Oarsome foursome take on the toughest rowing race in world

A MOUNTAINEER from Scotland with little experience of boats will next week launch himself into a round-Britain challenge described as the hardest rowing race in the world.

David Rowe, of Blairgowrie, will be joined on the non-stop marathon contest by John Mollison, a former soldier from Perth who lost part of a leg during the Falklands War.

The pair make up half of a male team that will compete against a female crew for 2,010 miles around Britain, hoping to raise 250,000 for Help For Heroes, the charity for injured servicemen and women.

The race for the Virgin Trophy starts from Tower Bridge in London on Tuesday. Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin Group chairman, will meet the competitors beforehand.

The teams will then face some of Britain's most notorious tides, busy shipping lanes and unpredictable weather, knowing that only one crew has ever successfully rowed non-stop around the country before.

This year, the first crew home will receive 15,000 and a 30,000 bonus if they beat the record, set in 2005, when a team did the journey in 26 days.

Mr Rowe, 49, who has climbed in Russia, Greenland and Alaska, was due to row the Atlantic on two occasions in the past couple of years, but both attempts were cancelled by the organisers.

The learning support teacher in Dundee is a weekend army instructor who has served with the Cheshire Regiment and with airborne forces.

Despite his lack of experience in boats, he jumped at the chance to join the race, which will see the male team, called the Misfits, using a 27ft boat, Orca.

He has been training since Christmas, partly on Loch Tay, and says he is ready for an assault on the record: "It's probably a good thing I don't know what to expect. It will be about being uncomfortable, hungry and tired, knowing you've just got to get on with it again and again."

Mr Mollison, 50, who now works as a property manager, served with 59 Royal Engineers and was among the liberators of Port Stanley. His right leg was blown off below the knee when he stood on a landmine two days after the Falklands War ended.

Since then, he has undertaken a number of endurance events for charity, including becoming the first amputee to attempt to row the Atlantic from east to west.

He had to be rescued after more than three weeks when his communications systems and water-maker failed to work.

They will be joined by skipper Olly Hicks, 28, from Oxfordshire, who was the first person to row solo across the Atlantic east to west, and Jack Jones, 27, from the Wirral, who last year completed a 50km ultra marathon on seven continents in seven days.