Rowing at HBBR

The Home Built Boat Rally at Cotswold Water Park over the weekend was brilliant - lots of sun on the Saturday and a nice breeze on Sunday for the sailors. The Saturday night barby featured enough meat for the entire Royal Marines (and band).
The O'Connors took their Oughtred Acorn skiff Ardilla out with Tony Waller at stroke, getting a very decent speed up.

And I finally got to row Chris Waite's Octavia, the award-winning two part skiff held together with string. It is lovely, very fast and stable, but she does not keep a straight line very well. Chris says this unexpected trait was responsible for his leading the pack down the river at the HBBR Thames rally earlier this year. He explains that he found it impossible to keep a straight line except under power, so he could never rest on his oars. He is going to install a skeg which should keep her in line in the future.
Here is Octavia artistically arranged on the beach with HBBR sails in the background and Molly Dog in the bow of Iona, keeping watch.

Launch of Octavia

Well, we did it. We rowed over 60 miles from Lechlade, close to the source of the River Thames, to the Beale Park Thames Boat Show near Pangbourne.
The sun struck me pink, every muscle in my body aches, my hands are covered in calluses and my bum has a boil the size of Berkshire. It was GREAT.
For those of you not familiar with the Home Built Boat Rally (HBBR), this internet-based disorganisation (no forms, no subs, no rules) has an abysmal weather record, with almost every event so far consisting largely of people huddling on the foreshore in the driving rain wondering when the pubs are going to open. But last week the weather god gave us sunshine from Sunday to Thursday, and even allowed us to get into Beale Park on Friday under grey skies before the rain set in.
Sunday was devoted to setting up at the famous Trout Inn at Lechlade, which we soon discovered is famous for its high prices and basic facilities. I haven't seen a jakes like it anywhere else in England since the 1980s. My dear, the smell.
But let's move on. The surroundings were lovely and countrified, just as yer fancy paints, and we set to on the main event for Sunday, the launch of Chris Waite's new skiff Octavia.
Octavia uses four sheets of ply, with a few slivers left over. She is built in two halves, so she can fit in the back of Chris's SUV, the attachment being made by slotting the halves together with a dovetail. The dovetail is stopped from unhitching by slotting in the outriggers, which hold themselves in with a wedge system and bits of string - low tech but KISS (look it up).
Even off the water, Octavia is innovative - the halves of the hull fit together to form a shelter, a tarp keeping rain out of the gap.
Chris poured a generous libation of Glenfiddich over her bows on the slipway and rowed off with aplomb. She was clearly fast, a first impression borne out over the next few days when Chris would look up over his breakfast of mixed egg, sausage and beans, see everyone was leaving and follow hot-foot, or is that hot-oar? He would inevitably overtake everyone within a few miles.
Finally, at the Beale Park show, Octavia was awarded Watercraft's prize for the most innovative design, and richly deserved. Congratulations, Chris.
(Thanks to Chris Perkins for several of the pics. The others were taken by me)

Octavia's paint dries

Chris Waite's much-anticipated rowing skiff Octavia is nearing completion for launch at Lechlade and rowing down to the Thames Boat Show at Beale Park next week. She is looking very good, with wooden outriggers, a particularly stylish aft seat for girl+parasol, and Chris's trademark paint scheme. I'm really looking forward to rowing her.