Charlotte Porter, a Kiwi SailGP physiotherapist prepares for what could be 50 of the toughest days she’s faced.
Part of a four-crew rowing boat, Charlotte is taking on the Atlantic as part of the World’s Toughest Row – Atlantic, a crossing from the Canary Islands to Antigua where the job is simple: keep the boat moving.
It’s over 3,000 nautical miles of work. Row, eat, grab some rest if you can, then get back into it. That rhythm doesn’t stop, and it’s expected to carry on for around 50 days, give or take.
There’s not much margin in it either. Once the crews are out there, they’re committed. There’s no support boat sitting nearby if things get tough, and no easy way to step away from it.
This is what Charlotte Porter is preparing for.
You’ll recognise Porter’s name from match racing, where her teams, Edge Women’s Match and 2.0 Racing Team, won silver at the Women’s Match Racing World Championships in 2022, 2024, and 2025. More recently, she’s been working in SailGP as Lead Global Physiotherapist. Both are fast-paced environments.
The World’s Toughest Row is very different.
Early last year, Boating New Zealand followed the journey of Nikki and Bob Parr, Kiwis who took on the World’s Toughest Row as the oldest mixed pair to cross the Atlantic. Speaking to them afterwards, it was clear this is a hard race, and it has a habit of grinding people down.
Most crews carry enough food in case things turn against them. In the 2025 edition, some crews were pushed well off the direct route by dust clouds, others by currents and drifts, adding miles and time to an already long crossing.
They will burn between 5,000 and 6,000 calories a day, and that has to go back in. The food is built for nutritional value, but by the end most are just thinking about a proper meal. From what past crew have said, rest comes in short spurts, if at all. Sleep is not easy in the capsules and is often interrupted by what’s happening on the sea around them.
Porter puts it simply: “You can row the boat. It’s putting up with it for 40 to 50 days. The mental side is the toughest…”
The team has brought a psychologist into the programme, which tells you where they think this race is decided. Strength and conditioning matter, but they are not what gets crews to Antigua. Technique slips as fatigue builds, and conditions rarely allow for anything close to consistent form. What the team will really be working on is turning up again when nothing has changed and they are not feeling their best.
Operating as “You Row Girl,” the team is built around people whose day jobs translate well offshore. Porter covers physiotherapy and has a Diploma in Paramedic Science. Ruby Scholten, originally from Australia and now in Southampton, is an emergency nurse who has worked alongside Porter as an on-water medic during the America’s Cup. Hebe Hemming (Southampton, UK) brings boatbuilding knowledge from her role with SailGP, and Amy Sparkes (from Poole, UK) handles the financial and organisational side of the campaign.
When you are 1,500 miles from anywhere and something goes wrong, or something breaks, or you need to make a call at 3am on three hours of sleep, that is when those backgrounds will kick in.
Porter says: “It’s probably going to be the hardest thing we ever do.”
So why take something like this on at all?
Alongside all of this, the team is backing two charities. CoppaFeel! focuses on early breast cancer detection, education, and helping people recognise the signs and symptoms, with a particular emphasis on reaching younger people, not just women. Women in Sportworks to keep women active and involved.
CoppaFeel! hit closer to home for Porter after she found a lump herself. For Porter, breast cancer stopped being something distant. Finding that lump and having it checked changed how she looked at it.
“It really sparked me to go, OK, this is actually something that younger women face as well. Speaking to my GP and getting referred early for scans ands specialist review was the most important thing. Luckily, there were no abnormal findings, but it made me realise how important it is to know what to do and to act quickly if you ever find yourself in that situation.”
The team will run practical education sessions alongside the build up to the row.
There is still a lot to get through before they reach the start line in San Sebastián, La Gomera. Their boat, Mermaid, is closer to a capsule than a traditional boat, and she has already done the crossing twice. She is sitting in Poole now, where most of the focus is on getting to know her.
As Porter says, you work out quickly what actually needs to be on board and what just takes up space. It’s a small platform to work with. Once you add food, gear, and four people, there is not much room left for anything that does not have a clear job.
Most of the preparation is based out of Poole, on England’s south coast. Training starts with weekend rows, then builds into longer blocks when the team can fit them in. They are also getting out at night, when they are tired and working in the dark.
As Porter puts it: “You’re never going to have perfect technique in an ocean rowing environment.”
For Porter, all of this fits around a full work schedule in New Zealand and travel with SailGP. At the moment, preparation gets fitted in where it can. That will only tighten as the start approaches.
The budget sits around £170,000. A good portion is already raised, but there is still ground to cover before December.
“There’s lots of moving parts… trying to get sponsorship and things organised.”
For Porter, training, travel, work, and fundraising all overlap, and most days it is a mix of all of them. With the team spread across New Zealand and the UK, there is more to coordinate, more time zones, and more to keep track of as things move forward.
Boating New Zealand will follow the team as the start approaches.
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