Shekdar, Jim

Shekdar was born in 1946 in England, in the city of Royal Leamington Spa . From 7 to 12 years old he lived in India, where he learned the Hindi language. Returning to England, he entered the university, where he studied construction engineering . Shekdar was a great water polo player, but was forced to stop competing after a financial incident when flying to an international match.

He settled in Australia for a year and a half, playing at that time playing rugby and working as an engineer. He then moved successively to Papua New Guinea, to Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand and Las Vegas. Finally, he returned to England, where he was again allowed to play water polo, but after he threw the judge into the water, he was again imposed a life ban, which, however, was removed again after some time. ^[one]

Shekdar became interested in ocean rowing after reading a book by John Ridgway , a British yachtsman and rower, about his transatlantic rowing trip with Sir Charles Blyth . At first he wanted to start his venture in a team with Ridgway or Blythe, but not one of them was interested.

In 1997, he learned about the Atlantic oar crossing organized by Sir Charles's company, Challenge Business, and joined him with a certain David Jackson. They went by boat from Tenerife to Barbados in 65 days. ^[2]

Across the Pacific

The transatlantic transition gave Shekdar a charge of enthusiasm, and his gaze soon turned to the Pacific Ocean. Peter Bird was already on the oars of the Pacific Ocean, but he got stuck in Hawaii and then ended up unsuccessfully in his enterprise when he was rescued 33 miles from the Australian coast. Thus, the primacy of a single fully autonomous transition across the Pacific Ocean has not yet been taken. Shekdar had arthritis of the hip joint, and he expected surgery to replace it, however, despite the pain, he decided to postpone the operation to make the planned transition.

His predecessor Bird started from San Francisco and ran aground in Hawaii. To avoid this, Shekdar decided to leave South America , from where, according to his calculations, there should be a smoother path through the Pacific Ocean. Initially, he chose a starting place in Chile , but he was refused permission, and then he left from Peru (port of Ilo ).

Jim Shekdar describes his boat Le Shark, named after the London sponsors of the rower, the Le Shark clothing store chain, as a “big boat,” weighing 800 kilograms with a steel keel and a specially designed design. ^[1] The length of the boat reached 7 meters. She was loaded with a stock of products for 8 months.

Shekdar, 54, withdrew from the Peruvian port city of Ilo on June 29, 2000 and arrived in Australia on March 30, 2001, traveling about 8,000 miles by boat. in 274 days. During the trip, he met sharks ten times and almost collided with a tanker. Initially, Jim Shekdar assumed that his transition would take no more than eight months (240 days), and by the end he almost ended up with provisions.

On the way to the island of North Stratbrook (30 km southwest of the city of Brisbane ) his boat turned over in a breaking wave, and for the last thirty meters he was forced to swim by himself to the shore, where he was welcomed by his guests, including his wife and children.

In 2003, Jim Shekdar unsuccessfully tried to make a solo transition from Queensland (Australia) to Cape Town (South Africa). He was saved by Australian services, the operation cost more than 100,000 Australian dollars. Later he resumed his attempt, and he was forced to again ask for help, for which a certain six-figure sum was also spent. ^[3]

• Fedor Konyukhov - overcame the Pacific Ocean on a rowing boat in 2013-2014.
• Ocean rowing

• Open letters written to Jim Shekhdar
• Bbc article