Southampton Boat Show footnote

The Southampton Boat Show coops most of the nice boats up in a fenced-off ghetto accessed only over a bridge, to isolate them from the Sunseekers. 

This year, Stirling & Son showed their lovely and glowing traditionally-built, real wood rowing boat (above). You can see why Princess wouldn't want it next to their stand, it would show their plastic monsters up rotten.

Ian Thomson of Nestaway Boats was showing his new Trio 16, a big boat that splits into three to fit in the back of a Focus estate. His new outriggers were fitted, a robust design that bolts onto the gunwale rather neatly (right).

Craftsman Craft had on display a 16ft 'yachtsman's launch', which I was a little tempted by - just the thing for pottering about the Solent. 

I particularly liked the plaque below the gunwale, placed there solely to get round the provisions of the Recreational Craft Directive. I wish other Euro-nonsenses were as easy to circumvent.

Nestaway Boats at Beale Park

Ian Thomson of Nestaway Boats is bucking the recession - he has so much work that he has even lost business because of extended lead times. He can envisage worse problems, he says.
The latest Nestaway boat is a carbon fibre and kevlar version of the Trio, the boat that splits into three and can fit into the back of a Focus estate. It is about a third of the weight of the standard GRP model, making it easier to get on the water and she handles better too, Ian says. The shiny black finish looks incredibly cool as well. Apparently it is selling well despite costing the thick end of £3,500.

Southampton Boat Show

Contrasts at the Southampton Boat Show. A floating richard-attractor is the background to a rowing-for-pain machine. Dave Brooks is aiming to be the first person to row the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and very good luck to him though I personally think he is deranged. The bloke in the picture is not Dave but someone else who is accompanying the Woodvale Challenge 2009 as part of a ten-man crew in an attempt on the Atlantic rowing record. He is deranged too (in the nicest possible way).

Ian Thomson of Nestaway Boats exhibited his three-part rowing boat that fits in the back of an estate car. Ian says it fits nicely in a Focus, which is good for me as that is the model I happen to own, but not in a Range Rover, oddly. It all depends on the aperture of the tailgate, apparently.
Ian is experimenting with outriggers that will hook over the gunwales to allow rowers to use longer oars and get real speed out of the long, thin hull. He has also developed a sailing rig that will appeal to diehard sailors out there.

I have always had a weak spot for steamboats, and Steam Pinnace 199 presses all my buttons. Built in 1911 by Samuel White's yard in Cowes, Isle of Wight, she was used as a guardboat for a dreadnought and became an admiral's barge in 1918.
The Hotchkiss three pounder gun is the same model as installed originally, but was dredged up by a Portsmouth fishing boat in the 1960s and dumped at the back of a yard until it was recognised and recovered for restoration as 199's armament.

New Nestaway boat at Beale Park

Take-apart boats seemed to be everywhere at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show this year. This is Nestaway Boats' M-P-B (multi-purpose-boat), a 14ft by 3ft 6in boat that splits into three sections for transport in the back of a Ford Focus Estate. She can be rowed, sailed or powered at up to 12 knots with one person aboard. The parts are assembled with just six bolts.
She looks pretty and fast to row. And I've got a Ford Focus Estate. Tempting...