Famous vet checks in to meet his fans
THREE YORKSHIRE servicemen and a colleague who hope to row the Atlantic in just 35 days during the coming winter launched their boat, and the charity appeal that accompanies it, at the Harrogate showground.
Welcome To Yorkshire is supporting the Row4Victory attempt, which, its chief executive Sir Gary Verity joked, could be faster than a drive from Leeds to Scarborough.
“More people have been to space than have rowed across an ocean,” said Duncan Roy, from Ingleby Cross near Northallerton, who conceived the idea after discovering where an Army colleague had got his tan.
Mr Roy, who served with the Royal Engineers until earlier this year, recruited RAF technician Fraser Mowlem, former Marine Glyn Sadler, and civilian Will Quarmby, who runs a cafe in Sheriff Hutton, for the Talisker Atlantic Challenge – described as the world’s toughest row – which sets sail in December from La Gomera in the Canary Islands.
At the show, the four met Niki Doeg, one of the four “Yorkshire Rows” who in 2016 become the oldest all-female crew to row the Atlantic, taking 68 days.
Her advice to them was not to fall out with each other and to take plenty of pork scratchings.
“You will crave the salt,” she said.
The Row4Victory team aims to raise £100,000 in funding and another £100,000 for the Royal British Legion.
“It’s been a chicken-and-egg challenge,” said Mr Roy, 27, who already holds the record as the youngest person to row from Africa to South America. “We needed the boat to raise money, but we needed money for the boat.”
It was eventually put up by Grantley Hall, a country resort near Ripon, which opens next year. “In rowing, the hardest part is often getting to the start line,” Mr Roy said.
Fans of hit Channel 5 television series The Yorkshire Vet queued up to meet one of its stars at the Great Yorkshire Showground yesterday.
Peter Wright, one of the veterinary stars of the TV show that documents life at Skeldale Veterinary Centre in Thirsk and a former trainee of Alf Wight – aka James Herriot – was a popular visitor as he staged a meet-and-greet for visitors at The Yorkshire Vet corner.