Recently we've been witnessing a rising interest in the rows across the Indian Ocean.
This year [2014] there was the first crossing of the Indian Ocean in an open class ocean rowing boat (Emmanuel Coindre)
The boat types for speed record attempts vary in style, number of crew, gender, nationality, age and start date, as well as the ports they are leaving from and arriving at. Similar to the Atlantic, there is an option of departure points in the Western Australia with an option of arrivals either to lesser islands, or Madagascar, or mainland Africa. ORSI understands that the variety of routes puts the competing boats in unequal position, because the distance ‘from-to’ may differ.

So similar to the Atlantic speed record, the decisive factor for recognising the fastest row across the Indian Ocean is not the time of the crossing but the average overall speed throughout the crossing.

For longer and shorter routes, this approach is providing a comparable objective for the challenger to beat.
The distance is as the crow flies.

In order to claim a speed record the row must be from land to land and an uninterrupted tracking must be available for the whole duration of the row. Any failure in tracking, for whatever reasons, may exclude the team from claiming any speed records.

Last update Sept 2014

Sweden

April 21 1971

June 23 1971

64 days

71 days 14h 51min

4090

2.07

Traditional

4210

2.65

Traditional