As January progresses, the news starts to zip back from the finishes in the Caribbean of the Transatlantic rowing races from the Canaries, and last year it was a Wicklow team that successfully hit the headlines. This year it’s a somewhat more convoluted process, but it emerges that half of the crew were Irish on board Out of the Blue, the entry from the highly-regarded Delft Technological University in The Netherlands, whose alumni include Ireland’s distinguished maritime polymath Hal Sisk.

Transatlantic oarsman Amir Anwar-Hameed of Bray formerly specialized in aerospace engineering, but at Delft he is transitioning to design and strategic innovation

Amir Anwar-Hameed of Bray was one of the Out of the Blue foursome from Delft that placed second overall in a very competitive field, and so too was Mark Bolger. He is best known for his Baltimore Sailing Club links, but before that he was active in college racing, and was twice awarded the Irish Universities Sailing Association “Sailor of the Year” title.

Delft post-grad student Mark Bolger has a home address in Sandymount in Dublin, but in sailing in Ireland he is best known for his links to Baltimore and university team racing

Two Irish men are undertaking the world’s toughest row across the Atlantic in a 30-day, unassisted, non-stop row, known as the Atlantic Challenge, from the Canary Islands to Antigua starting Wednesday, 13 December 2023.

Sailor Mark Bolger from Sandymount in County Dublin and Amir Anwar Hameed from Bray are in the final stages of preparation before crossing the start line at 8 am at La Gomera in the Canary Islands.

They, along with their two Dutch teammates, Marko Rehbein and Paul Hejnen, will row 4,800 kilometres across the Atlantic Ocean, hopefully arriving in January at Nelsons Boatyard in Antigua.

Their preparations have included providing food supplies for 55 days in case of adverse weather conditions. All food is freeze-dried to save on weight, and as each team member will burn in excess of 5000 calories a day, consuming calories is a major concern.

On average, a rower loses over 8 kg rowing the Atlantic with in excess of 1.5 million oar strokes during a race.

At its deepest, The Atlantic Ocean is 8.5km deep, and the rowers can expect to experience waves up to 20 ft high.

Conditions onboard the rowing boat are very meagre in order to save on weight so they can go faster. There is no toilet onboard; the boys will use a bucket! They will also do two hours on watch and two hours off.

Their off time is not just for rest as they will have to desalinate water and heat it to prepare their meals during their off period. They estimate that in reality it will be two hours rowing, one hour eating and one hour sleeping.

About 'Team Out of the Blue'

A chance connection on social media in 2022 brought Amir Anwar Hameed from Bray and Mark Bolger from Sandymount together, having not been in contact for seven years since they left school.

Amir, who studied Aerospace Engineering at Delft University in the Netherlands, has no rowing experience yet came up with the idea with his flatmate, Marko, to take on the World’s Toughest Row as Amir is a firm believer that anything is possible with a strong vision.

When Amir announced his campaign on social media, Mark congratulated him & offered to support Amir in his challenge, little did he realise that one message would lead him to moving to Delft in March 2023 to train. Mark has been a competitive sailor since the age of 6 & following his studies at Trinity & UCD, he has been working as a sustainably specialist for Irish & EU projects.

The Team was then joined by Paul a third Aerospace Engineer who is a competitive rower and Team Out of the Blue was born & are now in full time training to take on the biggest challenge of their lives rowing 4800km across the Atlantic Ocean.

Amir says, ‘There is no doubt that we will reach our physical limits, but it is our Team's spirit and mental resilience that will be tested above all. We realized that the same uncertainties we will face on the ocean are experienced by young people around us everyday and as a result we are taking on this challenge to promote the means to tackle our mental health, such as open communication, empathy and awareness for mental health while raising funds for our charities MIND Us (Netherlands) and JIGSAW (Ireland) that provide essential support to young people.