Rowing: Stubbs is there to inspire Kiwi duo

By SUZANNE McFADDEN

A photo of the late Phil Stubbs is motivating the New Zealanders in their battle to break Stubbs' transatlantic record - just as he would have wanted it.

Whenever the going gets tough, Steve Westlake and Matt Goodman look to the picture of their police mate Stubbs which they have stuck on the rowboat's bulkhead.

The New Zealanders have just four days to cover about 340 nautical miles to Barbados and break the race record set by Stubbs and Rob Hamill five years ago.

It now seems certain they will win the race, after putting a 170-mile buffer on the next boat, Australia's Freedom.

But whether they better the 41-day record depends on the weather.

"Our object was to try to beat the record," Westlake said yesterday, their 37th at sea. "Phil was so adamant that it wasn't a good record - it was one set because not too many people had done it, rather than being a really blasting pace.

"He was always adamant that they could knock three or four days off it."

Although Westlake and Goodman were six days ahead of record pace at the halfway point of the crossing from Tenerife, a rash of headwinds has conspired against them.

"We've given up guessing when we're going to arrive. If the weather is good - and the trade winds are supposed to arrive tomorrow - we could be there in three or four days," Westlake said.

"But if the 15-knot tailwinds don't arrive, and the sea is bumpy, it will be another five or six."

The photo of Stubbs, who was killed in a plane crash, has been "a real motivational factor - especially when we're feeling a bit soft," Westlake said.

"The fact he rowed 18-hour days when Rob was injured is just unbelievable - we couldn't do it. We now have an understanding of what he must have gone through."

Westlake and Goodman hope they will reach Barbados by Sunday, after realising they had thrown too much of their food supplies overboard to make the boat lighter.

"Yesterday we ran out of muesli. If we don't get in by [Sunday] we're certainly going to be hungry," Westlake said.

About 350 miles back in the Atlantic, the New Zealand women lost their grip on third place after a month-long domination of the Belgian brothers on Win Belgium.

Steph Brown and Jude Ellis have been slowed by the same headwinds the Kiwi men encountered.

"As much as we don't like admitting it, the guys are stronger than us in those conditions, so they sneaked past," Ellis said.

"All we can do is follow our race plan. The Belgians may have gone too far south.

"It's been the most frustrating time of our lives, but we're still having lots of laughs."