Man’s bid to walk from Wales to Ireland in a giant hamster wheel ends after it sinks

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh8MiSmk-to

A man who had planned to walk from Wales to Greystones in a floating human hamster wheel has had to stop after he started to sink.

There are some stories that are just so odd you don’t know where to start but here goes. A man called Chris Todd designed a human hamster wheel that floats and he decided he wanted to walk from Wales to Greystones. As you do.

Anyway, the plan was that the ‘Tredalo’ (his name, not ours) would see him all the way across in 48 hours, powered only by the man himself.

To see how it works, look at the video above. He set off to cover the 66 miles on Sunday but had to quit after just 10 hours when he got into some technical trouble.

"When I set off on Sunday the conditions were ideal and the forecast was really good," Todd told the BBC website.

"Then the wind started to pick up and the waves - which were pretty nasty out there - started to give the raft a bit of a battering.

"But the wheel was coping really well with the waves and the progress was far better then I could have ever hoped.

"Unfortunately the rudders weren't and they failed - I'm just gutted they weren't stronger - if they had been I would probably be in Ireland."

While they were towing the wheel back to a support boat to fix the damage, the waves picked up, breaking the wheel further and it sank to the bottom of the Irish Sea.

"I think I was about 26 miles out at the time the rudders gave way - which was almost half way," said Mr Todd.

"But sadly in the heavy seas after two hours of towing the craft - it disintegrated and sank so I'm afraid I don't have the Tredalo any more."

The crossing was attempted to raise money for the RNLI so we hope that the target of £20,000 is still achieved. Todd deserves some credit for bravery if nothing else.