Cycle to Sark is completed – with a short swim at the end
A CHARITY ‘cycle’ to Sark saw the rider of BoatyMcBikeFace have to complete the crossing under swim power.
Graham Glass, who successfully pedalled the machine to Herm last year, was within 50 metres of Sark’s shoreline when his craft suffered a catastrophic failure.
He decided to swim the remaining distance, which took five minutes but he said seemed like an eternity in the tidal conditions.
‘I think I have swum a total of 100 metres in the past 10 years, 50 of which were just now,’ he said.
‘Boaty’ was taking part in a 10-mile race against swimmers Jacqui Hunt and Doric Steer, representing the Guernsey Swim Adventures team.
Jacqui touched land in 1 hour 41 minutes and Doric took 1 hour 45 minutes to complete the course.
After allowing for the handicap of 45 minutes, the swimmers were announced winners.
The Sark crossing was fundraising effort for the Sarah Groves Foundation and the conditions were challenging.
‘Boaty’s’ chain fell off within the first few minutes of setting off and then around 30 times during the 1 hour 31 minutes it took to complete the course.
Mr Glass had completed the ‘cycle’ to Herm in 45 minutes.
‘The engineering of “Boaty” by JL Innovation was perfect, unfortunately the mounting of the bike to the boat, which was my responsibility, flexed under the pressure of the waves and the chain came off about 30 times in total.
‘Each time the boat had to come to a complete stop before setting off again or I risked losing the tips of my fingers,’ said Mr Glass.
The foundation raised a significant sum of money as a result of the race, which was held in conjunction with the Ride the Tide raffle.
Sarah’s parents, Vic and Kate, who set up the foundation in her name were full of praise for Mr Glass.
‘This has been a long time in the planning and it was great to finally arrive at the date and time set for the huge challenge of “cycling” and swimming from Guernsey to Sark.
‘Graham was very unfortunate with the prevailing conditions – “Boaty” was stretched to the limit.
‘When he stopped for the first time to repair the chain-slip, all of us on the support vessels feared the worst.
‘However, the problem was quickly fixed but it kept recurring.
‘We knew by then that Graham was up against it time-wise, but we could also see that he was able to overcome his problems. We just wanted him to stay the course.
‘Can he claim to have successfully “cycled” from Guernsey to Sark? Of course, he can. Furthermore, it is unlikely anyone else ever will.
‘Always tinged with sadness that Sarah cannot be here to witness all these wonderful things that happen in her name, we know she would have been proud of everyone involved with this epic challenge.’
n The Tour de Sez cycle ride to Amsterdam will leave Guernsey on 7 September and return on 16 September.
While the Ride the Tide Raffle has been drawn, donations can still be given via the JustGiving page https://bit.ly/2NpDrlu
