If you would like to meet the four crew members of Team Hallin’s Round GB 2013 Rowing Race team and also the skipper’s Olympic Gold medal winning daughter [Sophie Hosking – the stroke of the Team GB’s Lwt Womens Double Scull at London 2012], then an opportunity to do so is available at the end of May.

Team Hallin – David Hosking, Neil Ward, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlayne, with their Ocean Rowing Boat Hallin Marine II, will be at South Dock Marina [Rope Street, Plough Way, LONDON, SE16 7SZ] on Thursday 30^th May 2013 – they will be joined by Sophie Hosking [for a Combat Stress arranged press photo call] at lunchtime [1230-1330] that day.  So if you want to see Sophie Hosking [with her Olympic gold medal] and you want to wish Team Hallin good-luck in their forthcoming Race around GB then please come along to South Dock Marina at around mid-day on Thursday 30^th May 2013.

So we hope to see some of our supporters there next week.  But for those who cannot make the press call then please show your support to Team Hallin by making a small donation to our adopted charity Combat Stress – just follow this link – many thanks.

DB Hosking 22 May 2013

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Team Hallin’s Round GB 2013 Rowing Race team, consisting of David Hosking, Neil Ward, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlayne, would like to thank all our supporters for their most generous donations to our adopted charity ‘Combat Stress’.  As of today we are some 54% towards our target of raising £60,000 for this worthy charity.  In the last month the following supporters have donated well over £600 to our great charity:

Fiona Benson, Amanda Prest, Emma Norris, Michael McQuaid, Eddy H and the London Underground Signalling Team, Nick Taylor, Tom Nobes, Nanette Nobes, Frederik Gibson, Jo Brown, Kristin Bordynuik and Mike C.

On behalf of Team Hallin thank you all very much indeed – those yet to donate please do so, no matter how small the amount as it all helps.  To donate please click here or click on the Charity Page of our website.

Thank you again for your support and please be generous to our charity Combat Stress.

DB Hosking – 20^th May 2013

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It has been a busy few weeks for Team Hallin since they passed the official race scrutiny earlier this month. The Team has bought all the food they require for the race and have packed it into watertight bags – they have even made up special vegetarian meal packs for Julian. The photo below shows the 40 days of food packed and ready to be loaded into the boat.

Neil has had great support from his Offshore Support Ship’s crew who have helped make essential modifications to the rowing and steering gear fitted to Hallin Marine II. Julian has been searching the marine electronics market for some better equipment to replace items found wanting during the recent sea-trials – and David will be fitting this new electronics to the boat in the coming weeks. Stu has been busy bringing the first aid kit up to spec with the help of Dr Ben Phillips who will also teach Stu how to suture – just in case he might need to stitch any wounds that we might get when rowing around GB this summer.

The crew’s six month long land training programme has now started to taper down as the crew start to focus on shorter sessions at higher tempo rather than the past steady state long endurance training.

Team Hallin are also very pleased to see the recent generous donations to Combat Stress made and hope that these will increase as we get nearer to the race start – thank you to all our supporters and sponsors.

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Hallin Marine II, her equipment and four-man crew have recently passed the race scrutiny conducted by Phil Pring from GB Rowing. This, along with the team’s excellent performance in their sea trials last month, puts Team Hallin in very good stead for the race in June. Follow @Team_Hallin for the final countdown to the race.

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Team Hallin’s Round GB 2013 Rowing Race team, consisting of David Hosking, Neil Ward, Julian Bellido and Stuart Chamberlayne, has just successfully conducted a week of sea-trials in their Ocean Rowing Boat Hallin Marine II.

Team Hallin conducted an eight day training period in their new boat between 25th March and 2nd April 2013. The first day was spent removing the covers from the boat before conducting the final list of jobs to prepare the boat for sea.

On Tuesday 26th March the boat was lifted into the water at Shepperton Marina and to David’s delight the vessel looked great after its fifteen month long refit. London Olympic Rowing Champion Sophie Hosking christened the boat Hallin Marine II in front of a gathering of press reporters before coaching the crew in their first training session in the new boat.

Wednesday 27th March was spent working on the boat and then loading the food and supplies required for the sea trials. After safety briefs and equipment checks the team set off on Thursday afternoon for a row down the River Thames – spending the night alongside in Kingston.

