Newcastle Boat Club smash two world records for charity

They’ve stripped off for calendars and raced a ferry to Amsterdam but last week the Newcastle University Boat Club went one step further, smashing two world records.

Altogether the club rowed an impressive 2,000km non-stop for three days, from Tuesday 17th-Friday 21st March, to raise money for Water Aid and for equipment ahead of this summer’s racing season.

Rowing machines were placed around Newcastle city centre, including in The Gate, Northumberland street and the SU to raise awareness of their fundraising efforts, and rowed the distance to Africa.

Ed Munno, Publicity Officer for NUBC, told The Tab that they have broken “the longest held continuous rowing machine records for both the U19 and 20-29 year-old categories.

“We confirmed with Concept 2, the body that monitors rowing machine records, that the time to beat was 3 Days 48 minutes.”

The record was broken by approximately half an hour.

He added: “In this time we covered roughly 2300km, which equates to the distance of rowing from Britain to Africa.

“We were granted public fundraising permits, allowing us to conduct this world record attempt, and ‘row to Africa’ outdoors in Newcastle.

“We are twinning our winnings with raising money for Water Aid, which is a fantastic charity that helps to improve basic standards of living and hygiene across Africa. We thought this was a great partner charity to work with on this challenge”.

The rowing machines were kept running throughout the night.

Erging in The Gate

Desperate for more boats to cope with their ever increasing squad size Newcastle University Boat Club launched their fundraising campaign ahead of the summer racing season.

Donate here to support two great causes.