TOM Rainey, from Poundsgate, and his friend Lawrence Walters, have set off on a record-breaking attempt to row from New York to Salcombe.

The duo left on Monday in their boat Yves, to face 3,800 miles of the north Atlantic including icebergs, gale-force winds and seven-storey high waves.

Speaking from New York before they set off, Tom said: 'The scariest thing is not getting to the other side. Failure is my biggest fear.

'We just don't want to fail.'