Insights

The London Olympics is a tough act for any sporting challenge to follow. Over the years RJP has and continues to support and sponsor community sports initiatives – Surbiton Hockey Club and Thames Ditton Cricket Club being two local ones.  When the organisers of GB Row approached RJP to sponsor their rowing challenge, we were immediately taken by the sheer inventiveness and challenge of this event.

RJP is very proud to be one of the sponsors, supporting 6 teams of rowers including Sally Whittle who is from Kingston. Sally and her partner Charlene Ayres are the only women’s pair participating in what is described by race organisers as the ‘toughest rowing race in the world’ - we can quite believe it! Other local people competing in GB Row are David Hosking, MBE from Wimbledon and Stuart Chamberlayne from Coulsdon in Surrey.

During June, we will be following the progress made by the GB Rowers who together, have to cover over 2000 miles around the coast of Britain. They will be navigating some of the most dangerous tides on the planet, crossing the world’s busiest shipping lanes and battling against the unpredictable summer weather. Experts have told us that the fast turning tides the rowers will encounter make this a greater test of endurance and skill than trans-ocean rowing. Once the race has started, rowers will have no contact with the shore or support vessels. Every challenge has to be dealt with using the materials and skills each team brings on board at the start.

On 1^st of June 2013, the boats will be leaving Tower Bridge and competing in crews of 2, 4, and 6 people during the race. The prize they are hoping to win is £100,000, which will be awarded to the first crew to beat the existing world record of 26 days, 21 hours and 14 minutes, set in 2005. It is the biggest prize offered for a rowing event anywhere in the world.

The reason RJP decided to support GB Row is because we believe this challenge has many parallels with the challenges our clients face when growing successful businesses. GB Row is all about supporting ordinary people to do extraordinary things and that's very similar to what we help our clients as entrepreneurs to achieve.

We also like the fact that this race isn’t elitist and anyone with enough vision can take part in the challenge. That's exactly what business people do every day. Many come from very ordinary backgrounds, they believe in what they can achieve and succeed as a result. We know the brave people who are taking part in GB Row will do the same. Good luck to everyone.

Over the coming weeks we will have a direct feed showing the race’s progress on our website and we’ll be tweeting updates so follow @taxtalkrjp for more information.