Edinburgh brothers look to make history with record-breaking row
A TRIO of brothers from Edinburgh are set to take on their biggest challenge yet by attempting to become the first team to row the entire Pacific Ocean non-stop and unsupported.
The Maclean brothers are hoping to raise £1million as well as breaking two world records when they set off early next year.
They will first look to break the record for the fastest human-powered crossing of the full Pacific Ocean when they set off on a 14,000km journey from Lima in Peru to Sydney in Australia.
It is expected to take them around four months to complete the endeavour.
The brothers, named Ewan, Jamie and Lachlan, are looking to do it in a boat they helped build themselves as part of the challenge – which has been named Rare Whisky 101 Pacific Row.
The siblings are also musical and will each take an instrument on board, and have already broken world records in the past.
They smashed three of them in January 2020 when they became the first three brothers to row any ocean, and the youngest and fastest trio to row the Atlantic Ocean as they did it in just 35 days.
They expect to face the same challenges they did during that challenge when they take on the Pacific with storms, sickness, sleep deprivation and exhaustion among them.
But the main aim of their journey is to raise funds for the charity set up by them and their father Charlie Maclean, who is one of the world’s
leading whisky experts.
The charity provides clean water to developing countries and was devised during their Atlantic challenge.
It has already helped build four clean water bore holes in Madagascar, which are helping 800 people in a rural part of the country.
They have set a target to raise £1million, which they believe could allow them to help tens of thousands of people.
Lachlan Maclean is the youngest of the brothers at 26 and he said: “Clean water is the most basic human necessity on the planet, yet 10% of people worldwide don’t have access to it.
“We’re doing something to change that.”
He added: “I’d visited Madagascar and had not only seen but experienced the horrible impact waterborne diseases can have.
“The more we talked uninterrupted with the clarity of being on the ocean, the more we realised this is what we wanted to do.”
The brothers have been back and forth to Amsterdam in recent months along with fellow rower Mark Slatts, while supporting him in building the “lightest and strongest ocean rowing boat ever made”.
The vessel weighs just 280kg and is a quarter of the weight of the boat on which they completed the Atlantic challenge and they plan on using it for their trip across the Pacific.
Thirty-year-old Jamie Maclean said: “We’ve been thinking about doing this since we were on the ocean during our Atlantic crossing, but it’s been over the last year that we’ve committed and fully immersed ourselves in this challenge, planning every detail.”
“There’s no going back now,” he added.
“Spending 120 days at sea was unthinkable before our first row, but making it through 35 days made it achievable.
“We knew we had some more in us once we arrived in Antigua. It’s just taken us a little while to get going again.
“Ocean rowing is a growing sport, but it’s a relatively new one so a lot of what we’ll face is hard to predict. Unlike our last row, this will be completely unsupported, so of course there are different challenges.
“What if one of us goes overboard? All three of us have a history of sleepwalking so we’ll all be on high alert. We might need to install seat belts!
“But we’re more excited than we are scared.
“We have the opportunity to do something nobody has ever done before while helping the many people who are in a position nobody should be in.
“And we get to do that.”
The brothers will take the rowing in shifts, going for two hours on and one hour off. They had to go without music for entertainment for more than 20 days during their Atlantic Ocean challenge after salt water destroyed their phone charger but they’ve got back-up in place this time – including bagpipes.
Jamie Maclean added: “While losing use of our phones gave us the headspace to think bigger and create plans for both this challenge and The Maclean Foundation, this time, we’ll bring 25 charging cables with us just in case.”
The trio are now looking for sponsors to support their charity efforts.
To find out more about the charity, visit www.themacleanfoundation.org.
We have the opportunity to do something nobody has ever done before