But they'll also be battling on other fronts, too. Imagine spending every minute of every day with the same three people for up to two months. Teamwork, courage, endurance, humility - all these and more will be needed if the crossing is to be a success.

Why do it? There's a certain thrill and satisfaction that comes from accepting a challenge - particularly one of this scale - and completing it. However:

• only five teams will start the race
• this is the first race west to east across the Atlantic, and the first race solely for four-man crews
• until now, there have been only nine successful rowing crossings of the North Atlantic
• no-one has yet rowed from the US mainland to the UK mainland without have first made landfall elsewhere

A successful crossing will therefore see participants gain entry to an elite group of achievers. They will expand the boundaries of ocean rowing history and set new records.

Created to meet the growing demand for extreme adventure, the Shepherds Ocean Fours Atlantic Rowing Challenge is a new and exciting race with emphasis on teamwork, speed and skill. Crews of four will compete on equal terms in a new 29ft long ocean rowing boat over a North Atlantic route similar to that which Sir Chay Blyth took back in 1966. The Challenge will commence from the North American Coastline (New York, United States) on June 10 2006 and finish in Falmouth, United Kingdom.

The race will cover 3,118 nm finishing approximately 45-50 days later in the UK. This passage will involve weather conditions completely opposite to those experienced in the traditional Atlantic Rowing Challenge events. The North Atlantic route is not a trade wind route and although the current will be going with the teams, weather patterns and wave direction will be changeable throughout the voyage. Colder temperatures, fog and icebergs are a possibility around the Grand Banks and there is the chance of storm conditions as the result of hurricanes formed in the Caribbean. Sharks and whales also present their own, unique hazards.

A new 29ft ocean rowing boat has been designed specifically for this event. Boats will be professionally built by injection moulding and supplied to teams for finishing and fitting out.

The first crossing of the North Atlantic by rowing boat was undertaken in 55 days by two Norwegian immigrants back in 1896; the most recent by Ollie Hicks in Virgin Row, taking 123 days in 2005.