Jake Still is training for a huge challenge – rowing solo across the Atlantic in just under 500 days’ time, fundraising for The Rivers Trust and Aire Rivers Trust with every stroke. This is the second of his guest blog posts, documenting the long journey to even reach the start of the race. Read his first update if you missed it, here.

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Words: Jake Still

What does it take to qualify for the World’s Toughest Row?

Words by Jake Still

To get the start line of the race, you must complete the required training hours on the water. As a minimum, rowers must complete 120 hours, 24 hours must be during the night and at least one session must be over 36 hours. As a solo rower, this will mean I will have to learn to successfully anchor offshore because it would be impossible to do this without having to sleep. Ultimately, these hours are about getting used to living on board rather than rowing. Afterall, I will be spending at least 40 days at sea and everyday things like sleeping, cooking, hygiene and even going to the toilet are no-longer trivial tasks when you’re on a boat that will rock about.

Before I took Azula (the name of my boat) out to sea, I began my early training on Lake Windermere. This was so I could familiarise myself with basic navigation, steering and handling without having to deal with tides and other hazards on the coast. Sessions were short (around 4 hours) and I would mark some waypoints and make sure I practiced heading on the right course of ground either manually steering with the oars, or by learning to use the autopilot. For coastal training, it is very important to be proficient in navigation. Compared to sculling on a river, it is a lot different on an ocean rowing boat because every movement feels sluggish.

The hardest part of training session is the logistics of getting Azula into the water! Specifically, the rudder which must retrofitted after launching and usually means having to get into the water to attach. Luckily, I had an old diving dry suit to avoid getting wet!

While I was training on the Lakes, I was also taking Azula around West Yorkshire to public events to showcase her and tell people about the challenge I am undertaking. I took her to Baildon Carnival, Farsley Festival and to Adore’s Weavers Court Care home in Yeadon. It was exciting to be engaging with my local communities and answering all their questions and explaining everything on board Azula. I also brought an erg (an indoor rowing machine) and challenged the public to row as far they could in one minute. It was great to see people all ages have a go, from as young as 4 up to 70 and there was plenty of competitive spirit among the communities, especially among fellow cadets and friends. One girl came back multiple times to try and best her score.

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At the end of July, Azula found her new home in Hartlepool Marina, where she will mostly stay over the course of the next 18 months. For my first open sea session, I did a 3-day training camp with Duncan Roy (Ocean rowing trainer/coach) and not only did he teach me the skills to safely train out at sea but to thrive on it. Water sessions included being able to get in and out of the Marina, being able to deploy the anchor (for emergencies or resting), passage planning routes and navigating them and using the VHF radio to cross the Teesside Shipping Channel (home to vessels of 200m+ length). It was amazing to be out in the open sea and feel as though crossing an ocean is becoming more of a reality. On day 2, I got to see the Teesside offshore windfarm up close and was lucky enough to see some seals popping their heads out like meerkats. To finish the day off, I had the opportunity to anchor offshore and sleep out on the water. Felt a bit like camping back in Scouts, minus the bobbing about on the water. Also had to use the bucket for the first time. Thankfully the water was flat and there were no spill issues. The only awkward bit was manoeuvring your bottoms through your harness gear and equipment.

The next steps for me are to continue getting more experience out on the water and build up my skills and confidence over the Summer and early Autumn and at least qualify for the race.

You can follow Jake on social media (@jakedarcystill) or support his goals on the donation plaform Givestar.

At the end of 2025, data scientist and rower Jake Still plans to embark on an almighty rowing challenge while fundraising to support the restoration of his beloved rivers back home. Spending up to 50 or so days at sea alone, he’s aiming row across the Atlantic solo. This is the first in his series of guest blog posts, in which he’ll keep us updated with his training and eventual race progress.

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The World’s Toughest Row Atlantic 2024 race is nearing the end with the last few boats still to come in and officially marks 10 months to go until I launch from San Sebastion in La Gomera. Earlier in December, I had the opportunity to travel down to La Gomera to see the race start line. It was exciting to be down there and see the marina with all the boats lined up in the water and how amazing to see the support from the locals with the race banners spread across the various local businesses such as restaurants.

If you can, it is advised to travel to La Gomera before your race year because it has been very helpful to familiarise myself with the process getting to the island and the knowing where everything on the island is. It is a little thing to help take pressure during my race year. To travel to La Gomera you have to fly Tenerife and then take the ferry across. The ferry was an interesting ride and my first taste of being rocked by deep water waves in the Atlantic as it travelled between the islands, a teaser to what will happen daily on my little rowing boat.

