In this special feature article, William de Laszlo shares his powerful motivation to tackle the environmental challenges facing our oceans and invites gig rowers to play their part by rowing around Great Britain.
My name is William de Laszlo, founder of GB Row Challenge.
In 2005, I led the first team ever to row unsupported around the entire coastline of Great Britain, setting a Guinness World Record in the process. What began as an adventure became something much deeper: a lifelong passion, perhaps even an obsession, with our coastline, the sea and the communities shaped by it.
I remain the only person in the world to have rowed around Great Britain twice. I would dearly love to do it a third time.
Because seeing Britain from the outside in changes you.
There is something profoundly special about life on the water. It teaches resilience, teamwork, humility and respect for the ocean in ways few experiences can. Our island is breathtakingly beautiful, wild, rugged and absolutely worth fighting for.
Over the years, that connection to the sea evolved into a much bigger question:
How can adventure serve a greater purpose?
That question became GB Row Challenge: a project that combines endurance rowing with real-world environmental science.
Today, crews row around Britain not only to test themselves physically and mentally, but also to collect critical scientific data on microplastics, biodiversity, underwater sound pollution, sea temperature and salinity.
By 2027, we will have gathered five years of continuous environmental data around the British coastline. The longer the dataset grows, the more powerful it becomes, helping scientists, conservationists and policymakers answer one urgent question:
Are our seas getting better or worse?
Working with leading scientists at the University of Portsmouth, we are building one of the most detailed long-term environmental datasets ever collected around Britain’s coastline, gathered by ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
Why do we need you?
Spirited and resourceful rowers are crucial to this project and its mission to help protect our seas, coastlines and coastal communities.
This is an invitation to do something extraordinary: row around the entire coastline of Great Britain, help set a new Guinness World Record and contribute to scientific research that could genuinely improve our understanding of the marine environment.
If that sounds even slightly mad, good. That is where great adventures begin.
GB Row Challenge is looking for gig rowers to step forward because the gig rowing community represents everything we admire: seamanship, camaraderie, heritage, grit, humour and a deep connection to the ocean.
This is not simply about rowing around Britain. It is about protecting the waters we love and contributing to something bigger than ourselves. It is about proving that communities united by purpose can create genuine change.
GB Row Challenge already has three fully equipped ocean rowing boats, fitted with the specialist equipment needed for both the challenge and the science.
What we need now are the crews.
If you are hungry for adventure, willing to push beyond your comfort zone and determined to do something meaningful, we would love to hear from you.
This challenge is real, physically, mentally and emotionally. But it is also one of the most rewarding adventures imaginable. You can take part with friends or join a crew formed from rowers across the gig rowing community.
If this has sparked something in you, join us online for the GB Row Challenge Webinar, hosted by the Cornish Pilot Gig Association, at 7pm on Wednesday 29th July. Book via JustGo or alternatively, email hello@gigrower.co.uk to find out more.
In the meantime, watch the 2026 crews depart from Tower Bridge, London, on Sunday 14th June as they begin their journey around Great Britain, or view our short film explaining how the project works.
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