Channel 4 – Scrapheap Challenge 2004 – Challenges – Power Rowers

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The Challenge

Power Rowers
Scrapheap goes back to the water for the latest challenge as The Anoraks take on Maximus. In honour of our Olympic oarsmen and women, the two teams have to assemble a mechanised galley with at least four oars to scull their way around our tricky aquatic course.

The Anoraks, raring to go

Expert, Rob Austin

The Anoraks

The Anoraks
In this year's first episode, The Anoraks poured cold water on The Hoselliers, a team of fire fighters from Blackburn, as they raced out of our sheer sand trap in Surrey.

Deprived of their captain Geoff Turtell for their second challenge, The Anoraks are now led by Marc Draper. Lyndon Camidge joins him again along with Andy Cross an old school friend of Lyndon's who comes in as a substitute. Andy is a plant fitter and HGV mechanics expert.

Named after their club of the same name, these three enthusiasts from Surrey can't get enough of off-roading. The lads spend their spare time in Marc's garage, building and restoring Land Rovers and other 4x4 vehicles. Lyndon claims he has broken, crashed and sunk more Land Rovers than he's had hot dinners and Marc likes to think he is the stabilising influence of the team.

Lots of experience, slightly batty and a bit posh, these boys are determined to go all the way!

Rob Austin is The Anoraks' expert this week. He's an engineer and teacher from Oxford who organises the Formula Schools engineering challenge.

Rob worked as a professional fabricator and engineer in various fields before going into education and creating a successful engineering course for schools. He now runs Formula Schools, a scheme to get youngsters interested in automotive and maritime engineering. From his well-equipped workshop in Oxfordshire, he builds and fabricates pretty much anything and is currently rebuilding a classic Bugatti racing car.

Budding buccaneers, Maximus

Expert, Jim Bond

Maximus

Maximus
Our second set of challengers are the rickshaw-riding charioteers Maximus, who bowled over Irn Cru in the fourth challenge of series seven with their barmy bouncing bomb.

Cycles and big barges float these Bath-based boys' boats. William Trickett, Paul McGarry and Dennis Mapp work at Cycles Maximus, which makes and supplies rickshaws. William, or Trickett as he likes to be known, is also a boat engineer and has a company which makes luxury Dutch barges. They are into all kinds of cycled contraptions from rickshaws and chariots to trikes and motorbikes. They also share an interest in canal boats – so are used to building things out of the ordinary.

They are quirky, alternative, great fun and are phased by very little. Trickett is completely mad, Paul lives on a canal boat and is also a circus performer and Dennis is a Motor Cross rider who, in his own words, will have a go at anything! A great team.

Maximus' expert Jim Bond is not an engineer but an expert fabricator and metal-work sculptor. His speciality is mechanised sculptures. He has worked on TV series like The Secret Life of Machines and can easily grasp the concepts behind automating a human movement mechanically. Cool and calm, Jim is used to getting kids motivated about engineering projects but confesses he is a bit laid-back.

Power Rowers judge, Richard Carless

The judge

The judge
Richard Carless is a keen rower and has lived and worked on the water all his life. He owns a marine safety business for the film industry and recently worked on the BBC's Building the Impossible: Submarine episode. He is a Guinness Book of Records holder for several rowing endurance and distance records. He recently smashed the long-distance rowing record from the origin of the Thames to the Thames estuary. He knows what it takes to make a good rowing stroke and being a boatman all his life can tie this into both engineering and hull design.