Six men in a tub ...

Press, 15 February 1982, Page 4

Six men in a tub ...

PA Invercargill With only a few blisters on calloused hands, six men in a sophisticated bathtub rowed ' across Foveaux Strait on ■ Saturday in 7‘a hours, raising more than $4OOO for the ■ Southland Multiple Sclerosis I Society. ' The’ 41.8 km strait is supi posed to be one of the roughest stretches of water i in the world, but Saturday's weather and sea conditions were "fantastic." said the group's support manager. Mr Carl Nilsen, after the row. The bathtub.- appropriately named m.s. Fundraiser, was accompanied from Bluff to Halfmoon Bay by the flagbedecked Monarch, which was skippered by the chairman of the Stewart Island County Council. Mr lan Johnson. A burst of applause from a

waiting crowd greeted the rowers when they reached the shore at Halfmoon Bay about. 3 p.m. The three-year-old bathtub was built by Mr Nilsen. It is a standard bathtub with a 6m plywood pontoon on either side. The tub was rowed across Cook Strait two years ago and has also set a world record on a 22-hour row from Mahia to Napier. The six rowers — Roger Arrowsmith (captain). Peter Dalziel. Neil Smidt. Richard Head. Tom Soden, and Bruce Buxton — trained for Saturday’s crossing for more than three months. Asked after the row what they would do next, they joked: "Burn the boat." They felt fairly tired, and said they had found the row hard work.