Venetians on the Thames

After the Royal Row Barge Gloriana, which effortlessly dominated the river with her gilt-carven-bulkitude, the most impressive sight at the Diamond Jubilee Pageant was the pair of huge gondolas manned by Venetians, with accompanying sandolos brought by City Barge in Oxford, a club devoted to the less common forms of rowing.

We came up with them again on Wednesday in Abingdon lock - they were also going to participate in the Beale Park Thames Boat Show. The big gondolas were not there, unfortunately, but it was still a pretty sight to see four sandolos and a gondola in such a quintessential English scene. Several of the Italians were with the party.
The big sandolo (below) was built in Stratford-upon-Avon fairly recently, but the gondola was made in Venice in 1904 for an exhibition in London. Afterwards, she was bought by the romantic novelist Marie Corelli, who lived in Stratford. The sight of her and her companion being rowed on the Avon by her tame gondolier was a notable tourist attraction for years. Corelli (born Mary Mackay) was without doubt one of the worst novelists in history, right down there with Jeffrey Archer, with whom she shares many stylistic traits. Try Thelma - I defy you to get to Chapter Two.

A non-wood boat

What we will do on a bet. Jeremy Harris rose to the challenge of producing a boat with no wood in it at all, and this is the result.
Of course, he could have bought a rotomoulded kayak but that would have been too easy, so he made this shrinkwrap-on-aluminium-tubing rowing boat instead.
He brought it to the Beale Park show to enter in the Cordless Canoe Challenge but was foiled by a bystander turning his motor on when the boat was on the ground and destroying the drive mechanism.
The riggers are the wrong way round in the picture, but Aero is an impressive design. I particularly love that custom dolly on the stern.

Turk's shallop at Beale Park

The film-star shallop that I really fancied when it went under the hammer at Turk's sale of assorted boats last year has found a new home at Beale Park, where it has become an attraction on the lake.
And, oh joy, I got the chance to row it. A crew of ten assorted sliding seat types, sailors, boatbuilders and me swung the oars round the lake.
It was very difficult for all of us to get into the groove. For a start, the close spacing of the thwarts and the fixed kabes limited the stroke length to a very short, stabby stroke. The oars are extremely heavy and not very well balanced. And the need to steer in ever decreasing circles to get round the lake without hitting any of the dinghies added to the problems. I'm amazed we didn't hit anything.
But it was great fun. I still want a shallop.

Captain Bligh at Beale Park

Captain Bligh and some mutton bint made their appearance at Beale Park with a reproduction of the boat in which Bligh made one of the most remarkable voyages of all time, 4,000 miles from Tofua to Timor. The display was from the last exhibition at the Eyemouth Maritime Centre, now home to the former Exeter collection.

On the lake, the Portsmouth-based Historical Maritime Society (HMS - geddit?) rowed their Selway-Fisher-designed frigate's boat around. The stroke rate is geological and the timing is distinctly octopusoidal, and would benefit from a sharp lash of 19th century Naval discipline. The video clip starts with the incredible steam-powered Henley umpire's boat Consuta in the foreground.

Water Craft competition at Beale Park

One of the stars of Water Craft magazine's boatbuilding competition was Norfolk Skies, a stunning little boat by Nick Coppin. It is a smaller version of a traditional 18ft Sheringham crab boat, a little (12ft 4in) double-ended beach boat from the North Norfolk coast. Nick copied the lines from a book and made a half model before building her of ply, Douglas fir and oak.
Norfolk Skies has an inwale with thole pins, but the original Sheringham boats had an interesting local type of rowlock called an 'orruck'. The top plank or sheer strake had no inwale and was very wide and thick, and holes were pierced through it to hold the shafts of the oars.

When the boat was beached, the oars would be slid into the boat and used as handles to carry the boat to safety above the high water line, as shown in this picture from about 1893.
OGA Holyhead has a nice video of the launch at the Old Gaffers event at Lechlade previously.

River Bank Boats at Beale Park

GRP rowing skiffs tend to be big, heavy and tub-like because they are usually designed as hire boats, but the new 16ft skiff from River Bank Boats on display at Beale Park is slim and elegant. The hull shape was copied from a 1936 original, updated with flotation fore and aft, and it is nicely finished in hardwoods. It cries out to be rowed by a chap wearing flannels and a boater, steered by a gel under a parasol. At £2800 plus VAT it is not particularly expensive given all that varnish.

