Big crew + Small cox = Disaster

Storm hits Scottish Coastal Rowing boats

The storm that hit Scotland earlier this week took a terrible toll on the new coastal rowing boats. The exceptionally high tide dragged the Ullapool boat onto the rocks - the painful results are clear to see.
The prototype, Chris O'Kanaird, was blown off her trailer and holed, and the North Berwick boat was damaged as well.
Chris Perkins at Ullapool is remarkably sanguine about the position, describing it as "a chance to explore clinker ply repair techniques." Well said that man, and here's hoping all three boats are back on the water in full racing fettle by the spring.
Continuing the positive tone, another St Ayles Skiff will be launched on Sunday, at Newhaven, near Leith. She will be named by local man George Hackland who was present the last time a new boat was launched there, in 1928!

Rowing in Versailles

Wojtek Baginski lives in Warsaw, builds boats and rows them on the Vistula, but work has taken him to another historic capital. He writes:

Grand Canal looks huge from here....

All October in 2010 I was examining stone statues located on the roof of the Royal Chapel of the Chateau de Versailles, France. Such was the deal between my employer, the Museum of Wilanow, Warsaw, Poland, and another member of the Association of Royal Residences in Europe, Chateau de Versailles. My basic tools up there were a pen, a notebook, a laptop, binoculars and a camera. Working on my project I could hardly stop myself from visiting other parts of the roof few times, and enjoy the amazing view towards the Grand Canal. Built by Louis XIV (the project has been started in 1667) it was the biggest artificial lake made just for pleasure of one person. There was even a fleet of sailing ships founded there to entertain the King and his court.
Anyway, even being very busy with my work I was able to observe the Grand Canal very often, and the idea of rowing there appeared very soon.

The boats are more stylish than usual

On the last day of my stay in Versailles, after the presentation of the project results, I have felt as a free person and decided to run down there after lunch to rent a boat and row at last!

That looks a long way away

Now I should explain something. Being the frequent visitor of the Chateau the Versailles roof I lost its scale in my mind, due to the fact that it was located under my feet! The Grand Canal, seen almost day by day from the roof, started to look like a really big water area. “Challenging, but still manageable” – I was encouraging myself walking down there that last day.
So I got a boat. Those boats are very nice and simple, flat bottomed, able to take a family. Probably a little bit too heavy for one guy exhausted after a long and extensive project, in addition forced by the price table to return the boat in just one hour. Getting farther and farther from the eastern quay I started to wonder: what’s that huge castle which is growing on and on above the Versailles gardens? Is this the chateau I know so well? Wow!
It took about 15-20 minutes to make maneuvres to take the good photo of the castle, and I started to row like crazy to get to Grand Trianon and back. Well, maybe not extremely crazy to respect the royal place and to not scare other boats and people, which were rowing with more or less dignity around me. I reached Trianon in five minutes or so! Is this really that big Grand Canal I was observing over the last four weeks from the roof? Hmm… It gave me an opportunity to spend another quarter hour or so to look for a nice view of the chateau on my way back. Now I can share few of them on my Flickr pages. Please enjoy!

Home Built Boats on the Hamble

Saturday's amble up the Hamble was also attended by members of the Home Built Boat Rally, including Phil Oxborrow in a not-home-built-but-who-cares kayak, Paul Hadley in his ongoing project Illusion and Graham Neil in his lovely Coot, a Wolstenholme-designed dinghy.
The wind had died away completely when we all left the Jolly Sailor so Graham was faced with the prospect of rowing all the way back to Swanwick (300 yards). "Not in front of all these rowers!" he cried as he left, so of course I instantly pressed the video button on my camera.
I think he rows rather well, actually.
Paul is trialling electric power for Illusion.
But I missed the most interesting experiment of the day. Chris Waite is developing a forward-facing, pedal-powered over-the-transom sculling system. The forward-facing element is not yet in place, but the sculling mechanism is working as shown in Graham's video on his always entertaining blog Port-na-Storm.

Bembridge rows up the Hamble

Setting out from Langstone

Langstone Cutters' Solent Galley Bembridge rowed up the River Hamble from mouth to source on Saturday. Well, as far as the Horse and Jockey at Curbridge where we got somehow detained.
Actually, the river is not navigable much further than Curbridge. We were worried that Bembridge, which is 30ft long and has 10ft oars sticking out on either side, might get embarrassingly stuck and be forced to back down.

Mistress at Warsash

We put in at Warsash and were met there by the Hand family in their immaculate Bursledon Gig Mistress, complete with monogrammed carbon fibre blades and matching T shirts. They row pretty smartly too, and don't hang about.

Bembridge arrives at Bursledon (thanks to Anthony Hewett-Hicks for the pic)

At Bursledon we were joined by six other gigs of Hamble River Rowing and the fleet headed up river. The wind had died to a complete calm, the tide was high and the autumn colours were just fading into deep russets and golds. It was bliss.

The fleet at the Jolly Sailor

Coming back down, we stopped at the Jolly Sailor, home of Hamble River Rowing, before paddling back to Warsash in the gathering gloom.
The GPS tracks are here.
We got a great welcome from HRR and we will be back - and we hope HRR will be over at Langstone soon.

No wreck, nobbody drownded

Of course, this is not life, but Art.

Community Rowing

The Scottish Rowing Project is a year old, and has been a stunning success with more than 30 boats on the water or under construction. We will be testing the prototype St Ayles Skiff here in Chichester Harbour the weekend after next when Alec Jordan, whose idea the whole thing was, brings her down south for the first time. If anyone is interested in seeing her, drop me an email.
But now it's time to look forward to the next step. I want to row something really big with genuine excitement.
Battling in Roman galleys would be fun. The winner would be the one left afloat at the end of a day at ramming speed.
The great bronze ram of the galley carved in stone on the gatepiers of the old Admiralty building in Whitehall shows the sort of thing. What a great sight that would be. That would be a sport that would really catch the public imagination. Unlike the huge yawn that the America's Cup has become.
UPDATE
Alec's visit has had to be cancelled - sorry, everyone.