Cordless Power

The Amateur Yacht Research Association joined the Home Built Boat Rally at Barton Broad last weekend and far be it from me to imply they are a bunch of raging eccentrics. Jolly nice, though.

One of them has added electric power to his catamaran for the upcoming Water Craft magazine Cordless Canoe Challenge at the Beale Park Boat Show on the Thames next weekend. The challenge is to get round a dogleg course powered only by old cordless power tools (you can just see a couple of cordless screwdriver/drills in the picture). I thought of entering with a single-sheet canoe, but my cordless drill is so shot I wouldn't stand a chance.

Water Craft's website has details of the next issue, incidentally, and it includes plans for a new design of coastal rowing boat from Paul Gartside. Can't wait for my copy to drop through the door.....

Sculling the Scullmatix way

The HBBR at Barton Broad was a brilliant opportunity to give the new Scullmatix a proper workout in calm, non-tidal waters (thanks to Ian Rushton for the picture). This time, Nessy was also fitted with a crutch on the transom to grip the shaft of the oar properly, unlike the sculling notch which allowed the oar to pop out far too readily in my first experiment.
The Scullmatix was fixed to a long oar I happen to have around, plus a bit of round fence post from our local garden centre.
It balances quite nicely on the crutch, with the handle close to my hand when standing in the middle of the boat. I suspect this may hold the oar at too shallow an angle to the water for greatest efficiency but I will play around with this in the next few weeks.
One thing that is abundantly clear is that Nessy is too short and light for sculling to be really effective. The boat tends to swing from side to side wildly, and is difficult to steer without pulling the blade right out of the water and moving it to a new position. The device is probably much more effective in shifting a heavier boat. It would be handy for propelling a yacht out of a crowded harbour, for example.
But it was very much easier to get the hang of it than using a regular sculling oar, and much easier on the wrists too. Here's a video taken by Chris Perkins of me swanning about at Barton Staithe.

Something new, something old at Barton Broad

A highlight of the Home Built Boat Rally at Barton Broad was the launch of Ardilla, Tim O'Connor's newly completed Thames skiff. Beautifully built to Iain Oughtred's classic Acorn design, she is primarily intended for rowing but Tim looks hugely happy sailing her. Ardilla will be at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show the weekend after next.
Another highlight was watching the incredible Norfolk punts racing. Derived from gun punts of yore, these long, slim, purposeful-looking boats go like stink.

Barton Broad, bonkers o'clock

The new camping arrangements on my Sandpiper Nessy got their first use over the weekend. I slept aboard on Saturday and Sunday nights at Barton Broad, venue of the first Home Built Boat Rally of 2009.
The rally was based at the Barton Turf Adventure Centre, and what a great place it is with everything you need for a boaty weekend - slipway, staithe and showers. And the weather, uniquely for an HBBR, was brilliant - sunny and with just enough wind to keep the sailors happy.
Nessy's tent worked well except for the entrance being only exactly the right size for a big bloke who isn't quite as limber as he used to be. I had the tent down round my ears a couple of times.
But the big mistake was leaving my mobile in the car. So when I woke on Sunday morning to a noise I originally put down to the Red Arrows doing low level aerobatics but was in fact the dawn chorus, I had no way of telling what time it was without dressing and trudging up to the car park. To my horror I found it was 5am, but I was well awake so there was nought for it but to strike the tent and head off for an early morning row up the River Ant to Stalham (two miles). I haven't rowed that early since Dad used to drag us out on the Thames at bonkers o'clock back in the Fifties.
The sun was burning the mist off the river. Everything was peaceful and still. Ducks with flotillas of chicks foraged among the lilypads.
I had vaguely hoped that Stalham would have a greasy spoon cafe offering the sort of breakfast I am banned from having at home, but it was dead to the world when I arrived. I had four Hobnobs and a swig of water. Until I got back to BTAC and found that I was just in time for one of Simon and Sheila Fishwick's monster plates of egg, fried slice, beans, sausages, hash browns and more sausages. Bliss.