Simon Chalk is to make the 3,000 mile journey alone

Simon Chalk from Newton Abbot was to row the route with Welshman Robert Munslow.

But the pair have now decided to abandon the joint attempt and Mr Chalk is to make the 3,000 mile journey single-handed.

He first attempted the challenge last May but had to be rescued off the west coast of Australia when the boat capsized.

It is a completely different mental preparation and solitude could become an issue Simon Chalk

He and his partner Bill Greaves, 41, clung to the hull for 15 hours before being rescued.

Mr Chalk's new boat has been designed to right itself should it capsize.

"I know that everyone is going to assume that Robert and I have had a row but that is just not the case," said Mr Chalk, speaking to BBC News Online from Kalbarri in western Australia.

"It was a mutual decision for the joint attempt not to proceed, we haven't fallen out, it just wasn't going to work."

The Indian Ocean has been rowed single-handed once before, in 1971.

"I will be aiming to do it in 64 days but I will have food on board for 100 days," said Mr Chalk, who is a property developer.

If he makes it he will be the youngest rower and the first Britain to achieve the feat.

And he acknowledges that tackling the route from Kalbarri to Reunion Island, off the coast of Madagascar, single-handed is a very different proposition.

"It is a completely different mental preparation and solitude could become an issue," he said.

And now, instead of sharing the effort, he will be rowing alone for up to 18 hours a day.

"But it has not crossed my mind not to do it, too much work and too much effort has gone into it, I have wanted to do it for two years."

Mr Chalk aims to start his solo crossing on 28 February.