After 50 gruelling days at sea and only eight days behind the first team home, Comship.com have become the first British team to complete the Ward Evans Atlantic Rowing Challenge earning fifth place in ‘the world’s toughest rowing race’. Ian Anderson from Jersey and Andrew Chapple from Guernsey arrived in Port St Charles, Barbados at 0027 GMT, 2027 Barbadian time. They completed the transatlantic voyage in 50 days, 15 hours and 11 minutes.

This is a fantastic result as Ian and Andy had to overcome disaster when Comship’s rudder cable and its replacement broke in the early stages of the race. This could have put an end to their hopes of even completing the race, let alone receiving a race placing. However, undaunted, the team fixed the second cable themselves and mounted a challenge against Win.Belgium and Telecom Challenge 25, coming in only hours behind their rivals.

Stepping foot on dry land Ian Anderson and Andy Chapple said: “It is great to see friends and family again after 50 long days. We enjoyed the thrill of the chase and gave Telecom Challenge 25 a run for their money right down to the last few hours.”

Hot on Comship’s heels were their fellow British team Bright Spark. Tim Thurnham from Grimsby and Will Mason from Warminster, Wiltshire arrived in Port St Charles at 01.37 GMT, 21.27 Barbadian time, just over 1 hour behind Comship.com. This makes their crossing 50 days, 15 hours and 22 minutes.

Will and Tim commented “What a tremendous adventure! We are looking forward to sitting back and contemplating our achievement with friends and family. We are very pleased with our sixth position in the race. Life’s too short not to do this, but it’s too short to do it twice.”