Rowing on Telly

I wasn't going to watch David Dimbleby's Seven Ages of Britain because most of his last series was wasted in endless sequences of the great man lecturing from the wheel of his Land Rover instead of showing us interesting stuff. But I caught the begining of the new series in the course of looking for something else and bugger me if he wasn't rowing a skiff on London River, dark and foggy. He pushed onto the foreshore, got out and dug into the gravel to reveal...a bit of plastic looking just like a Roman bronze head of Hadrian!
It was all too artful for words. Even the fog must have been generated by special effects.

But at least Dimbleby was really rowing, and he took to the oars again later in the programme, in a currach recreating St Cuthbert's voyage from Ireland to Iona.
The currach was built by the Causeway Coast Maritime Heritage Group, and has been rowed not only across the Irish sea but also to festivals in Brittany to meet with skin-on-frame traditional boats there.

Dimbleby asked the steersman, Ivor Neill, if they were religious or did the voyage for fun. He cheerily replied that even the religious people did it for fun too. Well said, that man.

A Miniature Currach

Hilary Russell of Berkshire Boat Building School has developed a design for a small currach (that's him in the stern) with a frame of withies, spruce and pine covered by a polyester skin. Influences include the Donegal currachs (obviously), traditional north American skin-on-frame kayaks and umiaks, the hi-tech designs of Platt Monfort and, from left-field, J.R.R. Tolkien.

 Hilary writes:

"I used 8 oz. polyester from George Dyson.  Nylon works too.  Considering it's only 9.5' long, the currach rows very well.  Since building the currach, I've replaced the thole pins with brass oarlocks (however, thole pins can still be used) and made the middle seat removeable, as did the people of Donegal.  Do you know the book, The Donegal Currach by Donal Mac Polin?  It's quite detailed and thoughtful.  For instance, the author speculates on the evolution for the coracle (a river craft in Wales and Ireland) to the small Donegal currachs, which were both paddled from the round (a dead round semi-circle) end with a skulling stroke that pulled the craft through the water and also were  rowed.  There are wonderful illustrations and building instructions."

Hilary holds boat building courses at the school, located in Sheffield, Massachusetts. and supplies kits.

Three Men Hit a Post

Talking of hitting posts, the Comical Trio did a grand job of running a currach against one for the cameras in Three Men go to Ireland. The champion women currach rowers instructed them in words of one syllable but they were still awful. Being professional comedians, one would have expected their timing to be better. Then they hit this egregious post, probably because G. Rhys Jones (stroke) was whining about how much better an oarsman he was rather than giving any sort of leadership.