Four Coalville rowers are planning to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a 3,000 mile 'challenge of a lifetime' - and already have a world record in their sights.

Under the name Anchor Management, the team will be taking part in the Talisker Whiskey Atlantic Challenge.

But the Stealth Fitness-based team have another aim in mind - as they also want to raise money for the Macmillan cancer charity.

That is because one of the foursome - Sarah Tebbett - is a breast cancer survivor, and the race is on the 10th anniversary of her diagnosis.

They have more than three years to prepare for the event - after trying to enter for 2024, only find the entry list was full, the team will now compete in December 2025.

Owner of Stealth, in Stephenson Way, and Leicestershire County Councillor Craig Smith will be skippering their boat 'Valkerie' and he is joined by Sarah, Sammi Woodward and Tim Hodgkinson.

It may be their first attempt at such a gruelling event - which has claimed the lives of some competitors.

But they already think the world record for a mixed crew crossing the Atlantic is realistic.

Craig told Coalville Nub News: "The British Army team came in to Stealth on Monday night to talk about the event.

"They have the record of 40 days, 23 hours, 52 minutes, and we hope we can beat that by at least 24 hours."

Craig said that he and the team were initially disappointed not to get into the 2024 event, but says that the 12 months wait will allow them more time to prepare for the challenges of the high seas.

But he said the driving force behind their decision to enter the event is a clear one.

He added: "One of the main reasons we're doing it, is Sarah, who will be in our team, she's a breast cancer survivor.

"Macmillan helped her, and her young family, massively when she was diagnosed seven years ago, and when we go, will be the 10th anniversary of her being diagnosed.

"So everything is just falling into place with this, we want to raise as much money as we can for Macmillan

"It's a fantastic charity, my dad died of cancer years ago and they helped us as well. There's a lot of connections there."

Craig provided the background to their decision to row from La Gomera in the Canaries to Antigua in the Caribbean.

He said: Last summer I started following a team called the Atlantic Flyers, they were all pilots in the RAF, and I am ex-RAF

"But I'm also a rower and I thought it looked a real cool thing to do

"Then I got absolutely hooked watching them throughout a race last December

 "Me being me, I thought: 'I can do that'.

"I started looking into it, the logistics and how it all worked, it's a mammoth undertaking. 

"It's been going for about 10 years, and what was a challenge has now become a global race which gets a lot of media attention, and ocean rowing is now becoming a real buzz thing.

"You have different classes, some people do it even as a single event.

"That can take them between 60 and 90 days to complete, but you've got to be a particular type of person to do that. But that's not for me, I decided to either do it in a trio, or a four or five."

The team will get a boat which will have a familiar look to it - and they plan to bring it to Coalville next March.

Craig added: These things are passed down from other teams and we were even able to get Atlantic Flyers' boat, Valkyrie.

"We bought it from the team that we started following. All the members of our team are members of Stealth in Coalville, and we've known each other a long time.

"We've got a mission plan, yes we want to do as well as we can in the race, but we want to come back safely, and better friends than when we started.

"We all use the rowing equipment at stealth, and then decided the ocean is the ultimate challenge."

Craig said this is no ordinary challenge, and the risks are there.

The Coalville team with the boat they will be competing in. All Photos from Craig Smith

He said: "When you're in a confined environment like that, it's going to be a pressure cooker.

"And people do die in this event, we have to remember that.

"It's not a particularly safe thing to do

"But we won't be taking part until the 2025 event now, in December of that year. It's a long way ahead, we were hoping to get onto the 2024 race, but that was fully booked.

 "We were disappointed at first, but now we think it's probably the best thing. It's given us that extra year, we'll have two years in our own boat.

"It means we can have that practice, we're all competent rowers on the river. But it's not ocean rowing, we have to transpose those skills over to that.

"But we've actually been planning this for nine months now. We're looking for big corporate sponsors if possible, we need to raise about £120,000 - the boat costs around £70,000."

The team are getting as much inside knowledge about the event as they can - starting now.

Craig added: "The way it works is that you row two hours on and then take two hours off, 24 hours a day for the whole duration of the trip.

"But it can get up to 40 degrees in the cabins and you have the weather to contend with as well among everything else.

"We'll get the boat in March next year, will bring it back to Coalville and keep it for two years ahead of the race. Then we start our own water training. 

"This is the challenge of a lifetime, and something I think none of us will ever do again."