UK Edition
Oldest person to row the Atlantic falls asleep before the finish line
Frank Rothwell, 73, broke his own record but left his family fearing the worst when he dozed off and his boat drifted off course
A 73-year-old football chairman has broken his own record to become the oldest person to row across the Atlantic Ocean, despite falling asleep just before the finish line.
Frank Rothwell completed the 3,300-mile solo voyage unassisted from the Canary Islands to Antigua in 64 days, seven hours and 53 minutes on Thursday at 5.30pm.
On his arrival, he held up a Union flag and raised his arms aloft before embracing his wife Judith, who was waiting to greet him.
Mr Rothwell set off in his boat, named For A Cure, from the Canary Islands on December 12 to compete in the competition dubbed The World’s Toughest Row.
He capsized twice during the journey as huge waves rocked his boat roughly 200 miles into the voyage.
He had hoped to arrive in Antigua on Feb 14 to have a Valentine’s Day dinner with his wife.
But he was delayed and his family feared the worst when they spotted his vessel drifting off course, before finding out that he had just fallen asleep.
A message posted to his X, formerly known as Twitter, page read: “Some of you may have noticed that Frank is sitting off course.
“His family had a very emotional morning trying to make contact with him, but his son has just been in contact to let us know that Frank is fine and was asleep”.
It marked the second time that Mr Rothwell, the chairman of Oldham Athletic, made the dangerous crossing to raise money for charity Alzheimer’s Research UK.
He has so far managed to raise over £270,000, which is in addition to the £1.1 million he raised on his record transatlantic row in 2021, when he was 70.
Mr Rothwell paid his respects to Wrexham Football Club’s celebrity owners, Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who donated £1,600 to his cause.
He said: “You have given what I have done credibility. And I wish Wrexham all the best. I hope Wrexham get promoted because we don’t want to play you again next year.”
Speaking of the rowing challenge, he said: “Nothing could be harder than that. That is the ultimate, ultimate, ultimate – you get every emotion you can imagine during that.
“Last time it was difficult, but not as difficult as this time. This time was twice as hard. I had a faster boat, I thought I was going to be able to do it in 49 days.
“I did all the training and everything – I was going to smash it.
”[But] you can’t do it when the winds are blowing wrong. Nothing has been as difficult as this. This is really tough.”