A TEAM of mixed amateur rowers have set a brand-new world record by rowing non-stop around Britain.

The Westbourne-based team of four spent 43 days at sea, battling the elements and suffering from reduced team numbers as they became the first mixed group to row around Britain unassisted.

The all mens and all womens record of completion was 26 and 52 days, respectively.

Originally a team of six, the crew lost two members during their record row – one due to ill health and another to a family emergency.

However, the reduced team of four ploughed onwards and managed become just the ninth team out of 25 attempts to circumnavigate Britain unaided.

Team member Simone Talfourd said: “It’s all done, mercifully. We’re all absolutely thrilled because it’s such a great achievement.

“It feels amazing to set the record and this goes to show that gender doesn’t matter and neither does rowing experience. None of us are regular rowers and so we were definitely aided by being offshore sailors.

“I think we were able to achieve this, not with rowing prowess, but with a strong mental state, being tactical, knowing tides and showing grit and tenacity. If I can do it, anyone can.

“The biggest highlight was seeing beautiful wildlife. However, our biggest challenge to overcome was the weather which was just impossible at times. We never had following winds, only headwinds. We quickly understood why so few teams had succeeded in this challenge.”

The record breaking fantastic four are Simone, her partner Andrew Burns along with James Scott and Mia Showell-Woodsmith.

Andrew is the only member of the team to have previously completed a serious rowing trek, having rowed 3,000 miles across the Atlantic in 2019. However, according to Simone, he found the circumnavigation around Britain “much harder”.

As well as setting a brand-new record, the team has also raised £10,000 for the RNLI.

As a result of their efforts, the team were accompanied at times by various RNLI crews from across the country.

Simone said: “Some crews heard about what we were doing and so they came out to see us. They were the only other people we saw all the way around. They asked us how it was going and tried to offer us chocolate to keep our spirits up which we had to painfully decline. It was really nice to see their friendly faces.”

“Overall, we’re very proud. We’re all still friends, Andrew and I are still a couple and we’ve set a new world record. We’re chuffed to bits.”

The team are currently awaiting their certificates from Guinness World Records.