Combining Passion with Purpose | The Maclean Brothers & Their Row to £1 million

We were recently lucky enough to catch up with Lachlan Maclean, the youngest of 3 Scottish brothers who are about to take on an extraordinary challenge. Lachlan, Jamie and Ewan - The Maclean Brothers - are about to embark on a full row across the Pacific Ocean from Peru to Australia, completely unsupported and non-stop. Their goal is to raise £1 million for clean water projects in Madagascar. Having previously spent 35 days rowing 3000 miles across the Atlantic, these boys are no strangers to adventure. It was a pleasure to learn more about the brothers, their positive and courageous spirit, and their passion for doing something purposeful.

Yes! We’re Edinburgh born and raised, we grew up in the Pentland hills. We were really lucky to spend a lot of time outside with green spaces right on our doorstep. Aside from that we’ve always spent time in the North West of Scotland, Summer and Easter holidays were always spent up there. We had small boats and spent time fishing and getting lost in the hills. Keeping mum and dad on their toes generally!

Definitely yeah, I think another key part of it was going to Edinburgh Steiner school - so very outdoor based, doing activities like gardening, crafts, learning to knit etc. Other kids are learning how to read and write and we’re digging up potatoes. So that was very foundational to our adventurous spirit. I think we’re just normal guys, I’ve got friends that are much more adventurous than I am, I think adventure is as much a mindset as anything else. You don’t always need to do these big trips, it can be day-to-day living with an adventurous mindset!

5 years ago, the 3 of us did a row across the Atlantic which was a big step into the unknown for us - we’re not rowers or professional athletes.

We did the row, fundraising for 2 charities, one in particular - Feedback Madagascar, which we were funding clear water projects in Madagascar with. The reason we chose that charity was because I was there in 2018 and stayed with the charity in a youth centre they’d built. So the charity really came off the back of that Atlantic row, and it enabled us to do something we really enjoyed - working together as a team. Doing something we were passionate about that also gave us a huge amount of purpose. The result of that row was the funding of 11 clean water projects in Madagascar that we got to see in person when we visited later that year. It was a no brainer, we wanted to build on that work, so we set up The Maclean Foundation with our dad. That’s what it’s all about - combining passion with purpose. 

There’s a whisky side to the charity because it's dad’s big passion - he’s a whisky expert and writer. But for us it’s really the adventure side of things, with the big rows at the moment, but in the future it’ll be more on a micro level. 

I think so! Ocean rowing is very unique in comparison to other sports. There’s no safety net, so if something goes wrong, you're responsible and need to be able to fix the scenario - it’s not like you can phone a doctor. So a big part of it is wearing lots of different hats and trying to be ready for any scenarios that would come up. For us, that was definitely the case.

Ewan’s an engineer and has been for 10 years, he’s super technical and understands electronics. So when we were at sea, we had technical issues with the wiring being normal electrics as apposed to marine electrics, and as a result they were corroding. So at one point we literally didn’t have the power to make water, which is obviously your lifeline. He was able to recognise the problem and solve it, which Jamie and I wouldn’t have been able to do alone.

Jamie is an architect, he’s also a big foodie, really into his cooking. He’s actually made 50% of the meals for our next row himself, with our help, but he’s been managing it. All of our nutrition and fueling at sea was what he was in charge of, making sure we were eating enough and at the right times. In general he’s just super practical, you can throw him into any situation and he’ll figure it out. Like you’ll give him a lump of wood and he’ll turn it into a spoon, he’s that kind of guy.

As for myself, I studied philosophy at uni, so naturally I’m probably the most philosophical of the three. Like on a social level, for team dynamics. I think as a younger sibling you often spend time acting as an intermediary and trying to keep morale high - not saying I succeeded at that every time! I think all three of us try to keep cheery in those tough moments.

I think a lot of the time it’s just about staying in that moment, in that shift. Being so sleep deprived can take you out of it and make you feel overwhelmed, and if you think too far into the future it can affect your morale. So it’s about staying in that moment. If it’s a one hour shift on the oars - just doing that, and focusing on enjoying it. There’s no point in scaring yourself by looking too full scope, that moment is all that really matters. That’s what I love about these adventures because they’re like a condensed version of everyday life, there’s highs and lows and if you look at things too broad it's overwhelming. But in these experiences it concentrates it down, so in one day you’ll have the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. That’s the beauty of it, it’s just real life.

There was one moment actually. We were about halfway through the crossing, about 1400 nautical miles in. It was around New Years and so naturally we were thinking about missing friends and family. We also had some really bad weather - the low pressure system came in, the wind was really inconsistent. Headwind, hail and rain - it was a mini storm. We were also having some technical issues, as I mentioned problems with the wiring - this was all happening at the same time. It was just pretty challenging. 

I remember so well. We were in this strong wind and hail, and the next moment the wind totally dropped, the sun came out; we were literally in the eye of the storm. We could see all around the water pressure system moving across us. Jamie and Ewan were on top of each other in the stern cabin trying to figure out the electrical issue. I was slogging away on the oars, and I looked up, and I literally saw this butterfly. I thought I was hallucinating. I thought “yeah that can’t be a butterfly, we’re so far from land”. But I got the boys out and they could see it as well. Turns out it’s this crazy species of butterfly that migrates across the Atlantic. It was just an amazing moment, it had felt pretty rough, and then I was just in awe. Then 10 minutes later back into hail and rain, out of the eye of the storm. But it was a nice little moment of realising this is really amazing, I’m so lucky to be here. As rough as it might feel, it’s fine in the end. 

