Leven Brown is a British Ocean Rower who has held 3 Guinness World Records.[1] He along with his crew Don Lennox, Livar Nysted and Ray Carroll also hold the world record for 'longest distance rowed in 24h in an ocean rowing boat" at 118miles[2] Born on the 14th of August 1972 he was brought up on a landlocked farm in his native Scottish Borders but was introduced to the ocean at an early age where he discovered ocean rowing. After a career with Brewin Dolphin Securities that spanned 17 years he did his first Ocean Row in 2005.[3]
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On the first expedition Brown set off solo on the 14th of August 2005 on a journey. He spent a total of 123 days at sea and covered 4278 miles.[4] There were 4 named Storms on Brown's first voyage: Vince, Delta, Epsilon and Zeta. 2005 was the busiest hurricane season on record. Brown received a Guinness World record for being the first person to Row from Mainland Spain to the West Indies.[5]
2007/8 - Brown's second voyage was as skipper with a 14 man crew on a 50 ft Ocean Rowing boat called 'La Mondiale'. He and his crew rowed 3000 miles from Gran Canaria to Barbados in 33 days 7 hours 30 mins beating the record of that time.[6] The previous record was set by a French team in 1992 of 35 days 8 hours 30 mins in the same boat.[7]
2009 - The third voyage in La Mondiale was cut short by the irreparable damage to the rudder after a collision with an unknown submerged object. The 14 crew were evacuated safely onto a passing ship 'Island Ranger' but the boat was lost presumed sunk some 1000 miles from the Canary Islands.[8]
2010 - The North Atlantic, Brown's fourth voyage. As skipper he picked his crew, all of which he had rowed oceans with before, Don Lennox (Scotland), Livar Nysted (Faroe Islands), Ray Carroll (Ireland).[9] They were attempting to beat the long standing North Atlantic speed record set in 1896 by Norwegians Frank Samuelsen and George Harbo which had stood at 55 days 7 hours for some 114 years. Their boat 'Artemis Investments' left New York on 17 June 2010 and arrived in St Mary's on the 31st of July 2010 in a time of 43 days 21 hours 26 mins and 48 seconds. Which remains the record to date for the North Atlantic.[10] During their voyage they were capsized twice in storms.[11]
Brown is a fully qualified RYA/MCA Yachtmaster [12] and runs his own expedition and rowing services company as well as undertaking yacht deliveries throughout the world.[13] Leven was nominated for the National Geographic Adventurer Awards [14] and was nominated for the Scottish 'Glenfiddich Awards' [15]