David Hosking and his Walton Rowing Club colleague Stuart Chamberlayne failed to complete the GB Row 2013 after weather and steering difficulties off Land’s End forced them back to dry land.
With Neil Ward and Julian Bellido, the four-man Team Hallin crew had been lying in second place in the round GB race, 10 nautical miles behind the lead boat.
Unfortunately, that 10-mile gap meant the leaders navigated the treacherous shorelines of Land’s End and the Scilly Isles before high winds closed in around Team Hallin.
That, with an autopilot that decided to break at the worst possible moment meant the team had to drop anchor and wait for the high winds to pass.
However, when the forecast showed it would take three days for the winds to drop and the anchor line looked unlikely to last that long, they had no choice but to call for rescue.
Hosking said: “If the anchor line had broken, we would have been blown onto rocks and the boat would have been smashed up, and I dare say some of us would have gone the same way.
“Unfortunately you are at the whim of the wind and tides, and it was clear we did not have a choice so we called a local fisherman who charged us £300 to come out and rescue us.”
The race had started well for Team Hallin, sponsored by Hallin Marine, as they left the mouth of the Thames and headed south.
For five to six days, the crew kept pace with the lead boat until they hit the problems around Land's End.
Hosking said: "At any other time, the automatic pilot breaking would not have been a problem as we can steer manually.
"However, with the winds, the rocks and the traffic separation scheme, which means we have to stay in a specific area, it came at the worst possible moment.
"We dropped anchor in 30m depth, but because we only a 10m cable and the rest was rope, it rubbed on rocks and I knew it would not last three days while the wind past."
He added: "I felt more responsible for the crew than when I'm leading an Atlantic crossing.
On dry land: Team Hallin, consisting of Julian Bellido, David Hosking, Stuart Chamberlayne and Neil Ward
"When in the Atlantic, there is nothing you can do and you are at the mercy of the ocean.
"But going round the British Isles, you can often see the lights on the shore and you know rescue is a possibility.
"Besides, Neil has a one-month old baby and Julian was about to become a father for the first time, and we wondered if they would get to see their family again."
When the crew were rescued by the fishing boat, it was not the end of Chamberlayne's race as he joined the Pure Gym team.
However, two days later, Chamberlayne's race would be over as Pure Gym suffered a similar fate to Team Hallin, and who should come to rescue them?
Hosking said: "The same fisherman who rescued us came out for Pure Gym as well, so he was making a fair bit of money out of us in one way or another.
"We also had to leave our anchor behind, which was another £300, so all in all it was an expensive race."
He added: "I am most disappointed about the £60,000 we were trying to raise for Combat Stress. I can only apologise to them and promise one more ocean row from my old body to try and raise those funds.”
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