Missions

After their successes in winning the gruelling, 22-mile Great River Race and more recently setting a world record for crossing the English Channel, both in a Dragonboat, The Brotherhood are off on their most daring, daunting and challenging mission so far…

The crew have been invited to compete in The Great Amazon River Race, taking place over 3 days from 19th September with approximately 160 international and local native crews competing for the coveted ‘Kings of The Amazon title’.

The boys will have to brave the treacherous waters of the Peruvian Amazon in self-made balsa wood rafts and face the frightening prospect of falling prey to Anacondas, Piranha, water snakes, Weaver Fish and Cayman Crocodiles; this mission is definitely not for the faint-hearted!

Brotherhood Captain and former Atlantic Rowing Race competitor Richard Pullan remarked: “Our training sessions and the Great River Race itself have given us a sound foundation for this type of event but it will certainly be all the more challenging simply because, unlike some of the very nasty and gruesome things we encountered in the Thames, most of what’s in the Amazon will be very much alive and probably quite hungry”.

The daring brothers selected for the mission are Richard Pullan (Capt..), Danny Williams, Al Ayliffe, Will Johnson, David Strang, Christian Lehndorf, Tim Page, Alistair Groves, Ruaraidh Smeaton, Steve Kidd, Kris Thykier, Tom Freud, Gary Corr, Ginette Corr, Pamela Bennington and Kelly Freeman.

The Great Amazon River Race is broken down into 3 daily stages of approximately 60km, each taking roughly 6-8 hours to complete, and starts in Nauta on the morning of 19th September before passing through Porvenir and Tamshiyacu before finishing in Bella Vista Nanay. After each stage the exhausted crews will sleep in bivouacs in the Amazonian jungle, where a whole host of additional jungle-nasties including venomous snakes, scorpions, spiders and wild boar will be keen to snack on some prime Brotherhood beef!

Bear Grylls, the renowned adventurer and survival expert commented: “The boys have shown their ability to dig deep when the going gets tough and I hope they can hold it together when things start digging into them. The Amazon is particularly treacherous, simply because most people are not even aware of some of things that live in and around the river, let alone how to react and deal with them when encountered.”

Race organisers in Iquitos have commented on the native tribes’ amusement at ‘the big, tough athletes that arrive, chest puffed out and with a swagger, only to end up jibbering wrecks when the life-threatening encounters with the Amazonian wildlife start to dawn on them’.

In keeping with the Brotherhood ethos, the challenge will provide an extreme test of both mental and physical endurance and raise money for UK based children’s charities; the worthy causes to benefit from this particular episode are…TBC.

As a fitting gesture to the native tribes of Peru the Brotherhood will also be raising money for a local children’s hospice in Iquitos.

Brotherhood Breaks World Record And Wins World’s First Cross Channel Dragon Boat Race. Read the Press Release

The English Channel, 21 miles of one of the busiest shipping channels with 80 ferries and over 600 commercial ships crossing every 24 hours.

A dragon boat is an uncomfortable thing from China. Sitting only a few inches above the waterline on a calm day, The Brotherhood have filled their boat with a mixture of extra-ordinary men, some who have been carbo-loading for the past few years in preparation for this great adventure. The boat now sits a few inches closer to the sea bed and draws a formidable wake. A Dragon Boat is designed for short sprint races, not for endurance and is not designed for the open seas. Taking 19 men to sea, instead of 17 was a risk for The Brothers, but they didn’t want to leave anyone behind.

As we say, extraordinary men, doing ordinary things…!

The Brothers invited a group of girls to join them on their quest - The Sisterhood, a mixture of talents with a head full of determination. The gauntlet has been laid down, let the Challenge commence - “Beauty Vs Brawn”. You can decide you deserves which crown.

Our Challenge will take place on the weekend of August Bank Holiday (25-27th August), but if weather conditions prevail we will attempt the 1st weekend of September.

We will start from just off Shakespeare Beach to the west of Dover Harbour and finish 21 nautical miles (35km) later at Cap Gris Nez, to the west of Calais

In June, one of the training days for The Brotherhood was a dragon boat regatta in Marlow. This particular event that the brothers came photo finish second in last year was the start of all the adventures so the Brothers were keen to return and seek revenge.

True to form, the Brothers progressed their way through all the heats setting fastest times of the day and then went on to clinch victory from competitors, trampling the hat-trick hopes of a well meaning and and peace loving team from the provinces.

On Saturday September 16^th 2006, the Brothers undertook their first mission. Participating in the Great River Race, paddling 22 miles from Richmond to Greenwich.

With the help of a team blessing by Reverend Giles Fraser the Brothers took to the Thames. Starting on a handicap of 69 minutes behind the first boat meant that the Brothers had to overtake well over 200 boats to be in chance of a respectable and competitive position. With the Master Brother Bobby at the helm this was never going to be a problem, who had one team in mind to beat - last years champions, the GB Masters…At the last bridge, Tower Bridge when the River turned into a Surfers Paradise. The tactical decision to bail like crazy proved to be a wise one and although the Brothers nearly sank 3 times they continued on undeterred and still strong. The nemesis, the GB Masters however sank at the last hurdle and so The Brotherhood went on to be the first dragon boat home with the 3^rd fastest time of 2 hours 24 min.Not bad for a group of guys thrown together 11 weeks before the race.