A rower aiming to complete the first non-stop, solo row of the British Isles has had to take shelter in Dartmouth.

Angus Collins set off from Portsmouth harbour on June 28 but has to break his trip up due to 15 knot winds from the North West. Predictions are the rower will set off Monday lunchtime for Start Point, take shelter once more before continuing on in fairer conditions for the rest of the week.

The world record endurance rower based in Hampshire but rowing a custom-built boat made in South East Cornwall, had to take the unscheduled break over the weekend.

During the challenge to row around the coast of Great Britain, the world record challenge dictates that Angus cannot accept any supplies or even touch another vessel, and must stay aboard the boat for the entire challenge, stopping only to anchor, sleep and eat.

In a video update on Sunday evening (June 6), Angus spoke about the temptations of being so close to shore.

Speaking after being anchored in Dartmouth for 48 hours, he said: “I came into Dartmouth for a nice sheltered anchorage which has been great. Mixed emotions about being in Dartmouth.

“It’s nice to be around people, and also means morning ablutions and general admin is quite hard when there are a lot of people around. So I have to think about that a lot!

“The hardest part is literally, the pontoon is about 20 metres that way, and there’s a fish and chip shop at the top of the slipway I could so easily just swim over, grab a fish and chips and come back; that’s the hard part.”

After Monday there is a five day period of good weather for the endurance athlete to catch up heading to Falmouth as quickly as possible with an anchoring off Eddystone lighthouse rather than coastal hopping saving valuable time, he says. He estimates the passage to Falmouth will be about 36 hours. The Great British Odyssey challenge to circumnavigate the British Isles is planned to take 30 to 60 days.

He said: “Looking forward to making that progress ahead and once I hit that Falmouth coastline, the next target is then get around Cornwall, then pray for some southerly winds and shoot up the Irish sea.”

Heavy, choppy water in the Solant at the beginning of this latest challenge destroyed his hands he says but he’s also had some tail winds pushing him along. He’s never rowed such a responsive but steady boat, he adds, but she’s hard to live in.

Angus’s rowing boat is made from recycled carbon fibres and measures just over 6m in length. Weighing in at just 89kg and, it is thought to be the world's smallest, lightest and fastest ocean rowing vessel. She was built in South East Cornwall over an eight month period by expert boat builder Ian Munslow of Millbrook based business Carbonish Structures.

Angus is rowing to raise £250,000 for men’s suicide prevention charity James’ Place, which offers free and life saving treatment to men in suicidal crisis.