Northrop & Johnson MD Patrick Coote with his rowing boat.

Patrick Coote, managing director of yacht broker Northrop & Johnson Europe, is joining a team of rowers who plan to row unsupported across the North Sea, from Inverness Marina on the east coast of Scotland to Stavanger in Norway.

The journey is scheduled to depart at 8am on Monday, 15 July. Wind, weather, tides and exhaustion will play a big part in the duration of the crossing, but overall, the feat is expected to take approximately one week. The team of 12 adventurers will row 24 hours a day in three-hour shifts, no matter the conditions.

Coote will be accompanied onboard by highly experienced ocean rowers with experience in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans. The North Sea, however, presents its own unique challenges, with offshore oil and gas platforms to navigate through and infamously unpredictable weather conditions.

The 24ft ocean rowing boat has been designed to self-right itself if it capsizes and to withstand the worst weather that the open sea can throw at it. The boat has a watertight cabin, solar panels to power the onboard navigation system, and a water maker to convert seawater into drinking water.

In modern times, three successful attempts have been made to cross the North Sea by rowing boat: Ragnar Thorseth, a Norwegian adventurer, crossed alone during the summer of 1969; Olav Lie Gundersen and Tommy Skeide repeated the feat in 2005; and most recently, Henrik Yksnøy and Erik Schouw-Hansen in June 2012.

Ultimately, it’s all for a good cause as Coote is raising funds for the World Wildlife Foundation (WWF), via a JustGiving page.

“The health of our oceans is critical for the health of our planet and the WWF has numerous projects to protect marine wildlife,” says Coote. “I want to play a small part by supporting them and increasing the awareness of their efforts”.

Coote, supported by N&J, has raised over €40,000 (£34,000) for good causes in the past three years through physical challenges that include the first-ever circumnavigation of Scotland by rowing boat in 2022 and a race to row from Barcelona to Ibiza in 2023.

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