(The Chronicle Herald) — A high-tech rowboat found abandoned and adrift at sea by the crew of a Canadian Coast Guard cutter last month will once again be front and centre on the world stage, with its new owner rowing to raise money for AIDS research.
Transatlantic rowing hopeful Victor Mooney of New York received the boat as a gift from French rower Charlie Girard. The Frenchman was about 240 kilometres east of Cape Cod when he called the U.S. Coast Guard to come get him on May 29.
Coastguardnews.com reported a Falcon jet and a Jayhawk helicopter were launched from U.S. Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod to find and then rescue the French adventurer, who was trying to row the boat to France.
He was airlifted to safety, but had to say goodbye to his 6.5-metre plastic vessel.
In a video clip from the news website capecodtoday.com, Girard told reporters, who greeted him when he arrived back on Cape Cod, that there was something wrong with his head and he would never again attempt a transatlantic row.
He’d also been rescued a couple of years earlier, again off the Massachusetts coast, while trying to row to Europe.
Fast forward to June 2 when the Canadian Coast Guard cutter Clarks Harbour was patrolling waters off southwestern Nova Scotia.
The crew was aware the low-profile rowboat was somewhere in the northwest Atlantic. They found it, floating about 10 kilometres southeast of Seal Island at 1:45 p.m.
It was so low in the water that a vigilant crew member eyeballed it before the ship picked it up on its radar screen, said Jim Newell, the cutter’s commanding officer.
The Canadian cutter soon had the boat, which was not sinking and did not appear to be damaged.
"We brought it on board and brought it in," said Mr. Newell.
The cutter brought it to Shelburne County’s Cape Sable Island coast guard station.
Mr. Mooney, a married father of four who is the public affairs officer with the College of Advanced Technology in Brooklyn, N.Y., had been following Mr. Girard’s attempt to row across the Atlantic.
When he learned of Mr. Girard’s rescue, he got in touch with Mr. Girard’s team to enquire about the boat.
They responded and said, "If you find it, it’s yours," Mr. Mooney said.
He planned to charter a fishing vessel to search for and snag the rowboat, but disbanded the idea when he found out that the Canadian Coast Guard had found the boat.
Mr. Mooney recently claimed his high-seas prize from the coast guard and renamed it, Never Give Up.
The high-speed ferry The Cat provided free passage for Mr. Mooney, his car, trailer and new-to-him boat from Yarmouth to Portland Me., said George Driscoll, vice-president of marketing and sales for Bay Ferries.
Mr. Mooney was soon back home and checking over his new craft that he plans on rowing from Africa to New York in order to bring attention to the world’s AIDS crisis.
"In 1983 I lost my brother to the virus and I have another one living with the disease now," he said in a phone interview.
"We’ll do some modifications and make sure everything’s in proper working condition," before making the attempt, he said from his New York home.
To prepare for the adventure, Mr. Mooney has been rowing around Long Island, Long Island Sound and in the Atlantic Ocean for almost six years.
"That’s been my rowing training," said Mr. Mooney.
He’ll head to Africa with the boat toward the end of 2009. On World Aids Day, Dec. 1, he will leave The Republic of Cape Verde, an archipelago just off the west coast of Africa, and begin rowing across the Atlantic. His trip will be completed when he rows under the Brooklyn Bridge.
This is his third attempt at a transatlantic crossing. His first was in May 2006.
"It was a homemade boat that I made in a garage," said Mr. Mooney about his first vessel, which was not up to the challenge.
More about Victor Mooney and his crossing are available at goreechallenge.com.
( bmedel@herald.ca)
’In 1983 I lost my brother to the (AIDS) virus and I have another one living with the disease now.’
