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" Katie Spotz always considered herself a lousy athlete--which makes the 22-year-old&amp;#039;s quest to become the youngest person ever to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean seem a little odd. &amp;quot;Growing up, I was a benchwarmer,&amp;quot; says Spotz, who competed on her high school swim, tennis and track teams in Mentor, Ohio. But after running a marathon at 18, she discovered that in long-distance sports, mental toughness matters more than physical strength. Spotz has cycled 3300 miles across the U.S. and was the first person to swim all 352 miles of the Allegheny River. When she learned about ocean rowing, she thought it would be the perfect way to raise awareness about the 1.1 billion people who lack access to safe drinking water. Donations made at Spotz&amp;#039;s website, rowforwater.com, will help the Blue Planet Run Foundation build clean-water projects around the world. Now all she has to do is row--Spotz starts her journey in late December. &amp;quot;Every endurance event has that moment when everything falls apart,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;You have to be 100 percent focused and aware. That&amp;#039;s what I like about adventures like this.&amp;quot;    Audio: Katie Spotz Satellite Phone Interview     &amp;amp;gt;    A. Shape  Boat design requires finding the perfect compromise, says Phil Morrison, who drew the plans for Spotz&amp;#039;s 19-foot vessel. &amp;quot;The boat is relatively long and slender, making it easier to row,&amp;quot; Morrison says. &amp;quot;But if you make it too slender, it becomes unstable.&amp;quot; Unlike traditional rowboats, the craft has two watertight cabins--one for sleeping, the other for gear and food--that shield Spotz from wind as she rows.  B. Food and Water A 100-pound tank of salt water supplies the 6 liters of drinking water Spotz needs every day. A hose connects the tank--which can be replenished by opening a valve in the footwell--to a desalination machine that can produce 6 gallons of fresh water an hour. But because the machine uses a lot of electricity and is prone to failure, Spotz will run it for only 20 minutes every other day. She&amp;#039;ll eat 5000 calories of dehydrated food, energy bars and trail mix daily. C. Mobility Sails are prohibited in ocean rowing, so the boat&amp;#039;s only power comes from Spotz pulling against carbon-fiber oars. Her seat slides forward and back on tracks in the center of the cockpit, which increases the oars&amp;#039; angle of attack as they enter the water--making each stroke longer and more efficient. Spotz faces the stern and straps her feet into shoes bolted to a board in the footwell. Her right shoe is connected to a cable that runs through the rear cabin and hooks into the tiller, which is screwed to the rudder, so she can steer as she rows. If strong headwinds blow her backward, Spotz can attach a parachute anchor to the stern that inflates underwater and slows reverse travel.   D. Route     Spotz will launch from Dakar, Senegal, in late December and travel west with the dominant currents. It will take her 70 to 100 days to row 2500 miles across the Atlantic. She&amp;#039;ll aim for Cayenne, French Guiana. But the boat&amp;#039;s weight relative to Spotz&amp;#039;s strength will make it difficult to counteract wind and northwest currents that could push her toward cliffs or rocks. Currents may also force her to row another 500 miles to Georgetown, Guyana. &amp;quot;The toughest part of the trip will be the arrival,&amp;quot; Spotz says. E. Power and Communication The boat&amp;#039;s instruments are powered by electricity from two solar panels--an 85-watt and a 65-watt--mounted atop the cabins. The panels charge two 12-volt batteries, which connect to the VHF radio, GPS and navigation lights. An Automatic Identification System sends the coordinates of Spotz&amp;#039;s boat to surrounding ships and warns her when other boats get too close. Spotz will bring an iPod for music and a laptop to track weather and blog. She has a satellite phone for emergencies, but will also use it to update her Twitter account. F. Ballast and Buoyancy If the boat becomes submerged in high seas, the cabins trap enough air to lift the vessel to the surface. But without ballast weighing down the bottom, the boat would list to its side and could trap Spotz underwater. &amp;quot;You have to give the cabin enough volume that the boat is unstable when it&amp;#039;s in that position,&amp;quot; Morrison says. &amp;quot;You shouldn&amp;#039;t need a lot of ballast, which is just gratuitous weight.&amp;quot; So the food, batteries and desalination unit, secured as low as possible, become the ballast--and so does Spotz, who will strap herself to the cabin floor in high seas. The combined weight will flip the boat right side up. A central tank can store 100 pounds of seawater, which serves as additional ballast, but it&amp;#039;s not really necessary. &amp;quot;This boat has enough ballast to right itself when the tank is empty,&amp;quot; Morrison says. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/adventure/outdoors/a5350/4345436/>