"ROM A BOAT ON THE ENGLISH CHANNEL, August 1. GERMAN open water distance ace Christof Wandratsch broke the world record for the English Channel, crossing today with a time of 7 hours, 3 minutes, 53 seconds, according to an English Channel Internet Group that accompanied the swim.
Wandratsch, they said, was swimming “bolt fast” from the start, and feeding on a quick rollover of three to six seconds! The swim was made with Channel Pilot Mike Oram. English Channel King, Kevin Murphy was on the crew as an official.
We will provide more details on the record swim as we receive them."
I believe the straight line distance is around 30 miles. But you have to swim further than that, because you have to swim an ‘S’ shape to deal with currents.
Two people from the island I live on completed the swim on Friday, a friend did it yesterday and her boyf should just be finishing in the next couple of hours. Jersey (the original one, not the US namesake) will have 21 Channel swimmers by tonight - not bad for a 9 * 5 mile island.
Does anyone know what was meant by the phrase “a quick rollover of three to six seconds”? Assuming he was swimming freestyle, would that be the full time required for a body rotation to both the left and the right? That doesn’t sound like a very quick motion to me. I’m a BOP swimmer, and I think my full cycle takes less than three seconds. I know that fast swimmers get a lot more distance out of each stroke, but I also thought their turnover was faster than mine.
It’s described as “feeding on a quick rollover of three to six seconds” so I’d guess that was how long it took for him to grab a drink or a gel when he needed calories, rather than stopping for a minute or two to take in fuel.
Does anyone know what was meant by the phrase “a quick rollover of three to six seconds”? Assuming he was swimming freestyle, would that be the full time required for a body rotation to both the left and the right? That doesn’t sound like a very quick motion to me. I’m a BOP swimmer, and I think my full cycle takes less than three seconds. I know that fast swimmers get a lot more distance out of each stroke, but I also thought their turnover was faster than mine.
He was feeding with that rollover time - i.e. drinking and/or eating.
Oh, okay, I misunderstood what I read. So he was gulping down his fuel in 3-6 seconds. That makes more sense, although it reminds me of my dogs grabbing a bite and gulping it down!