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...

Rowing Skiff Gecko

I wish I had been able to stay at the Beale Park Thames Boat Show long enough to have a row in Gecko, a 26ft three-man camping skiff built by furniture designer Ben Fowler and his son Dominic.
She is shapely and made in an unusual and attractive wood - European sweet chestnut on 'tiger oak' frames. Ben says sweet chestnut is durable, light and stable, and that more boats should be made from it. Anyone know any cause or just impediment why boats should not?
The outside is sheathed in epoxy and glass which gives the usual slightly milky finish. I tend to prefer either varnish on unsheathed wood, or paint over plastic, but each to his own.
The hull is divided into three parts that can be unbolted to fit the whole thing in the back of a Transit - very handy especially for a 26ft long boat.

Launch of a St Lawrence River Skiff

The International Boatbuilding Training College in Lowestoft adds interest to its exhibition stands by getting students to work on a boat, and until recently their party piece was a St Lawrence River Skiff.
Over many shows, they recreated the No 5 design of the old Skaneateles Boat and Canoe Company, which used to operate in the Finger Lakes region of New York State. At the Beale Park Thames Boat Show, she was exhibited finished, and Nat Wilson told me it was for sale and "she hasn't even been in the water yet".
Well, that was a scandalous situation that was soon resolved. Here I am taking her on her maiden voyage, captured by the lens of Chris Perkins (sorry about the quality of the other pics - the battery had run out on my camera and I had to resort to my mobile phone).
The St Lawrence River Skiff is legendary for its seaworthiness and ease of rowing. I couldn't really test either attribute in the flat calm of the lake at Beale Park, especially with the heavy, stumpy oars that were in the skiff, although Nat says he is making more suitable oars. But she slid through the water with ease and grace and she is beautifully built.
This lovely boat is for sale at £4,500 and cheap at the price.

Thames Boathouses

The Thames is lined with boathouses ranging from small sheds perched on the bank to palaces capable of holding a small navy and accommodating the crew above. This is one of the latter, and I remember it vividly from my childhood.
We were rowing from Wallingford up to Benson when we were caught in a sudden and violent thunderstorm. My parents noticed the boathouse doors were open and we sheltered inside. Their relief at being safe from the lightning was palpable, but us kids just revelled in the sensation of being afloat in the indoor gloom, lit only by the occasional flashbang.
It was great to see the boathouse in such great condition when we passed by last week, as was another favourite, a Stockbrokers' Tudor boathouse in Oxford (right).
Many, however, have been sadly neglected. Look at the state of this boathouse near Northmoor (below). It is falling into the river but a massive new non-boathouse is being built behind at huge expense. Someone has their priorities dead wrong here.

More on oars

One of my favourite boats on the great HBBR row down the Thames was Tony Waller's Isabella III, built to Joel White's Shearwater design. The picture shows him easing through Radcot Bridge heading for the pub.
Later, Tony was pushing against a lock wall with his oar and it slipped into a crack, breaking off the end.
Continuing to row, he expected to feel the boat tipping over due to the imbalanced thrust of the oars, but interestingly the break made very little difference. He lashed up a new end to the blade with duct tape (what would we do without it?), not to restore performance but to protect the ends so the bits could be epoxied back in place when he got home. Here he is by Wallingford Bridge with the ghastly evidence.Just goes to show that the length and size of oar does not really matter, within limits. What really makes the difference is a comfortable rowing position and the right gearing (except when racing, of course, when milliseconds can make the difference between glory and goathood).

Built for comfort, not speed

The two hardest working rowers in the HBBR fleet from Lechlade to Beale Park were probably me and Wayne Oliver in our flat-bottomed boats. Wayne was also burdened with a pair of short oars and the fact that he had left the rudder at home, so his boat Ever Hopeful would spin round on its axis rather than go forward.
Wayne's problems were lessened by the addition of the rudder, brought to him at Radcot Bridge on Monday. With the tiller lashed to the centre position, the boat went in a straight line quite nicely. And borrowing Chris Waite's long oars gave him a bit more heft, as shown above in Chris Perkins' picture. But he still had to labour heroically to complete the course.
The fundamental problem for both of us was the combination of a flat bottom and a wide transom that digs into the water, sucking the boat back. As you can see from this picture, Nessy leaves a carpet of turbulence in her wake.
This is the price we paid for the ease of construction, stability and capacious flat space for sleeping in that the designer, Conrad Natzio, built into both boats, the Sandpiper and Oystercatcher.
Richard Rooth's Inwe, in contrast, is a slippy double ender from Iain Oughtred (his Elf) and seems to be a joy to row with Richard's long, slender sea oars (pic by Chris Perkins).

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)