An 87-year-old Matua man is preparing for a special journey this weekend, rowing the length of Tauranga Harbour to honour the adventurous spirit of his late son, who once set a world record crossing the Atlantic.

David Stubbs, a retired civil engineer and lifelong sailor, plans to launch from Pilot Bay at Mount Maunganui at 7am on Saturday, August 2, and row the 33.3km stretch to Bowentown.

He’ll be joined by his son Steve Stubbs, who is flying in from Sydney to take part in the commemorative row, and another son, Michael is supporting them by land and driving the boat trailer.

“We’re just a father and son going for a row in the harbour, really,” said David Stubbs. “How far we get depends on how well we do.”

The journey will pay tribute to Phil Stubbs, a former New Zealand police officer and transatlantic rower. Phil made headlines in 1997 when he and teammate Rob Hamill won the inaugural Atlantic Rowing Race, covering the 4700km journey from the Canary Islands to Barbados in 41 days – nearly eight days ahead of the nearest competitors. The pair earned a place in the Guinness Book of Records for their feat.

The Listener cover in 1998 featuring Phil Stubbs’ and Rob Hamill’s world record Atlantic crossing. Photo / Brydie Thompson

Phil died one year later in a light plane crash on a West Auckland beach.

“What Steve and I are doing is loosely commemorative of Phil and his exploits,” Stubbs said.

“He was a good multisport athlete. What he and Rob did was extraordinary.”

 Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs, somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean. Together they won the inaugural trans-Atlantic Challenge in 1997. Photo / Supplied.

Stubbs is no stranger to adventure himself.

At 75, he completed a solo sail from the Caribbean to New Zealand aboard an 11m yacht, in part to honour his son’s legacy.

“That was the sort of adventure Phil was always involved with,” he said.

The Guinness World Record certificate awarded to Phil Stubbs and Rob Hamill for fastest pair to row across the Atlantic East to West. Photo / Brydie Thompson

He describes himself more as a sailor than a rower and has retrofitted a 5m, Finnish-made dinghy with sliding seats for sculling. The boat, a Terhi model he discovered abandoned in a Coromandel paddock, has been lovingly restored.

“I bought it for a very low price and spent five times that amount upgrading it. It’s the only one in New Zealand, and I’m very fond of it.”

The timing of the row is dictated by the tides. Departing at low tide allows for some assistance from tidal currents at the beginning and possibly the end – though, as Stubbs explained, the middle of the harbour can be deceptively still.

“The southern entrance takes about two-thirds of the water, the northern about a third. In the middle, there’s no real tidal current because it’s coming in both ways,” he said.

“So, you get help at the start and, if you’re lucky, at the end. But there’s a chunk in the middle where you’re on your own.”

David Stubbs with his five-metre Finnish-made dinghy, ready to row the length of Tauranga harbour. Photo: Brydie Thompson.

He estimated the full journey could take up to nine hours at a rowing speed of around two knots. But the goal, he insisted, isn’t to finish.

“We’re not so much focused on whether we make it to Bowentown or not,” he said.

“It’s about going out and having a good hard row – and reminding ourselves what it must have been like for Phil and Rob. They rowed two hours on, two hours off, all day and night, for 41 days. What we’re doing is pretty trivial by comparison.”

The pair may be joined for parts of the journey by another local rower, Steve Westlake, who has also rowed the Atlantic and now competes in coastal rowing.

“He’s got a high-speed sculling boat. He’ll probably run rings around us,” Stubbs said.

 Plywood kitset rowboat built for the inaugural trans-Atlantic Challenge in 1997, by New Zealanders Rob Hamill and Phil Stubbs who rowed the boat to victory.  Photo / NZ Maritime Museum Hui Te Ananui a Tangaroa.

The weather will be the deciding factor on whether they proceed with the trip. A strong northerly wind could force them to cancel.

“At 87, you can still build muscle if you’re smart, but you can’t replace cartilage,” he said. “I’m not going to put my joints through that with a headwind.”

Stubbs’ life has been shaped by a love of the sea and adventure.

Born in Auckland, he grew up in Whakatāne, worked as a civil engineer and city planner in Auckland, and later operated an ocean-going keelboat with his wife out of Whitianga for a decade.

They sailed to the Pacific Islands three times before she died from cancer nearly a decade ago.

“She couldn’t manage the drive to Hamilton for treatment, so we moved to Tauranga,” he said.

In addition to his three sons, he has a daughter in Auckland and is a great-grandfather three times over.

David Stubbs has retrofitted a 5m, Finnish-made dinghy with sliding seats for sculling. Photo: Brydie Thompson.

As for Saturday’s row, Stubbs said it’s open to others who may want to join for a stretch.

“It’s a free harbour but some company would be nice.”

If the winds are fair, the Stubbs family hopes to reach the Bowentown Boating and Sport Fishing Club by day’s end. But for Stubbs, success isn’t measured in distance.

“It’s really about remembering Phil,” he said.

“And celebrating the spirit of adventure.”