Yorkshire Rows: '˜Absolutely bonkers' ladies are hailed '˜brilliant ambassadors' for Yorkshire as they are given a heroes' welcome

The four Yorkshire Rows - Janette Benaddi, 51, Helen Butters, 45, Niki Doeg, 45, and Frances Davies, 47 - completed the 3,000-mile trans-Atlantic trip from La Gomera in the Canary Islands to Antigua in the West Indies in 67 days to claim their place in the record books.

Their superhuman efforts have raised thousands of pounds for Yorkshire air ambulance and a new Maggie’s cancer centre in Leeds, as well as lifting the profile of the Broad Acres around the world.

The oarsome foursome reveal the secrets behind their heroic row across the Atlantic

Watch video: BBC reveals naked truth about Yorkshire women who rowed the Atlantic

“What these four women have just achieved says ‘Yorkshire’ in every way,” said Sir Gary, the chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire. “They have grit, determination and are absolutely bonkers. They are fantastic ambassadors for the county.”

Sir Gary also marvelled at the fact that the four mums had completed the Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge at all after after Ms Butters, an NHS communications expert from Cawood, Selby, let slip her lack of navigational skills.

“We were having an conversation in the office upstairs and I spoke about Yorkshire’s rich maritime history going back to Captain James Cook and John Harrison, who invented the clock that solved the riddle of longitude,” explained Sir Gary.

“Helen’s response was ‘So which is longitude and which is latitude?’”

Fortunately for the Yorkshire Rows, Helen conceded before she first stepped into the boat that as navigating was her weakness, she was happy to take on other roles.

“Helen decided she would boil most of the water for drinking because she was rubbish at steering,” said York lawyer Frances Davies. “She didn’t do any steering at night. That was good because that saved our lives!

“Everybody could do everything else, but we were all good at different things: Niki mended all the wheels because that was her strength and Janette was the skipper. Between the two of us we did all the navigation.

“We were six weeks into it when Helen said she would like to look at the chart and work out where we were. She was quite close…”

Helen also found herself embroiled in controversy earlier in the day when video footage showing her rowing naked from the waist down was inadvertently shown on BBC Breakfast television.

“Everyone who rows an ocean, rows naked at some point,” said Ms Butters. “I just feel really bad for the poor person who edited the video and didn’t notice what I wasn’t wearing,

“Fewer than 100 women
have rowed an ocean, I’d rather people focus on that than an editor’s faux pas. I’m fine with
 it.”

Skipper Janette Benaddi, a clinical researcher from Burn, Selby, said leading the female crew was plain sailing because of the team ethic they had all embraced.

“My biggest responsibility was making sure everyone got home safely,” said Ms Benaddi.

“It was never in doubt but even so I was absolutely relieved when we first saw land off Antigua.”

HOW TO LOSE TWO STONES IN 67 DAYS

ALMOST 10 weeks at sea has transformed the four Yorkshire Rows both physically and in terms of their outlook on life.

Skipper Janette Benaddi lost two stones in weight during the voyage, when her three colleagues each lost a stone and a half, and all four have returned home determined to live their lives differently.

“It’s changed me as a mum,” said Niki Doeg, a businesswoman and mother of two from Hessay, York. “I missed my kids so much that I’m going to spend as much time with them as I can.

“I’ve resolved listen to my children more: we are all so busy working and doing other things that you sometimes forget to do the things that really matter.”