Paul and his son Joshua are raising money for the Twinning Project
The father-son team of Paul and Joshua Hawkins is in the final stretch of an epic rowing challenge across the Atlantic Ocean to raise money for the Twinning Project charity.
The ‘Scholarship Row’ started on December 11 when Paul, 50, and Joshua, 18, set off from the Spanish island of La Gomera with the goal of rowing over 3,000 nautical miles (over 4,800km) to reach English Harbour in Antigua, where they are due to arrive on Wednesday, January 22.
Paul Hawkins, originally from Hampshire in the UK but now an Algarve resident, is a life-long sports lover. Be it playing, coaching or umpiring, sports has always been a major part of his life. While he was “never good enough to make a career out of playing” (his own words), Paul founded Hawk-Eye, the company behind the cutting-edge Hawk-Eye tracking technology used in a variety of sports, from football to tennis. In 2014, his contributions to the sports world were recognised with an OBE presented by Queen Elizabeth II.
His love of sports has clearly rubbed off on his son Josh, who during his earlier teenage years set the goal of becoming the youngest person to row across the Atlantic. “The Covid-19 pandemic prevented him from being the youngest ever, but he is the youngest this year,” family friend Lottie Woodhall told the Resident.
“Paul has supported this dream both financially and practically, because as a lifelong sportsman he has learned so many lessons through sport, about resilience, strength, preparation, discipline, growth and self-belief and he wanted these to be available to his son,” she added.
The row – known as the ‘World’s Toughest Row’ and which brings together dozens of rowing teams – is incredibly demanding, forcing the father-son team, which trained for two years to prepare for it, to row two hours on and two hours off for six weeks, all while encountering storms, waves, strong tides, sharks and whales and having to sleep in a “tiny, shared cabin”. For Josh, these lessons are coming just a few months before he is due to sit his A-levels in May.
“I want my kids to learn the same life lessons through sport as I learnt,” Paul said ahead of the start of the challenge. “That is why our team name for the Atlantic Challenge is Scholarship. One of the greatest life lessons is resilience, as everyone’s journey through life has their ups and downs. How one responds to the challenges is fundamental to achieving a positive outcome”.
Aside from teaching lessons and providing an unforgettable father-son experience, the ‘Scholarship Row’ is also raising money for the Twinning Project – a partnership between the UK’s HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) and professional football clubs with the objective of twinning every prison in England and Wales with a local professional football club. The goal is to try to use sport as a vehicle to help inmates “improve their mental and physical health and well-being and obtain a qualification which will help improve their life chances and gain employment on release.”
An online fundraiser has already raised an impressive £16,681 (over €19,720) out of the £30,000 goal (over €35,470).
Paul and Josh’s progress can be followed on Instagram (@scholarship_row), where updates are posted regularly.
