The aptly named ‘World’s Toughest Row’, formerly The Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge, is a 3,000 mile rowing race across the Atlantic ocean from the Canary Islands to Antigua. This year Fraser Morrison (TR 2008-13) is setting off with a friend in an attempt to win the pairs race. He answers our questions about the race.

What actually is it?

The race is considered one of the most gruelling endurance challenges on the planet with fewer people having rowed the Atlantic than climbed Everest.

In December, I’ll be setting out in an RX25 ocean rowing boat made by Rannoch Adventures. The boat is 30 feet long with a ‘cosy’ cabin at either end. The race can take more than 100 days but our aim is to do it in under 40 and to win the pairs race category in the process.

I will be taking it in turns to row for two hours and rest for two hours nonstop. There are no breaks along the way, no support vessels to tow you out of trouble. It is just us and the big bad ocean… and a fishing rod! We are reminded before we set out that there may be a time while you are in the middle of the ocean that the nearest human is on the International Space Station.

What rowing experience do you have?

I’m afraid my only proper rowing ‘career’ took place while I was a Shell at King’s. For those of you who remember, we were all encouraged to give a variety of sports a whirl, just in case we accidentally turned out to be the next great athletic prodigy. Spoiler alert: It turns out I was not the next Steve Redgrave. The coaches quickly determined that I had about as much rowing ability as a duck on roller skates and gently suggested I focus my talents elsewhere… anywhere else, really. So it’s fair to say my rowing experience is pretty limited, having never picked up a set of oars since those early days at King’s, yet here I am – rowing an Ocean!

What do you expect some of the Highs and Lows to be?

I’ll start with the bad stuff. My biggest fear for this race is the ‘graveyard shift’. Every night there are going to be 6-8 hours where I’ll be rowing alone on deck in the pitch black. On some nights, this will be incredible with unpolluted skies and a clear view of the night-sky but on other nights (a lot!), this will mean triple checking my safety harness is correctly attached to the boat so I’m not washed over the side while my teammate sleeps not-so-peacefully in his cabin.

On the flip side, this is the chance to see some incredible wildlife. There are stories where boats are escorted by pods of dolphins for days at a time. The biggest draw for both my teammate and me is the adventure. While day-to-day it could be a bit monotonous to pull an oar more than a million times, the overall challenge is exciting – an opportunity to test our limits and come back with a story worth sharing for a lifetime.

How do you prepare for this?

We have a great team supporting us. Our race coach is Charlie Pitcher, former solo world record holding ocean rower and maker of the RX25 boat. He has rowed the Atlantic and rowed around GB, and when you combine this with his knowledge of the RX25, it gives two London bankers – and entirely inexperienced rowers – a glimmer of hope that we might actually be able to pull this off!

Balancing the training schedules with our day job (investment bankers to the renewable energy sector) has been a feat in itself, one that we’re only just getting the hang of three years into this venture.

Why are you doing this?!

We get this question a lot – though it’s usually our exasperated, but somehow still saintly, partners doing the asking! There are plenty of reasons, but they can be boiled down to two main categories. The first is that it will satisfy my growing need for adventure, which has been building at an alarming rate since I started my desk job post-graduation.

The other is to raise awareness and money for the Blue Marine Foundation. We have set ourselves the lofty goal of raising £250,000 to promote ocean conservation. Our team name – Gone Fishin – speaks to both our love of the activity itself and our recognition that the commercialisation of fishing has destroyed much of the world’s largest resource and will continue to do so unless we do something about it.

Now please excuse my inelegant segue here, but I would love to think that the OKS network might support a fellow alumnus in making this happen by picking up their cheque book and donating to the cause via the links below…

GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/y3b8g-marine-conservation

Team website: www.GoneFishin2025.com

This article appeared as a feature in the Spring 2025 OKS Magazine. To read the full issue, please click here.