DP World Director to Row Atlantic Ocean to Highlight Plastic Pollution

Representing the spirit of DP World’s Director of Global Operations, Patrick Bol along with his team aim to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 27 days or less to collect samples of water and draw attention to the plastic pollution problem.

The global port operator said in a press release that Patrick Bol along with his team of rowers Lewis Knollman, Andrew Ruinoff, Matt Wilds aim to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 27 days or less to collect samples of water and draw attention to the plastic pollution problem – smashing world records along the way.

World Record attempt: To safely row across the Atlantic Ocean in a multihull rowing boat whilst breaking 4 world records on the Trade Winds 2 route: The first multihill to row across TW2, Africa to South America, continent to continent;  Shortest time to row across TW2 Atlantic Ocean (record stands at 27 days);  Fastest Atlantic crossing with an average speed of over 3.8kn (record stands at 3.7kn) and most consecutive days rowed over 100 nm/day on TW2 (record stands at 12 days).

Named “Year of Zayed” the boat is a multihull design by John Cable of Mariner Design, New Zealand and built by Premier Composite Technologies (PCT), Dubai, will be the fastest Ocean rowing boat ever built. At 39.5 ft. in length, 23 ft. wide, weighing nearly 1500 kgs with a full load “Year of Zayed” is made out of carbon fibre and nomex.

It is equipped with the latest technology including Xtra Link tracking devices that submit a position every 4 hours, said the release.

The “Year of Zayed” is named after the founding father of the UAE, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and 2018 will mark 100 years since his birth, it said.

"On land and in the sea, our fore-fathers lived and survived in this environment. They were able to do so because they recognised the need to conserve it, to take from it only what they needed to live, and to preserve it for succeeding generations," said the release.

Eight billion kilos of plastic are dumped into the ocean every year. For the number crunchers among us, that’s an astounding 22 million kilos of plastic every day – enough to fill over 1500 40-foot containers a day. No wonder our beaches are covered in plastic debris.