IT’S a model of perfect craftsmanship built by a team of Christchurch rowing boat makers.

And thanks to their commitment to quality and precision, a modern vessel built by the team at Rossiter Rowing Boats in Christchurch crossed the finish line of an Atlantic rowing race in first place last weekend.

Friends and colleagues Toby Iles and Nick Moore, who have never done any rowing previously, met with the skilled ocean rowing boat makers at Rossiter last year after deciding to undertake the mammoth challenge of rowing from the Canary Islands to Barbados.

The boat building team got to work on creating the £35,000 carbon-kevlar boat and the lads did some training at Christchurch in August this year.

Crispin Rossiter, who oversees the rowing side of the business, said: “They approached us after they had read about some guys who had rowed across the ocean.

“There is a statistic somewhere that says more people have been in space than rowed an ocean, so this is really quite an achievement, as they won the race.”

As well as building the boat, the team installed all the high-tech electronics including equipment for converting salt water to drinking water.

“We do worry about the boats a bit when they are undertaking their journeys but it is a great sense of achievement,” Crispin added.

The duo, who were raising money for Shelterbox, completed the race in 40 days, nine hours and 15 minutes.

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