A graduate is planning to make a 3,000-mile journey across the Atlantic Ocean in a pedalo he designed as part of his university course.
Top honours: Mark Byass.
Mark Byass, 23, will be part of only the second team ever to attempt the audacious crossing from the Canary Islands to Antigua.
The challenge, called Project Torpedalo, is expected to take a world record breaking 38 days and raise £250,000 for charity.
Mark, who graduated from his five-year BEng (Hons) Mechatronics course at the university’s campus in Beaconside, Stafford last week, said: “A crazy mutual friend of ours - the sort of guy who wears a suit with sandals - came up with the idea of taking a standard pedalo across the English Channel.
“He was laughed at, rather a lot - except by us. A pedalo has only ever made this journey once before, in 1994, taking 111 days. We want to do it in 38 days, which means we will be pedalling around 70 nautical miles a day.
“We will each have to pedal twohours- on two-hours-off for 24 hoursa- day because someone has to keep watch for hazards. And, because it’s 12 hours pedaling each, we will have to consume 8000 calories and 12 litres of water a day.” Mark and team-mate Mike Sayer, 26, plan to complete the ocean crossing as part of the Woodvale Challenge trans-Atlantic rowing race in December 2011. The race usually involves around 30 rowing boats - no one has ever competed in a pedalo before.
“We have heard a lot of horror stories from people who have rowed across the Atlantic,” Mark added.
The design of the pedalo was part of Mark’s final year project at Staffordshire University. It will be nine metres long, built mostly of carbon fibre and be able to cruise at around three knots, with a maximum self-propelled speed of seven knots.
Mark said: “The boat is not only our transportation; it is our home for 38 days. We have to take all the food we need for the trip and our water supply is through onboard desalination, powered by solar panels.” Both crewman work for Bentley Motors and have secured support throughout the company among other sponsors to help fund the project.
Mark joined the iconic British car-maker on a degree sponsored apprenticeship five years ago, straight after leaving school, and has since been heavily involved in the company’s charity fund-raising schemes.
Project Torpedalo is the latest of these, with both crewmen selecting a charity to support: the Motor Neurone Disease Association and the Make a Wish Foundation.
Mark said: “My previous fund-raising has included endurance events such as the Jungfrau Marathon in Switzerland, but I’ve never done anything on the scale of this project.”