2006 after he reported feeling suicidal following a minor operation.
Specialist team
It now has three centres, in , and , where men receive six to eight free therapy sessions focused on helping them through a period of suicidal crisis.
Angus first became aware of James’ Place when he met James’s brother Harry when they were competing for different teams in an Atlantic rowing challenge.
He recalled: “Harry’s team was rowing to raise funds for James’ Place. Each morning a bird would come and land on their boat, all the way to Antigua.
“I’ve probably seen three birds do that in over 300 days at sea, and it felt like something special was going on. I knew I wanted to do something special for them too.”;;
A year ago, Angus began planning the challenge, named A Great British Odyssey, and designed and commissioned his rowing boat, which was built over the by a specialist team in the village of Millbrook, near Saltash in .
He said: “The main reasons other people have not succeeded in this challenge before are the wrong boat and not managing the weather.
“My boat has been specially designed for this challenge — for example, at 89kg it’s very lightweight, and every kilogram counts, as I have to power it around the coastline.
“And while I can’t control the weather I have a lot of experience in what’s known as ‘weathering’ for other rowing teams.
“That means plotting the quickest and safest route, taking into account storms, tides, winds and other weather conditions.”;;
Angus will set off from Portsmouth Harbour on June 1, and plans to complete the row in 30 to 60 days.
He will be rowing almost 2,000 nautical miles clockwise around the coastline, and one of the first major dangers he will face is the shipwreck graveyard of Portland Race, a treacherous stretch of water off the coast of .
One of the most feared tidal rapids on the British coastline, Portland Race is where several tides meet, causing monstrous waves.
Consequently it is a notorious shipwreck site, with more than 400 documented sinkings.
At almost the opposite end of the country, Angus will also have to negotiate the Corryvreckan whirlpool off the Isle of Jura, on the west coast of .
Depending on the weather and the tides, Corryvreckan — meaning cauldron — has whirlpools up to 50m wide, waves which can reach 9m tall, and a roar that can be heard up to ten miles away.
Angus said: “I know it’s going to be hard and there will be points when I’ll definitely regret being out there, but I’m not fearful.
Haribo sweets
“If there isn’t a phone signal then I have satellite communications, so if something goes wrong I can always call for help.”;;
He aims to row for up to 18 hours a day. He will row for eight hours, drop anchor and for around four hours, then start again.
Depending on tides and weather patterns, he will often be rowing through the night, which he prefers, as the temperature is cooler.
The rules of the challenge mean he cannot accept any help with navigation or supplies, he can’t come ashore, and at no point during the voyage is another boat allowed to touch his vessel.
Before he departs, Angus will load up his boat with freeze-dried, protein-packed food, along with bags of Haribo sweets for quick energy, as he will be burning more than 6,000 calories and rowing 15,000 strokes per day.
He said: “At times during the row I’ll be so close to the coastline that I’ll be able to see families having a picnic on the beach, or people having a pint in a clifftop beer garden.
“It’s at those moments that I’ll really wish I was on dry land.”;;
Angus comes from a seafaring family. He was born on the Pacific island of Guam, as his parents were setting up a scuba diving school there.
His sister Bella has broken records rowing the Atlantic and mid-Pacific, and his grandfather was a world champion sailor in the Flying Dutchman world championships in 1965.
Angus continued: “I often say that my family are better on the water than we are on the land.
“I’ve taken on a lot of endurance challenges before but this will be the hardest 60 days of my life.
“But knowing that every stroke I row has the potential to save the life of a man like me is the best motivation I can imagine.”;;
- To donate to Angus’s challenge visit justgiving.com/page/gbodyssey
