Boyfriend of Taunton accident victim attempting solo Atlantic crossing

Tom Waddington, 40, from Halifax, Yorkshire, will attempt to become the fastest man in history to row the North Atlantic Ocean solo when he departs on June 29 – the current record for the crossing is 39 days.

He will row about 2,000 miles from St.Johns in Newfoundland, Canada, to Penzance in Cornwall in a boat named “Be Hatty”, after his girlfriend Hatty Harrison, 24, who was killed by a van in the village of Oake, west of Taunton, while walking her dog in November 2020.

Tom, who runs a skiing school in Verbier, Switzerland, says his mission - named Mind Oar Matter - is to raise £50,000 for the charity Mind, which helped support him following Hatty’s death.

Hatty Harrison, 24, from Oake, Taunton, died in a road accident in 2020.

Hatty attended Kings College and Richard Huish College before moving to London, studying at Fashion Retail Academy, and getting a job as a merchandiser for Boden. She was staying with her parents in Oake during the lockdown and walking her poodle when the tragedy occurred.

Hatty was a keen skier and sportswoman, described as "vivacious and beautiful" by her family – parents David and Fay, sister Milly, and boyfriend Tom.

Speaking about his motivations for taking on the challenge, Tom said: “In 2020 my girlfriend tragically passed away, she was an amazing person and I went through struggles with grief. We went back into another covid lockdown and I was on my own a lot. 

“One of the best things I did was speaking to someone [thanks to Mind charity] and I felt I couldn’t speak to anyone for a long time. Speaking to someone neutral who I could talk to about anything really helped me along with getting involved with sports and exercising more, and taking on such a big challenge.”

The rower is well aware of how massive the challenge is and has been training full-time for the expedition. He has completed 400 hours of on-sea experience to date, and worked with world-class coaches.

Tom said: “When you’re setting off from Canada, it’s pretty cold, and you’ve got a current coming down from Greenland that’s called the Labrador Current and that mixes with the Atlantic sea. Some of the waves in the North Atlantic have reached 29 meters high, about the height of the Tower of London.”

Tom plans to row for 12 hours a day, with a schedule of three hours rowing and an hour off. He will be taking “freeze-dried packets of food” and using a water maker to create 20L of fresh water a day from seawater. 

He is also preparing for the mental challenge of being alone for 39 days or more. Only eight people have ever rowed across the Atlantic solo, on Tom’s route from Canada to the UK.

Donate to Tom’s mission Mind Oar Matter at mindoarmatter.com.