Nestaway Boats at Beale Park

Ian Thomson of Nestaway Boats is bucking the recession - he has so much work that he has even lost business because of extended lead times. He can envisage worse problems, he says.
The latest Nestaway boat is a carbon fibre and kevlar version of the Trio, the boat that splits into three and can fit into the back of a Focus estate. It is about a third of the weight of the standard GRP model, making it easier to get on the water and she handles better too, Ian says. The shiny black finish looks incredibly cool as well. Apparently it is selling well despite costing the thick end of £3,500.

Man, dog and new boat at Beale Park

HBBR regular Dave brought a new boat to Beale Park and Mary Dog was in the bow, of course. The boat is a Whisp skiff from the board of Steve Redmond.

St Ayles skiff rows the Thames

 One more note on the St Ayles skiff. Here is a pic of the boat on the stand at Beale Park, with builder and kit supplier Alec Jordan (r) and builder and photographer Chris Perkins.

The Scottish Coastal Rowing project was on Scottish telly last Friday and by the magic of iPlayer us sassanachs can catch it too by clicking BBC2 Landward - the segment is 10 minutes into the programme.

The cameras visited the Eyemouth skiff at the critical moment when the boat was turned over for the first time, and interviewed former fisherman and harbourmaster Johnny Johnstone MBE who memorably summed up the project:

"This is a brilliant exercise, this is a brilliant sport, not costing you in a fitness suite hauling a dumb rowing machine, this is getting fresh air on the open sea."

St Ayles skiff rows the Thames

The prototype Scottish Coastal Rowing boat Chris O'Kanaird was a star performer at the Beale Park Thames Boat show yesterday, appearing on the Water Craft stand with the new Cornish pilot gig Black Ven.
The UK Home Built Boat Rally was also at the show in force, so it made sense to put together a crew. Alec Jordan, founder of the UK-HBBR and devisor of the Scottish Coastal Rowing project, coxed and a fellow Scot whose name I am ashamed to say I have forgotten went stroke. Richard Rooth and Tim O'Connor were 3 and 2 respectively, and that's me in the bow.
It is a tribute to the kindly qualities of the boat that we managed to get a good beat up right from the start. The close spacing of the thwarts (lengthened in production boats) imposes a short, choppy rowing style but we soon got the hang of it and the hull slips quickly along. In fact, we got filled with enough hubris to line up against Black Ven and her experienced Lyme Regis crew.
This was absurd on all fronts, of course. They were twice as long and half as old as us, and many of them had visible waists. But the light boat meant we had a slight advantage of power-to-weight ratio and we started well. It took Black Ven all of 10 or 15 seconds to overhaul us and disappear downriver.
Anyway it was huge fun and that is what rowing a St Ayles skiff is all about. She is at the show again today and apparently many people have travelled to Pangbourne specifically to see her.
Thanks to Chris Perkins for the picture - more from him here.

1902 Thames skiff at Beale Park

This lovely thing was for sale at Beale Park for £6,200 including the trailer. The sign said Talk to the man in the boater - so if you want to do that his phone number is 01276 33509.

A Phil Bolger Sweet Pea at Beale Park

The late, great and very much lamented Phil Bolger had fixed views about adapting rowing boats to sail, and vice versa.
Discussing the rationale behind his Sweet Pea design, he wrote in Boats with an Open Mind: "Aside from getting the proportions just so, the hard problem was to give the boat lateral plane and a rudder without totally spoiling it for rowing, as uaually happens if you yield to the pervasive impulse to rig a nice rowing boat to sail (fitting a good sailboat with oars is usually more profitable)."
Bolger's solution to the problem was to design a slipping keel and inboard rudder that could be removed when rowing. A friend of his built one and kept it on Bolger's pontoon but apparently never made the keel because it was never sailed.
So it was great to meet Paul Apps with his own Sweet Pea at Beale Park, to find out how Bolger's slipping keel and rudder work in practice.
Paul leaves the keel and rudder in place all the time because it helps the boat track straight - apparently she slides all over the place without them.
When rowing the rudder is held straight by reversing the tiller so the end falls into a slot in the sternpost, a feature that mightily amused Dynamite Payson, apparently. The picture shows Paul's hat demonstrating it.
Paul reports that the rudder is effective and under the small spritsail she goes about nicely most times: if she stops in irons it is simply a matter of getting an oar out and giving a helpful nudge or two. Pointing is not particularly good but she was as fast as anything else on the Beale Park lake, Paul found. But he still rows more than he sails, although this is partly because he lives near rivers rather than lakes.
An unexpected advantage of the slipping keel and removable rudder is that when they are removed the boat sits nicely on its trailer.
The boat is beautifully made and is even equipped with Bolger's favourite long bronze crutches, even though they cost a fortune to import from the US.