So we are about to embark on a full Pacific row, from Peru to Australia. It’s going to be about 9000 miles, so over 3x the length of the Atlantic row. We’re doing it independently, unsupported, the plan is to do it non-stop, so no stopping at islands or reprovisioning. Everything we need for the crossing, we will be leaving with. No team has done it non-stop and unsupported, but some solo rowers have done it which is crazy!

It’s totally different, the challenge is the scale of it - 9000 miles is the equivalent of going from here in Scotland to Australia. So literally halfway around the planet. We hope to do it in under 150 days. At the moment we’re kind of doing our final farewells, we’ve said goodbye to our mum, and just trying to cram in those moments with friends and family before we set off. It’s been something we’ve been planning for 2 years, but it’s a plan until you’re there.

We’ve been very lucky to be working with Chloe Lanthier, she’s a consultant in performance and her speciality fields are exercise physiology, biomechanics and injury prevention. She’s world class, she works with NASA, she’s worked with Rafael Nadal. She’s now like family to us, we get along really well, which is why I think she works with us.

It’s been a 12 month programme, and it’s a lot. 6 days a week, varied from 12 to 30 hours a week. I think the most we had scheduled was like 39 hours in a week. It was rowing either erg or on the boat, or gym stuff. Lots of mobility, super functional exercises. Every exercise is made for specifically what we’re going to be doing, building our cardio, stamina and strength. The goal is so that we’re not getting weaker and losing weight throughout the crossing. It’s important that we’re sustaining the rate we’re going at, because ultimately, the more we physically prepare, the less we have to dip into those reserves of mental strength or motivation. Hopefully we’re ready! We’ve worked really hard and we’ve had the best person we could’ve informing us, we’re very lucky to have her. 

Yeah, that’s the mentality we’re trying to have throughout the whole campaign. Even for the boat, we were involved in the building of it: sticking on the row deck, cutting out a lot of the deck repeaters, putting the electrics in. So it means we just really know the boat a lot better. So across the board with Chloe, the physical and mental preparation, the boat, the making of our own food. We’re just trying to do our best and that’s all you can do really. 

I’d say a mantra. It’s one of Chloe’s that we started to learn in the last row and in the training. I love it - “motivation is an action, not a feeling”. I think it’s just such a great thing to be able to repeat to yourself. Often with mindset and motivation, it’s almost as if one day you’re going to wake up and be motivated and have the energy to do something. But Chloe’s thing is, you become motivated by doing. So you do the thing as much as you don’t want to do it, and that is the motivation. That’s going to be crucial for the many many days at sea, and however much we don’t want to get up for those shifts. 

Yeah, for the night shift we’ll each have 1.5 hour rowing solo, with two 3 hour rests. But within that 3 hour window you also have to refuel, rehydrate, clean yourself, some admin - so it won’t quite be 3 hours of sleeping.

During the day we’ll all be rowing. The staple during the day will be 1 hour on, 30 minutes off, from 6/7am until 11/12 at night. If the weather is really good, if you have the wind going with you, we might be able to just have one person rowing. 

Yeah! The race had started, boats were leaving the dock and we had realised we didn’t have any toilet paper. I had to run into a nearby shop, stress levels are sky high. I picked up 4 rolls and a mango. I came back, Ewan and Jamie just looked at me and said “you’ve literally only got 4 rolls of toilet paper for potentially 60 days at sea for 3 of us. And why have you got a mango?!”. 

But the mango was actually so good, so I withhold that that was a good decision. But then we did have to go get more toilet paper. 

The drive is to raise £1 million through this challenge for funding clean water projects. We may not do it all through this row but we’re doing this so we can share our experience. It’s all a fundraising exercise - we might only get ⅕ of the way there by the time we arrive in Australia, and keep ploughing on afterwards to get to that 1 million target. I’ve now been to Madagascar 3 times, and what we could do with that money is mind-blowing. We don’t have an exact number but we reckon it could provide around 40,000 people with clean water. So it’s smaller projects and water towers for larger settlements. The Maclean Foundation is the fundraising vehicle, and all those projects will be installed by our partner charity Feedback Madagascar.

The primary thing for the Atlantic trip was doing something together and pushing our boundaries, and we fundraised through this and managed to raise £200,000. Of course there are always personal and selfish reasons for wanting to do these things, but this time around our primary focus is to hit that 1 million fundraising target. So if anyone’s tuned in, follow along for our journey and maybe donate if you feel like it! 

2 nights in, we were rowing along, it was quite calm. We noticed this slinking, vibrant thing under the boat. It was a massive shark, but there was bioluminescence, so you could see this trail, it was like fireworks bursting off this serpent-like thing. It was a bit spooky but pretty awe-inspiring.

We’re definitely going to have a lot of time to think about that throughout the row! We envision that we probably won’t hit the fundraising target, so the primary thing will be getting to that. It somewhat depends how that’s going. Personally, I literally think I’ll want to get back home to the croft, Jamie (and potentially Ewan) and I would like to build pods around there and spend time doing manual tasks like putting up fences. Things we’ll probably look forward to doing after a big row. Then I suppose retiring to a quiet life in the middle of nowhere sounds good! 

Big thanks to Lachlan for taking the time to have a chat with us. Him, Ewan and Jamie hope to set off at the start of April for their expedition across the Pacific! You can follow along their journey across their channels. Find their Instagram here, TikTok here, and Youtube here. Their website is the best place to find out more about the row, their charity and projects happening in Madagascar. Join the crew!