Thursday 30 September 2010

Dutch Lifeboats at the GRR

The Dutch seem to be obsessed with rowing old lifeboats and naval training boats, which has had the great outcome of preserving a large number of historic boats including many built in Britain. No fewer than eight were competing very aggressively at the Great River Race - the Services trophy was won by the Royal Netherlands Naval College in the lifeboat Pollux, in a time of 2hr 49min.
The sloeproeiens or 'rowing sloops' above are the eight-oared lifeboats Oksewiel (front) and Zeeotter, rowed by crews from Den Bealch. Oksewiel started at 123 and finished at 117 in a time of 3hr 9min. Zeeotter moved up from 130 to 109 in a time of 3hr 3min.
Here is a good video of Oksewiel racing another sloeproeien.

1 comment:

doryman said...

My fav so far, Chris! I want one!
I figure I could pull at that pace and thrust for about a half hour, then done for good.

doryman