New Nestaway boat at Beale Park

Take-apart boats seemed to be everywhere at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show this year. This is Nestaway Boats' M-P-B (multi-purpose-boat), a 14ft by 3ft 6in boat that splits into three sections for transport in the back of a Ford Focus Estate. She can be rowed, sailed or powered at up to 12 knots with one person aboard. The parts are assembled with just six bolts.
She looks pretty and fast to row. And I've got a Ford Focus Estate. Tempting...

Rowing Skiff Gecko

I wish I had been able to stay at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show long enough to have a row in Gecko, a 26ft three-man camping skiff built by furniture designer Ben Fowler and his son Dominic.
She is shapely and made in an unusual and attractive wood - European sweet chestnut on 'tiger oak' frames. Ben says sweet chestnut is durable, light and stable, and that more boats should be made from it. Anyone know any cause or just impediment why boats should not?
The outside is sheathed in epoxy and glass which gives the usual slightly milky finish. I tend to prefer either varnish on unsheathed wood, or paint over plastic, but each to his own.
The hull is divided into three parts that can be unbolted to fit the whole thing in the back of a Transit - very handy especially for a 26ft long boat.

Launch of a St Lawrence River Skiff

The International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft adds interest to its exhibition stands by getting students to work on a boat, and until recently their party piece was a St Lawrence River Skiff.
Over many shows, they recreated the No 5 design of the old Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Company, which used to operate in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. At the Beale Park Thames Boat Show, she was exhibited finished, and Nat Wilson told me it was for sale and "she hasn't even been in the water yet".
Well, that was a scandalous situation that was soon resolved. Here I am taking her on her maiden voyage, captured by the lens of Chris Perkins (sorry about the quality of the other pics - the battery had run out on my camera and I had to resort to my mobile phone).
The St Lawrence River Skiff is legendary for its seaworthiness and ease of rowing. I couldn't really test either attribute in the flat calm of the lake at Beale Park, especially with the heavy, stumpy oars that were in the skiff, although Nat says he is making more suitable oars. But she slid through the water with ease and grace and she is beautifully built.
This lovely boat is for sale at £4,500 and cheap at the price.

Launch of Octavia

Well, we did it. We rowed over 60 miles from Lechlade, close to the source of the River Thames, to the Beale Park Thames Boat Show near Pangbourne.
The sun struck me pink, every muscle in my body aches, my hands are covered in calluses and my bum has a boil the size of Berkshire. It was GREAT.
For those of you not familiar with the Home Built Boat Rally (HBBR), this internet-based disorganisation (no forms, no subs, no rules) has an abysmal weather record, with almost every event so far consisting largely of people huddling on the foreshore in the driving rain wondering when the pubs are going to open. But last week the weather god gave us sunshine from Sunday to Thursday, and even allowed us to get into Beale Park on Friday under grey skies before the rain set in.
Sunday was devoted to setting up at the famous Trout Inn at Lechlade, which we soon discovered is famous for its high prices and basic facilities. I haven't seen a jakes like it anywhere else in England since the 1980s. My dear, the smell.
But let's move on. The surroundings were lovely and countrified, just as yer fancy paints, and we set to on the main event for Sunday, the launch of Chris Waite's new skiff Octavia.
Octavia uses four sheets of ply, with a few slivers left over. She is built in two halves, so she can fit in the back of Chris's SUV, the attachment being made by slotting the halves together with a dovetail. The dovetail is stopped from unhitching by slotting in the outriggers, which hold themselves in with a wedge system and bits of string - low tech but KISS (look it up).
Even off the water, Octavia is innovative - the halves of the hull fit together to form a shelter, a tarp keeping rain out of the gap.
Chris poured a generous libation of Glenfiddich over her bows on the slipway and rowed off with aplomb. She was clearly fast, a first impression borne out over the next few days when Chris would look up over his breakfast of mixed egg, sausage and beans, see everyone was leaving and follow hot-foot, or is that hot-oar? He would inevitably overtake everyone within a few miles.
Finally, at the Beale Park show, Octavia was awarded Watercraft's prize for the most innovative design, and richly deserved. Congratulations, Chris.
(Thanks to Chris Perkins for several of the pics. The others were taken by me)