Visiting the start line La Gomera is one of the rare moments when you get to experience the largest fleet of ocean rowing boats. It was very beneficial seeing many different crew boats because each crew had their own unique setup and seeing the different approaches helps to generate ideas for what additions/work I need to do on my boat to prep her for the Atlantic. It was lovely to catch up with some of the crews I had met throughout 2024 either through doing sea survival courses together or training up in the North Sea at Hartlepool. Got the chance to hop on their boat and ask them lots of questions and deep dive into their kit. One of things I wanted to check was how spares were being secured. It was great to see them set off in La Gomera and having met some of the crews made the 2024 race more special to watch them as they traverse across the Atlantic and seeing them finally arrive in Antigua was amazing.

It was not only just current rowers there. There were lots of past rowers and future rowers, some who had raced in the previous year and others who enjoy coming back every year. It was fantastic speaking to them too about their own stories and how they found their crossing. La Gomera is very special for ocean rowing because of the World’s Toughest Row and it is great to be a part of this awesome community.

We wish Jake well with his training and eventually on his epic challenge. You can follow his progress via occasional blogs on this site.

At the end of next year, data scientist and rower Jake Still plans to embark on an almighty rowing challenge while fundraising to support the restoration of his beloved rivers back home. Spending up to 50 or so days at sea alone, he’s aiming row across the Atlantic solo. This is the first in his series of guest blog posts, in which he’ll keep us updated with his training and eventual race progress.

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Introducing Jake

My name is Jake Still, I am 25 and I am from Leeds. I work as a data scientist at Zest ECO LTD and provide the analysis to support the team in building up the EV charge point infrastructure for the UK to help our country and beyond to transition into a more green and sustainable future. The rest of the time I am usually rowing on the river Aire at Bradford Amateur rowing club or platform diving at John Charles.

In December 2025, I am going to be rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean Solo from La Gomera to Antigua in the World’s Toughest Row. This is both an extremely physical and mental challenge where you will be up against fierce storms, huge 8m waves, sleep deprivation, sores and bruises with the occasional flying fish leaping into your boat. I plan to row a competitive time for the race, and this may consist of up to 20 hours plus rowing, eating 5000+ calories, drinking 10L of water daily for about 30 to 50 days.

To be able to do this safely, I will need lots of preparation. This challenge is more than just a physical one, it is also a very technical one. It is about knowing your boat very well, how to handle the boat and to fix problems when you are tired whilst getting smashed by waves at night in 10+ knot winds. The Boat I will be using is an R25, which is essentially a canoe body with 2 rowing positions, 2 cabins, the bow one is for sleeping, the stern contains all the navigation and electronics. The boat will come with a water maker (to convert salt water to fresh water), 2 lithium batteries charged by solar panels as well as a chart plotter to plot routes, an autohelm (to keep the boat on course on a bearing) and VHF radio. The one of the major points for success on an ocean rowing is power management. If the batteries drop below 20%, they will essentially shut off to preserve the battery. When this happens, you will not be able to use the water maker or contact anyone on radio for 2 days. Hence, learning exactly how much power individual pieces of equipment draw is critical for a safe ocean crossing. In general, getting comfortable with all the pieces of equipment is vital for a safe and fast crossing. Something I will need to do during my 1000 hours of practise in UK coastal waters.

I want to support the Rivers Trusts because as a rower, I am very closely connected to the river Aire and spend a lot of time rowing on it. Rowing for me is very therapeutic and is something I have come to enjoy doing. However, this experience is ruined when Yorkshire Water spill sewage directly into the Aire and it is not uncommon for plastic bottles to be floating down it as well. It is gotten so bad that we as a club cannot do capsize drills in our river anymore due to the pollution levels. Furthermore, it is not just water companies polluting our river, farmers are also having an impact. They cause excess nutrients to be added to the river and combine this with the hotter summers, you get algae blooms. Not only does this affect the ecosystem of the river, but it can also make it impossible to row on. This cancelled the 2023 Boston rowing marathon (49.2km), an event I was looking forward to doing. These events are vital in supporting the local clubs and communities where these races are held and help the clubs get more young people into rowing. However, the biggest cause of race cancellations is due to dangerously high river levels brought upon by excess flooding and rain. This is a consequence of climate change bringing about wetter winters and results in the number of water session becoming even fewer each year. Especially for those of us that can only get down during the weekends in winter and especially for novice rowers who will not be able to go out in the more challenging conditions.

The next step for me is getting a boat and sorting the logistics out to prepare for a maiden voyage in Hartlepool where I will be training and getting used to boat launching and very basic ocean rowing. I will also be creating a banner to help with my campaign to get the essential equipment over the next year needed for the crossing.