Essex World Record Holder Takes on New Coaching Role, Massive Row Challenge
Editor’s note: This article was originally published by the Maylands Mayl.
Dawn Smith is mentoring an all-women team aiming for a first-of-its-kind record, while preparing for her own historic Atlantic row back to her hometown.
Essex native Dawn Smith is no stranger to breaking mould. At the age of 30, she became the first female police boat skipper, and at 36, one of the first female firearms instructors in the Essex Police, all before rowing six oceans. She now holds the world record for the most ocean rows and most nautical miles completed by any female.
This summer, she’s taking on yet another challenge, coaching the remarkable all-women Human Powered Potential (HPP) rowing team as they aim to break records in 2027, while embarking on another massive record-breaking rowing expedition of her own at the end of June.
“My rowing teammate Paul introduced me to this incredible group of all-women rowers, who are aiming to become the first-ever to row the 5,000-mile Great American Loop, while raising awareness and funds for The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research,” said Smith. “I’m excited to support this row.”
The planned row follows the original four-man HPP crew’s record-breaking row from California to Hawaii, 41 days of 30-foot swells and salt sores that raised over $43 million for MJFF. If successful, HPP Second Wave team captain Ashley Ellis will be the first person with Parkinson’s disease to row the Great American Loop.
Smith, who runs the Burnham-on-Crouch-based Row Aurora Sea School, flew to Florida recently to meet and train the HPP team. To prepare the team for the grueling journey down the United States’ Mississippi River, around the Florida coast, and up the Eastern Seaboard, she covered advanced navigation, night operations, vessel mechanics, and emergency sea survival.
A New Set of Challenges
Smith said preparing a team for the Great American Loop isn’t as simple as ocean rowing.
“The Great American Loop brings a whole new set of challenges,” she said. “You’ve got tides and inland waterways, and constant passage planning. So, I’m drawing on all the skills I’ve gathered over the last two decades, ocean rowing, coastal rowing, river rowing, and lock management.”
Dawn will stay close with the team as they continue to train. And last month (June), she began rowing from Newfoundland to Burnham-on-Crouch.
Less than 100 people have ever completed this route. Once completed, she will be the first female to row the Atlantic in both directions. This will be her seventh ocean row, breaking her own world record, set last December, for most nautical miles any female has ever rowed.
“Arriving in my hometown will be incredible,” said Dawn. “Ending the route where I started rowing, and where I helped set up the rowing club brings everything full circle.”
She’s excited to help the Human Powered Potential team inspire others, both globally and at home.
“I want people to see that you don’t have to be a traditional athlete to achieve things,” she said. “I’m not a natural athlete. I have had to try incredibly hard at everything I have ever achieved in my life, both in sports and in my 26 years in the police force. You have to work hard for it, but if you do, the benefits are just amazing.”
“You don’t have to be a traditional athlete to achieve things. You have to work hard for it. But if you do, the benefits are just amazing.”
Dawn Smith: By the Numbers
- 6 oceans rowed
- 7th ocean row in progress
- Most ocean rows & nautical miles by a female
- Rowing from Newfoundland to Burnham-on-Crouch — June/July
- Coaching the all-women HPP team aiming for a record in 2027
