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February 7, 2007
Unsinkable man to retry Atlantic row
MetroNY
By Amy Zimmer
Though Victor Mooney’s handcrafted rowboat sunk within three hours of casting off the coast of Senegal last year in his attempt to recreate the trans-Atlantic slave trade route, the 41-year-old New Yorker who is on a mission to raise AIDS awareness is back at it.
This time, however, he will be rowing in a professionally built craft and he plans to unveil a rendering of it today in honor of National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day.
A copy of the schematic sent in a press release shows the logo for the “Barclays Center” on the bow. Barclays — the London-based bank that’s paying an estimated $400 million for the naming rights for the New Jersey Nets basketball arena Forest City Ratner is building in Brooklyn — has been embroiled in controversy over allegations its founders had links to the slave trade and apartheid in South Africa. Barclays has adamantly denied both claims and has sent letters requesting retractions to newspapers that printed those charges.
None of that, however, fazes Mooney, who built his boat in a Pacific Street garage donated by Forest City Ratner.
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Mooney said that Barclays was not sponsoring him, nor had he asked for money from the bank to fund his journey.
Posted by lumi at February 7, 2007 8:29 AM