The English Channel Swim

After a seaman had floated across the Channel on a bundle of straw, Matthew Webb became the first to make the crossing without the aid of artificial buoyancy. His first attempt ended in failure, but on August 25, 1875, he started from Admiralty Pier in Dover and made the crossing in 21 hours and 45 minutes, despite challenging tides (which delayed him for 5 hours) and a jellyfish sting.
Who are you
Duncan Ellis, IT Manager

The Challenge
Channel Swim (2 man relay)

How long did it take
13:48hrs

What was the distance
34 KM as the crow flies

How much did it cost
£2,300 for boat & pilot
£10 for swimming trunks!

Who was the organiser 
Organised directly with the boat pilot
What was it like
This was a 2 man relay, consisting of each of us taking it in turns to swim for 2 hours before handing over to the team mate. We also swam in wetsuits, as due to commitment to other events were unable to pack on the timber required to withstand the water temperature in the Channel. This combination made this a relatively ‘doable’ challenge.

Training for the August crossing started in January with regular pool sessions building up swim distances to 6km. As spring arrived, these sessions were taken outdoors, lidos, lakes, coastal swimming and Dover Harbour (swimming sometimes in skins, and others in the suit). Stacking the sessions so we were doing 2 or 3 in a day meant we were ready for the repetition and duration, added to some rough sea and night swim training, we were ready for the conditions. 
The event was delayed due to bad weather, and a month later than plan, we made the crossing. Starting at 1am in the cold dark was a low point. The boat takes you close to the beach, you have to leave the boat, swim to the beach, climb out, and the crossing starts there. From then we just put our training into practice. Quite simply, swim, swim, swim. Feeding and hydration was key to keep the motor turning, and having a good support team is essential to take care of the admin of doing these things. On occasion we would come very close to some of the traffic in the channel (30m from a decent sized container ship), and this kept things interesting. Being mindful of the tides was another essential ingredient. Having a good navigator who understands you speed, the rate of tide etc means that the most appropriate course will be taken to land you in the right spot. Get it wrong, drop off the pace and you find yourself swimming against the tide effectively on a treadmill and delaying the end. At this point, we shortened the handovers to pick up the pace to break past the currents.
How did you train

Training needs to reflect the nature of the target event. For us this meant being able to swim with a good pace for 2 hour intervals, and then repeated potentially 4 times. We also felt it was necessary to be able withstand a certain level of cold. Add in the potential for choppy conditions, it was necessary to be ready for a number of different challenges.

Building a good base of fitness, making any changes to stroke and technique that may be required. Challenging the body in cold water swimming, understanding how you cope with the cold. Swimming in rough conditions both at night and day.

Building the base: The key to was to keeping the pool sessions interesting by using a training programme that varied the challenges. I would never read my plan until I got to the pool, so I had no time to mentally prepare for swimming 3k or 6k- just see what it says on the training card for that day.

It is important to build in some sprint ability into the endurance. For instance in the middle of a long set, do a 10 min sprint. This was required more than we had hoped during the event, in order to stay on our planned course and mitigate the impact of the tides & currents.

Cold Water: Expose yourself to this as soon as you can, it will depend on the seasons, but if you can start training in 15 degree C water, and building up the time you can spend at these temperatures. Everyone is different, but it is key to not have any surprises in how you deal with the cold- for us this was important (as we were using suits), but not key- for others, this will be the biggest challenge.

Simulation: Going to Dover, meeting other swimmers is a great learning experience, take some ‘lessons learned’ from these often experienced channel swimmers. I would say a couple of sessions down there is key. You get a feel for the event and get to spend a good amount of time swimming in the harbor. This and other open sea swimming will be the best way of tuning your final preparation. You will not only learn the impact of long durations swimming in cold water, but also, what foods and drinks keep you going best- keeping warm and hydrated.


Any other useful hints / links
Join the ‘channel_swimmers’ Google group

In the run up to the event you will want to keep your eye the weather, there are a number of good sites that monitor wind, wave height etc.

Advice- lots of preparation, and get a good boat pilot- someone who’s primary focus is making a successful crossing (many will take you when the conditions are just not condusive to a successful crossing- they get paid regardless). Ray and Bob on Sea Venture II were superb, contactable at mail@martelloplastics.co.uk