GRR injustice

Starting at number 14 at the Great River Race was Kingfisher, an Iain Oughtred-designed Acorn skiff rowed by Hamble-based father-and-son team Philip and Ben and crewed by a couple of lads from their sailing club. Here is Ben with support crew at the Millwall slipway before the race.
The Meakins led the field until close to the finishing line, when they came up against the Richmond half-tide lock, a barrier that maintains water levels upstream at low tide. There they were prevented from going further by a PLA official until the barrier was fully raised, delaying them for about five minutes.

"We were spitting!" Philip writes, with British understatement. "It seemed like we were waiting for ages but I gather we were timed at 4.5mts ahead of Maggie [a previous race winner starting at number 20] at Hammersmith (ie 1/2mt faster than the starting gap). Maggie arrived at the lock about 30 seconds before they let us through."
A few minutes after their arrival, a Celtic longboat and two dragon boats came up and also had to wait a while. Of course, immediately the way was open they stormed to the finish.
Kingfisher eventually came in 9th and Maggie 11th.
You can see the event unrolling on the Great River Race's satellite tracking page, though it isn't easy as the display software is a bit rubbish, and you can't see the lock because the map only shows road bridges.
This is clearly grossly unfair - small boats like Kingfisher and Maggie have no reserves of speed to draw on if they lose time in this way. It is entirely possible that Kingfisher was robbed of the trophy.
This is not a one-off problem either - apparently it has happened before.
The raw GPS data should enable the organisers to assess a new time for Kingfisher and Maggie with some exactness and should do so immediately.
This is a problem that needs to be addressed for future years.

Behind the scenes at the Great River Race

A gallery of great pictures of the Great River Race has been put on the organisers' website, including this one of Gladys being taken to the water at Millwall. I can still feel the edge of the gunwale cutting into my fingers - ouch. I have suddenly realised this is probably the only picture of almost all the participating members of Langstone Cutters at the race (plus a few strangers who helped) - pulling together for the greater good.

Dressing up

There was the usual dressing up at the Great River Race, with the usual cavemen and Vikings.
My favourites were the Runaway Brides in a Thames double skiff called Violet. I'm afraid they took nearly five hours to complete the course. Perhaps they stopped for a quick wedding. Anyway, it was all for juvenile diabetes research which is a particularly good cause - donate generously here.

And then there were the wasps, rowing as Waspish One in a Celtic longboat called Cunnigar Stinger (3rh 6min).

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.

More boats at the Great River Race

The very first St Ayles Skiff to compete in the GRR was Skiff John B from North Berwick, with a time of 3hr 27min. Note the fab flag, which is that of the town of Berwick with, appropriately, an oared galley. I suspect we are going to see a lot more of these great boats in future years - about 30 are complete or under construction. (Pic by Steve Sagrott)

Joe Lane and Trinity Tide, a Thames Waterman's Cutter, took part in the GRR but seem to have dropped off the scorecard, so haven't got a time yet. (Pic by Steve Sagrott)

The very fine Cornish Pilot Gig Young Bristol started at 276 and moved up to finish at 117 in a time of 2hr 42min. Behind is the Dutch whaler Haarlemmerhout, which started at 179 and finished at 112 in a time of 3hr dead. There was a record number of Dutch boats at the race this year.

Pics from the Great River Row

Steve Sagrott has sent over a bunch of pics that he took from the luxury of one of the river boats following the race.
Top is Gladys, our Felixtowe Clayton skiff. The Claytons were moulded from workboats used in Thames estuary ports and come in two varieties, the Felixtowe and the Gravesend. The Felixtowe is said to be faster than the Gravesend, though 'faster' is perhaps not the right word. 'Less back-breakingly slow' would be more accurate.
Gladys is pictured with Geoff Shilling Nick Parish coxing, Nick Parish Geoff Shilling at stroke, then Nigel Armstrong, Mike Gilbert and me in the bow. Our passenger, Dougal, took some video that I am in the process of editing.

Here is 15 Seconds, a Salter skiff, rowed by Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert and Sandra Russell, coxed/passengers being their sons Ben and Tim. They won fastest women and fastest veteran women. And because they started right at the front of the pack (number 25) we couldn't quite catch them.

Everyone's favourite boat is Bembridge, an all wood Solent galley that is fast and a joy to row but has little chance of winning anything because of its crippling handicap. Nevertheless, they managed to overtake more than 200 boats. Didn't catch us, though.

This is Mabel, our Gravesend Clayton, which managed a respectable time but not as fast as Gladys.

 

Finally, here is Millie, a Teifi skiff, which finished the course in 3hr 32min. Good, but not as fast as Gladys.

Victory!

The Great River Race is a masterpiece of directed chaos, with more than 300 boats, crews, helpers and supporters converging on a single slipway in a rather inaccessible part of east London, and then again on a remote field in west London. But everyone mucks in, crews helping each other to manhandle boats down the long pontoons on the Isle of Dogs and again up the bank into the field at Ham.Langstone Cutters were there in force, with five boats entered.It was bitterly cold, with a brisk northwesterly on the nose for most of the course, against the tide creating a nasty chop.
But Gladys triumphed, coming in Fastest Clayton Skiff and Fastest Supervets (over 60s). Mike Gilbert had to jump straight from the boat into a waiting car to take him to a theatre in Southsea where he was appearing as Sherlock Holmes that evening, and Nigel Armstrong had left to tow Gladys home, but here are Nick Parish, Geoff Shilling and me taking the old farts' prize.
Deborah Pentesco-Gilbert and Sandra Russell rowed 15 Seconds the entire course, coxed and passengered by their sons, and won the Fastest Women's Crew and Fastest Women's Veteran's classes.
Here are Debs and Ben with their trophies.
For some nice pictures taken from the bank, see Captain JP's log.

