Why Rowing is Better than Sailing

Don't get me wrong, I love sailing and I aim to do a lot more of it when I finally get my sail-assisted Bee rowboat under construction. But look at the picture above. See those tiny little sails? If you can't, click for an enlargement.
They are fellow-members of the Dinghy Cruising Association, and though we all set out from Bedhampton at the same time, I took this picture from the Kench, a
over a mile ahead.
Here they are, arriving. Finally! And waving me off when I discovered I was so cold I would not be able to bend my knees enough to get back in the boat if I didn't go right away.
I had the advantage of the field, of course. The wind was light and right on the nose, ideal for rowing but not so good for the dinghies which had to tack, rather slowly. They were a lot faster on the way back, but still not as fast as me.
Of course, I will get my comeuppance when we go out in a good F5 with the wind against the tide, when they will go jolly fast and I will go home. But today, rowing was better than sailing. Also warmer.
Martin Corrick has been trying to establish the right length of oars for his Topper Cruz, so I lent him a pair of 10ft Plastimos. They are obviously too long. Martin said they were much better than the 7ft ones he got with the boat, but very tiring because of the outboard length. So he is now in the market for a pair of 8ft 6in-ish oars at a reasonable price.

Rowing a Walkabout

What a great day rowing, starting with a brisk row down Chichester Harbour with Langstone Cutters in the Clayton Skiff Gladys. Here she is being brought in from her buoy behind a Teifi skiff.

Back at the Dinghy Cruising Association meet at Cobnor, I joined Tony Waller in his Shearwater faering to pop across the channel to the Harbour Office so he could get a licence for a few days on these fabulous waters. £3.50. What a bargain.
On the way back, we succeeded in breaking his new leeboard and the pushpull tiller broke off. So we had to return under sail controlled (a bit) by oars. Luckily the wind was light or we would have scratched a lot of paintwork.

Finally, I got to go out in a brand new Walkabout, built by Paul Smithson to the design by John Welsford, albeit heavily modified to make it more of a sailing boat than the original rowing/sailing hull. He added an extra strake to build the hull up, removed the decks and the mizzen, and the side flotation tanks.
The carbon fibre mast and balanced lug drive her along nicely, and she rows well too with a pair of 9ft 6in oars from Collars.