August 2015 Blog – The Sea Bream Charity Challenge | BDG Sparkes

Our James is at it again.

At the beginning of August, he and Greg rode the Prudential RideLondon Surrey 100 for Save the Rhino and a little over two years ago, he participated in My House To Your House, a human-powered cross-Europe trip from Battersea to Amsterdam to raise money for Parkinson’s UK.

Now, he’s swapped his bike and running shoes for flippers as he participates in the Sea Breams Charity Challenge – LessOars vs. LesSeas. This is no 50 lengths in your local pool. This is the Premier League of swimming and an epic race between Landlords and Agents.

It must be noted that it’s a race for pride rather than monetary or material reward but the stakes are just as high…!

As is mostly always the case with events of this nature, the SBCC was conceived over one too many beers by James and Guy Bowring…

The two teams of five have been split thus:

The LessOars (Landlords)

• Guy Glover (Capt., F&C Reit)
• Rob West (Clearbell)
• Will Colthorpe (Argent)
• Alex Jordan (Skanska)
• Rob Jewell (Land Securities)

LesSeas (Agents)

• Guy Bowring (Capt., Tuckerman)
• James Harrison (BDG Sparkes Porter)
• Ian McCarter (Knight Frank)
• Tom Leeming (Cushman & Wakefield)
• Andrew Gibson (CBRE)

Four events of increasing difficulty and scale taking place between April and September 2015:

• Serpentine Lido Cold Water Relay – a 1,000 metre cold water sprint in the Serpentine Lido. When we say cold, we really do mean cold, to the tune of 10-12°C. The shortest of the four challenges but, not to belabour the point, it’s seriously cold – DONE
• JLL Property Swim – a one length sprint of Olympic rowing lake at Eton Dorney. One length sounds relatively straightforward but here, one length is 1.4 miles – DONE
• Dart 10k Swim – the equivalent to a runner of doing a marathon and the swimmers got dispensation to swim the River Dart in Devon without wetsuits – 6^th September – DONE

It all culminates next month (26^th September) in the big one – the English Channel Relay Race. What we are talking about here is 21 miles of hell.  Not only will they be swimming at night in one hour relay slots, they will have to negotiate 10ft swells, 600 daily ships in the third busiest shipping lane in the world, not to mention the jellyfish as well as fighting boredom and sea-sickness, all in the name of charity.

Here are the facts:

• As the crow flies, the distance between Dover and Cap Griz Nez is 21 miles but with wind, strong currents and disorientation, the actual swimming distance is likely to be as much as 24-25 miles
• Captain Matthew Webb was the first person to swim the Channel on August 25, 1875. It took him 21h 45m
• The slowest recorded swim took 28h 48m
• The US National Swim Team did the relay in a world record time of 6h 52m
• The English Channel is often termed the ‘Everest of Open Water Swimming’
• Water temperature is estimated to be 13-16°C by late September
• At least four hours of the swim will be in darkness

In addition, the swim will be conducted according to strict Captain Matthew Webb Rules. He did it wearing his pants (we are wearing swimming trunks), a swimming cap and goggles and the chaps are staying with tradition and doing it the same way.

The Charities

The five charities chosen by the 10 chaps for the Sea Breeams Charity Challenge are:

• Royal Marsden Hospital Cancer Charity – committed to the eradication of cancer, they treat 50,000 people a year and lead the world in innovation and pioneering new treatments.
• MacMillan Cancer Support – a charity providing specialist care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer
• Peter Westropp Memorial Trust – Peter was a surveyor at Gerald Eve who died suddenly and the trust set up to honour his name set a target of raising £250,000 in ten years. They donate directly to charities, currently the Carers Trust who provide much-needed support to carers of those with physical and mental disabilities
• Royal National Lifeboat Institution – the RNLI needs no introduction, they are a vital lifeline and receive no central government funding whatsoever. ‘Given what we are undertaking, we didn’t think we had a any choice but to support this splendid organisation!’
• ReThink Mental Illness – a charity challenging the attitudes to mental health helping people to live with a variety of mental health issues.

Speaking of charity, you can donate here. Every member of the group has been touched by at least one, if not more than one of these charities. They haven’t been chosen at random so please dig deep and give what you can.

Every one of the events requires not only physical fitness and the ability to swim but a ‘huge dose of mental fortitude’. Remember, all 10 intrepid souls are central London property professionals renowned for an eye for a deal than their ability to swim for miles on end so they need to have their heads in the right place.

Despite what James says, and to directly quote him ‘I’ve been cold for nearly a year, I’m not doing this again’ we need people like him. We need people who do, not just people who talk and James and the nine other brave – some would say utterly bonkers – chaps have stepped up.

Good luck to you all and here’s another link to the Virgin Giving page where you can donate to a most worthy cause.