At dawn on Good Friday [28th March] the crew set off again and made very good progress in a fast stream of flood water arriving at Richmond lock at 0800 hrs. Once through the lock the crew split into their sea-watches with David and Julian taking the first one-hour stint followed by Neil and Stu for the next. Progress down the Tideway on the Thames was swift and for a short burst the top recorded speed was over 7.5 kts with the tidal stream. However, as the boat reached Battersea the tide turned and for the next six hours the team had to row against a strong flood stream and into a moderate [and very cold] Easterly wind. After a brief stop on a buoy near Tower Bridge, which is the start of this summer’s GB Row Race, for lunch, the crew continued rowing down river.

Soon after Greenwich, the flood tide slackened off and as the team transited the Thames Barrier through span Bravo, the tidal stream was again in their favour. As night fell, the East wind picked up and blowing against a fast running Ebb tidal stream this created a short choppy sea. In the dark, the crew picked up an empty mooring buoy near the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge. That night the temperatures fell well below zero and both the watermaker and the fuel cell froze as a result – but crew morale did not suffer in the very cold conditions!

Easter Saturday was spent with more boat and crew drills before setting back up the Thames. On passing the Putney reach, Team Hallin witnessed the final practice session of the Oxford and Cambridge Blue boats before the Boat Race on Easter Sunday afternoon.  After rowing 14 hrs that day, including into a snow storm, the team spent the night opposite Hampton Court Palace.

Easter Sunday saw the crew rowing upstream to Shepperton Marina – stopping off at Stu and David’s rowing club at Walton for hot bacon sandwiches. The rest of the day was then spent conducting auto-helm tests and setting to work of the spare tiller pilot.

On Monday 1st April, the crew worked hard to rectify problem areas picked up from the sea trials, before de-storing and deep cleaning the boat.

On Tuesday [2nd April 2013] the boat was lifted out of water and towed back for storage before this summer’s Race. Mr. Phil Pring, the Race Scrutineer, will conduct his scrutiny on the boat and all associated equipment on Saturday 6th April – so fingers crossed all will be OK.

So after eight days of training, race preparation and rowing, Team Hallin covered over 110 NM under oars and they were generally delighted in the way the boat and equipment functioned in this first trial week. The next time that Hallin Marine II will be on the water is at the end of May 2013, just prior to the start of the Round GB Rowing Race. The latter starts from Tower Bridge at 0800 hrs on Saturday 1st June 2013.

Team Hallin wish to thank our key sponsors and friends, for their continued support in our world record bid. We also request that you support our adopted charity, Combat Stress.

 

 

DB Hosking – 3rd April 2013

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Team Hallin met tonight to discuss plans for their Easter Sea Trials. These will include final preparations to their boat, Hallin Marine II; a press call with Skipper David Hosking’s Olympic Gold-medal winning daughter, Sophie; and a week-long sea trial to ensure all equipment is fully operational and rowing tactics manageable. Further updates to come on the progress of the team in this important stage of preparation.

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Team Hallin are meeting over the Easter weekend for final preparations and sea trials in Hallin Marine II. There will also be a press call with the team and Hallin Marine II  on the River Thames on the afternoon of Tuesday 26th March – the location is currently dependent on the weather and river conditions.

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The crew are now half-way through their very demanding training programme for this Summer’s Rowing Race around GB and they took the opportunity last month to enter the Concept2.com Ergo Month Challenge.  For the uninitiated an ergo is the nickname for the dreaded rowing machine found in most gyms and fitness centres around the world.  For the January Challenge the team of four were joined by three guest members including the skipper’s brother Richard.  After a whole month of rowing Team Hallin with seven in the team came 2nd overall in the entire event for the average score per team member – they scored 620.9 km each for the month and the winning team of five from USA scored 629.8 km each – the next best team who camed 3rd scored an average of 571 km.

Skipper, David, also represented the crew at the GB Row Race Seminar held in Bristol on Saturday 2nd February where he handed over the initial Race Documentation for the team to the Race director.

So Team Hallin remains well on track for this Summer’s race against nine other well prepared crews.

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We wish everyone a fabulous Christmas with loads of great moments with friends and family and we would like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters and of course sponsors without whom none of this fantastic venture would be possible *especially Hallin Marine.
Merry Christmas and let 2013 be a year to remember (with some new world rowing records….)

The team has just had a great week in Gibraltar. Julian very kindly put everyone up and brought his ocean rowing boat ‘Hercules’ out of retirement for the team’s sea trials. The aim was to get used to working as a team and rowing together. We also wanted to test out new equipment and dried foods. Every day we went out, going through the routine and getting used to the gruelling rotor of 2 hours rowing 2 hours off.

It was a great success in every aspect. We gave ourselves 48hours to row to Malaga and back but made it in record time with no mishaps- Just the standard sore bottoms! Everyone is really motivated and driven by the common goal for June’s row around GB
and it was great to be out rowing at sea again.

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