STRANDED in the Atlantic Ocean 400 miles off the Antigua coast isn’t exactly where you would expect to find a football club chairman – but then there’s noone quite like Oldham Athletic’s Frank Rothwell.
The 73-year-old Latics owner made history as the oldest man to row across the Atlantic unassisted threee years ago, covering a remarkable 3,000 miles from the Canary Islands to Antigua
and raising an impressive £1.1 million for Alzheimer Research. And now he’s doing it again.
Aboard his boat, named For A Cure, Rothwell set off on his latest voyage in December and can finally see the finishing line on the horizon. Indeed, come Wednesday or Thursday, the veteran circum-navigator will hope to finally complete his pain-staking mission.
But, unsurprisingly, the expedition has not gone without the odd hiccup along the way and just last Friday, his craft was left para-anchored and waiting for a change in wind direction in order to proceed.
So, sat in the middle of the ocean with just a satellite phone for company, Rothwell did what any intrepid football club owner would do in the same circumstances – call The NLP for a catchup, of course!
“We’ve had terrible conditions for ocean rowing,” Rothwell reported back.
“Three years ago, I completed this journey in 56 days. This time I expected to finish in 49 days but we’re now on day 51 and I’ve still got 400 miles to go!
“I’m going backwards now because the wind has changed direction and is blowing me the wrong way. I’m in a big current which is very contrary to the direction I was going, which is a bit of a pain.”
Indeed, it’s been far from an easy ride for the Latics chief, who has lost personal items at sea, capsized no fewer than three times and suffered both nausea and motion sickness.
However, for a man who left school aged 14 to repair tractors, then built a multimillion-pound business, has overcome prostate cancer and rescued his hometown club Oldham from bankruptcy after their relegation from the Football League in July 2022, he will not let these problems deter him.
“It’s hard on the body, and really hard on the mind, particularly when you start going backwards,” he adds. “The boat has rolled over three times! Hopefully the wind will change, but at the moment I’m 400 miles from Antigua sat here on an anchor.
Mission
“I throw a parachute and 100m of rope in the sea that holds the boat in this position against the sea.”
It’s in those moments Rothwell can think of the difference he is making in undertaking
