A rowing team is three-quarters of the way into its 8,200km journey across the Indian Ocean from Carnarvon, Western Australia to Mombasa, Kenya thanks to support provided by a PhD student at The University of Western Australia.

Surface current enthusiast, Rick de Kreij, from the Transforming Energy Infrastructure through Digital Engineering (TIDE) hub at UWA, is helping guide the rowboat Untamed, which is on track to complete the crossing within 75 days.

Image: The Untamed four-man crew is attempting to break world records.

The four-man crew is attempting to break world records for the first and fastest team to row this route, which for crew member Ralph Tuijin will also be a world record for most completed ocean rows (13).

Mr de Kreij is leveraging a new route optimisation model he built to help keep the team on track to reach its time targets.

“The model uses a unique combination of weather forecasts and historical conditions to optimise the boat’s route through two steps,” Mr de Kreij said.

“The first step, the forecast step, uses up to 10 days of weather and ocean forecasts to simulate a range of possible routes from the boat’s live location.

“After 10 days, the forecast becomes unreliable so we use the hindcast step – this second step leverages 20 years of historical hindcast data to simulate the rest of the route for every year in the dataset, helping to reveal not just the quickest, but also the most reliable route for the present time.”

Reliability for rower safety is a core consideration alongside time – for example, the direction and strength of the wind, and how that impacts the generation of waves against the boat, must be considered.

If waves come in sideways, the boat will rock, which could pose a risk to the crew’s health, safety and wellbeing. It also slows them down as it becomes difficult-to-impossible to row.

Mr de Kreij’s model takes this all into account to make sure that the route is reliable and his initiative to use Garmin Messenger keeps communications flowing, which is critical when considering potential optimal routes are updated every three hours as new data comes in.

“Ocean rowers have so many decisions to make. At the end of the day, lives are at stake. But having this innovative tool has made the Untamed team’s lives much easier,” Mr de Kreij.

Shell Professor of Offshore Engineering and TIDE Director, Professor Phil Watson, is overseeing the support provided by UWA.

“It is great to see that a forecasting model built from the ground up by a PhD student is having real impact – and could have further impact – out in the wider world,” Professor Watson said.

“It’ll be great to witness the Untamed team cross the finish line and, hopefully, with the help of this tool, break some records!”

Follow the team’s journey here.