Fundraising rowers rescued by charity as winds blight cross-channel bid

Nick Townsend, formerly of the Royal Anglian Regiment, lost two pints of blood and sustained 11 shrapnel wounds while serving in Afghanistan in 2007.

He decided to row 120 miles across the Channel with brother Jason Rice to raise money for Help for Heroes.

The brothers set off at 6am on Thursday from Weymouth in Dorset and hoped to reach St Helier in Jersey tomorrow.

But they were rescued by the RNLI charity off the coast of Alderney yesterday after strong winds and technical problems.

Mr Townsend, 30, and Mr Rice, 44, had rowed 90 miles in 28 hours in their world record attempt.

They suffered technical problems shortly after leaving Weymouth when a cable snapped off the mast which held their light and radio aerial and they were later blighted by high winds.

Mr Rice, a super yacht blind engineer, said: “We suffered a number of technical problems and these combined with the strong tidal movements and stronger than expected north easterly winds meant that we had no alternative but to send up a distress flare for assistance.

“Our flare was seen by a passing aircraft and we were soon rescued by the RNLI.”