Seneca Navy: The World’s Toughest Row
Four exceptional young men will row across the Atlantic Ocean to raise funds to support young people’s development.
Unlike many other activities, rowing can be both calm and romantic, violent and ferocious. Images from a play by Shakespeare of rowing on a still pond on a moonlight night or of wooing the girl on the calm lake in New York City’s Central Park is drastically different than the fast, furious and hair-raising drama of an Olympic final — but they all contain the core attribute of using human musclepower, and nothing else, to move a boat across a body of water.
Now, put the Team Seneca Navy rowing team from upstate New York into that latter and most ferocious category. And instead of rowing across the relatively flat water of a controlled Olympic course, the four young men of Team Seneca Navy will be taking on the power, fury and savagery of the Atlantic Ocean this December, hoping to raise funds for youth initiatives in their respective communities.
The endeavour Team Seneca Navy will be undertaking, beginning on December 12 from La Gomera in the Canary Islands and ultimately finishing at English Harbour in Antigua — a treacherous journey of 4,828 nonstop kilometres — is one of the most prestigious and grueling rowing races on the planet, known as the World’s Toughest Row.
Rowers will compete in Solo Class, Duos, Trios and four-person crews. To prepare for the challenge, competitors must undergo rigorous training that includes physical conditioning, navigation and survival skills, and must be equipped with all the necessary supplies, including food, water and safety equipment. It is a challenge unlike any other in world rowing.
The four young men of Team Seneca Navy — Moritz Marchart of Stuttgart, Germany; Anthony Carella of Vaughan, Ont.; Ryan Mulflur of Hingham, Mass.; and David Ranney of Cleveland, Ohio — all recently sat down to speak with Dolce. By a fortuitous twist of fate, they’d all met while attending the relatively small school of Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y. and gravitated together from among the 40 or so members of Hobart’s rowing team.
They all shared the same interest in and passion for rowing, but also something else: a determination to do something different with their sport and to make a difference in the world, and for David Ranney that motivation came to him early in life.
“I had two brothers who rowed, so I was introduced to the flat-water version of the sport early on,” says Ranney. “But when I was in the fifth grade, there was an alumna of my elementary school, and when she was just 19 years old she became the youngest person to solo-row across the Atlantic Ocean. So at a very young age I knew this facet of the sport was out there. As I pursued my own rowing career throughout high school and college and met these guys, and we did some interesting physical things, the journey of that young lady was always in the back of my head. So for me something like this race, spending a lot of time at sea with so many physical and mental challenges, is really at the intersection of my knowledge, skills and abilities.”
A journey of close to 5,000 kilometres over the course of 30 days on the open ocean can seem not only daunting but practically impossible taken in its totality. The secret is to break the challenge into smaller parts; the team will row in two-hour shifts and have two-hour rests in between manning the oars.
“We can’t really think about rowing three thousand miles,” says Marchart. “We need to think about getting through our next two-hour rowing shift and just taking it step by step and day by day — just breaking down this huge project of thousands of miles into seven or eight miles in a two-hour shift.”
The crew members have each chosen a local youth charity to raise money for — all are charities that work to foster youth leadership, personal growth and character development in young people and provide them with opportunities to become better versions of themselves. These include Youth Assisting Youth in Toronto, chosen Canada’s Carella; the Boys and Girls Club of Geneva, N.Y., The Foundry in Cleveland; and The Friends of the Children in Boston.
But with boats costing anywhere from $80,000 to $120,000, it is taking money to raise money. Team Seneca Navy, which purchased a boat last September and has a goal of also raising $200,000 for the youth charities, has been aggressively fundraising to support their goal of participating in order to give back and is actively seeking donations.
“THE DEEP FRIENDSHIP WE HAVE DEVELOPED OVER THE YEARS IS REALLY STRONG, AND I THINK IT’S GOING TO BE A HUGE ADVANTAGE FOR US OUT THERE. WE’RE ROWING FOR THE GUY WHO IS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US.”
— Ryan Mulflur
Carella, the team’s Canadian representative, says that the biggest challenge, and biggest reward, may be just being able to compete. “No matter how the race goes, because there are so many variables, the most rewarding thing on my mind right now is just getting to the start line because it’s been years of preparation,” he says. “So many people who have done this race have said the hardest thing is just getting to the start line. That will be very rewarding, but then the real work will start.”
Few team sports require more cooridinated teamwork than team rowing. You must understand each other, recognize strengths and weaknesses and, most importantly, be there for each other when the tough times hit. Mulflur, the youngest of the crew, says that this is where these four friends may have an advantage.
“A lot of teams that decide to do this sort of thing struggle with picking the team because they’re all strangers,” says Mulflur. “But the deep friendship we have developed over the years is really strong, and I think it’s going to be a huge advantage for us out there. We’re rowing for the guy who is right in front of us.”
If you close your eyes, you can almost imagine the violence and volatility of the Atlantic Ocean this December. You can see it. You can hear it. You can almost taste that salty spray. Four young men alone against a behemoth that takes no prisoners. Rowing together, pounding and driving, every stroke the result of the fibre of their being and their unrelenting determination.
Team Seneca Navy will be relentless in the World’s Toughest Row, pushing their emotional, mental and physical boundaries to their absolute limits, knowing that each stroke will resonate far beyond their tiny boat battling against the giant ocean swells.
Those swells can almost be a metaphor that matches the turbulence of our times. But the notion of these four young men testing their resolve, mettle and physical limits this December to promote and expand opportunities for youth in our communities is a calming and inspirational thought to steer us all through stormy seas.
INTERVIEW BY MICHELLE ZERILLO-SOSA
