Published on 31 January 2006

They finished fourth in the 'pairs' behind the class winners, double Olympic Gold medallist James Cracknell and Ben Fogle. They completed the race distance in a total time of 58 days 12 hours and 16 minutes.

Richard Dewire, aged 27, an IT consultant with CHP, developer of the class-leading ALFA Systems solution for asset and consumer finance, and Dan Darley, aged 28, a capital structuring specialist, endured many challenges during their crossing. They had to carry out major repairs to their rudder on two occasions and endless repairs to their watermaker. By navigating too far north for the first half of the race, they battled against stronger winds than those crews further south, which lengthened their scheduled crossing. As a result, they had to ration their food until the final week. Early in the race they were second in class but once they struck problems with their rudder and stronger prevailing winds, they settled their sights on a top five finish in class. Rowing individually two hours on, two hours off, they achieved their revised goal by finishing fourth in the 'pairs' class.

CHP employee, Richard Dewire, reflected towards the end of the race on the reality of the race compared to their expectations: " Having spent nigh on 18 months planning for the race we'd had plenty of time to think about what might be, and to get advice from previous ocean rowers.

"The main difference that we've seen is that this race is not much about rowing! The main influence on your speed and direction is the wind and weather – how hard you pull and how well you row are secondary concerns. In addition, the waves almost always prevent you from doing anything approaching a normal rowing stroke, instead you row in any manner that allows you to put some work down.

"The weather has been much more variable than expected. As in previous races, we'd not anticipated using the 'para anchor' much and had assumed there would generally be a prevailing wind. While this has been true for the second half, the first half was a very different experience.

"From a personal point of view I'm amazed how the little amount of sleep we're getting has not had any effect on me. I sometimes feel a little tired at night but by and large not – this had been a worry before the race so a pleasant surprise there.

"We'd been led to believe that the two of us would barely talk during the crossing but we chat frequently and have maintained a friendly light-hearted banter each day."

Director at CHP Consulting, Andrew Denton said: "CHP are really proud of the pair. They have demonstrated tremendous tenacity in really arduous conditions. This has been by far the most challenging Atlantic Rowing Race to date. This fourth edition has seen crews battle against three low pressure systems, two tropical storms and the tail end of a hurricane ."

During their build-up preparations for the event, the pair broke the Million-Metre Rowing Record by over 4.5 hours. The new record set by Richard Dewire and Dan Darley stands at three days 17 minutes and 12 seconds.

Richard Dewire is a former captain of the First and Third Trinity College Boat Club, Cambridge and has represented the university as part of the famous Oxford - Cambridge University Boat Race squad. He has since competed in rowing competitions in Boston , Dublin and Henley among others. Dan Darley also went to Trinity College and captained First and Third Trinity. He won the British Indoor Rowing Championships (open lightweight) in 1998. He has subsequently represented Britain in the World Triathlon Championships and competed in the Ironman Hawaii in 2004.