Rowing for Pain

It is the Great River Race tomorrow, so almost all of Langstone Cutters' boats were cleaned, polished and loaded on trailers for transport to the start on the Isle of Dogs in London.
I was towing the double-decker trailer in the foreground, and I had forgotten what a pain a big trailer can be. It waggled the whole car, I couldn't see a thing behind and on the longer hills I couldn't even keep up with the Tesco lorries. It rained, mainly when we were getting the boats off the trailers, and we got stuck in the kind of traffic that makes London look like Bombay in the monsoon with Range Rovers. But the boats are in place and the trailers are at the finish line.
Time for bed. Tomorrow, I am in a boatful of old farts who like to win. It will be painful.

Great River Race Video

Clayton skiff Mabel's progress in the Great River Race was recorded on a Flip Video left in the bow for the passenger to use. The picture waves about a bit, as you would expect, but there is some good footage of Gladys being propelled past to victory by its super vet crew, and of the Solent galley Bembridge doing a rather slick change of cox.

Wooden boats at the Great River Race

Flags at the Great River Race

The requirement for every boat to fly a flag adds a great deal of colour to the Great River Race. We flew the Red Duster, naturally, but the Jolly Roger was common (rather predictably), many boats flew club flags and there were a few flapping things that looked suspiciously like cut-up sheets or tea towels.

The Most Regal flag was flown by Maggie, a skiff from Weybridge Sailing Club. Shouldn't they have had the Black Prince or someone aboard? Maggie started at number 14 right at the front of the slowcoach squadron, and ended in sixth place overall in a time of 3hr 10m, a really outstanding achievement especially as that great big flag must have dragged them back considerably in the stiff headwind.

The Welsh dragon was everywhere, flown on the very fast Celtic Longboats, one of which, Afon Dyfi, came second overall in a stonking 2hr 22m.

Many boats flew the Dutch flag, here flying from a pilot gig.

The flag of the Lady Boys reads 'Silly Name, Serious Goal", and they were indeed rowing for the Child Bereavement Charity. The boat is the wonderful Lady Mayoress shallop owned by the Watermen's Company.

The shallop Jubilant was at the start line, flying a flag I would be happy to serve under - Young's Brewery.

Great River Race

Bursledon Gigs made a big showing at the GRR, no fewer than five arriving at the Millwall start line. Hamble Sea Scouts came first, second and third in both the Sea Scout categories. The Under 16 crew of Sea Dart won the U16 trophy, and the Under 18 crew of Point Source came third in their class. Exocet came in 17th overall in a time of 2hr 56min, very closely followed by Schmidt who came in 24th just a couple of minutes later. A great set of results.

Langstone Cutters at the Great River Race

This shot is the one that says 'Great River Race' for me. Mabel hammering upriver past the Houses of Parliament.

There was a good deal of hanging around before the start, with the boats sitting on the foreshore at the Isle of Dogs. This is part of the crew of Gladys waiting.

Here is the Solent galley Bembridge drifting down to the holding area before moving up to the start line.

The Teifi skiff Millie looks very small in a big river as she heads downriver for the holding area. That's the old naval victualling yard in Deptford in the background.

15 Seconds, a Salter skiff, was already out of the water and ready to go home by the time Mabel arrived at Ham.
UPDATE
Langstone Cutters super-vets (over 60s) in Gladys won their class for the fifth successive year. 15 Seconds won the women's trophy, and Millie won the veteran women's class. Bembridge put up a great fight but didn't win silverware - but next year they will be truly acquainted with their boat and the opposition had better watch out. Mabel finished.
Huge congratulations to all.
There were, of course, one or two other clubs at the event and I'll be posting more later. Meanwhile, there is a great selection of pictures and all the results at the Great River Race website.

Great River Race

Too late to post anything rational about the Great River Race, beyond saying that Mabel recorded a time of about four hours; nobody died; I did not, to my surprise, actually need CPR or oxygen; and Langstone Cutters won some silverware. But not Mabel.

Great River Race

JP has just commented that Bruff would be 'just the thing' for the Great River Race tomorrow. Well, I will be rowing the race in Mabel, one of the boats from Langstone Cutters. We are fielding two Clayton skiffs, a Solent galley, a Tiefi skiff and a Salter skiff.
If you are also competing, give us a wave as you pass. If you are watching, keep an eye out for me - I will be the one being given CPR and oxygen by whatever the riverine arm of St John's Ambulance is.

When Mabel gets going, the tough change their underwear

The crew of pulling boat Mabel went out for our first training row today in preparation for the Great River Race in September. We didn't capsize, run aground, hit an iceberg or anything. It's looking good.
In the picture, Mark Taylor, Peter O'Sullivan, Carol Baptist, Dawn Thisby and Jenny Munns.
Go Mabel!