New Yorker sinks in cross-Atlantic row attempt

DAKAR - A US rower hoping to cross the Atlantic in a wooden boat to raise awareness of Africa's Aids crisis was forced to abandon his trip hours after he set off when his boat took on water and sank, his website said.

The Senegalese navy and an ocean freighter rescued Victor Mooney, a 41-year-old public affairs officer from New York soon after he set off from the historic slaving island of Goree bound for New York's Brooklyn Bridge.

Mooney was hoping to raise awareness about HIV/Aids and commemorate the slave trade by rowing across the Atlantic in his 7.3 metre boat, named John Paul the Great.

"His boat was damaged upon launching it in Dakar several weeks ago. Subsequently, it was repaired but Mooney learned later it wasn't done properly," said a statement on the website.

"The Senegalese Navy brought Mooney on their ship and he watched his boat sink," it added.

Local sources said the rower began experiencing trouble an hour and a half into his 4828km journey.

"There was a leak but there were also big waves from a ship that went past," said a boatman on Goree. "Water poured in and he started sinking so he had to be rescued."

Mooney's website said he was safe and resting before returning to New York later this week.

- REUTERS