The Three-day Skiff

Trudging through the rain at Beale Park I was hailed cheerfully by a bloke in the Classic Boat tent, who wanted to give me a copy of his mag. He was clearly demented with boredom - by then most of the punters had gone home to dry out in front of a nice warm fire.
I explained that though Classic Boat is an admirable publication in many respects, I don't read it any more because it doesn't cover rowing. Whereupon he insisted on giving me the current issue as well, which features cartoonist Guy Venables building a rowing boat in just three days.
Well, he didn't build the whole boat in three days, obviously. The time-consuming process of laying out and cutting the plywood had already been done by kit makers Fyne Boat Kits in their factory in Kendal, and Guy went on one of their courses. Also, the boat was not finally finished in three days either - only the primer was on. The other time-consuming process, painting and decorating, was completed at home.
But the resulting Jimmy Skiff was round the back of the Classic Boat tent and jolly nice it is. Guy is an entertaining writer as well, chronicling his voyage past fear as he embarked on a process that was clearly well outside his comfort zone.
Chapter Two appears in the August issue, but I won't be buying it. The Three-day Boat article is the only reference to rowing in the entrie June and July issues, and it is not worth plowing through acres of stuff about the J class just for the one article on a boat I might actually step aboard.

Boat Mags

I gave up buying Classic Boat a few months ago. It's boat porn. NTTIAWWT but it doesn't cater for my particular perversion. Shoe fetishists don't buy bondage mags and there is nothing for rowers in Classic Boat.
OK, I'll move on from that analogy now.
I have from today given up Wooden Boat as well. It is really great for people who get their rocks off on yachts and cabin cruisers with acres of varnish, brass, gilded lettering and natural fibres, but small boats in general and rowing boats in particular are almost totally absent.
But there is a demand. Every month, the 'Launchings' section dominated by small boats, and a rowing boat appears on nearly every page. This clearly indicates that Wooden Boat is failing to cater for many of its readers.
This month, no rowboats are featured in the editorial (don't even think about claiming the wheelbarrow boat as a rowing boat - it may have oars but it is a tender to a large, varnished yacht and no more. Ingenious though.)
But hidden away in the launchings section, where the real people live, are Bruce Elfstrom's Raider, Ed Einboden's Penobscot 14 and Jonathan Minott's Adirondack guideboat. This shows that there is a demand for rowing content that Wooden Boat is failing to address.