Going Coastal

It's been a while since I was in a boat this thin. It is a Janousek coastal single scull owned by Mike Gilbert of Langstone Adventure Rowing, which he keeps for people who want to do the Channel on their own - back in August it was used by Harry Uglow to become the youngest ever cross-Channel rower at the age of 15.
It took a little while to get back into the rigorous but relaxed balance control you need, especially in a gust that came up while I was out of the shelter of Langstone village.
The main problem was that I was a bit too big for the boat. It is rated from 50 to 100kg, and at 100kg pretty much exactly the boat was rather low in the water. This had two bad results - the self-bailing stern was down in the water and creating an lot of turbulence which was clearly dragging me back, and the oar handles were brought down towards my knees so the blades were clipping the tops of the waves on the returns.
Having got the boat out, people were queuing up to have a go: