Langstone Cutters Regatta

We were supposed to have thunderstorms yesterday, but the weather gods smiled and we had a lovely summer day at Langstone.
Gravesend Rowing Club brought one of their fleet of Clayton Skiffs so we could race three instead of two. All teams rowed against all teams.
Langstone crews were second and third in the final league table, but the clear winners were the incredibly in-synch and strong Gravesend A crew, who are seen taking the trophy at the end of this video.

The video was shot using the new Flip Ultra HD which I have on test. It is incredibly easy to use, but its lack of a proper zoom makes it a bit difficult to catch rowing action which was up to three quarters of a mile away.

The Hoff goes rowing

From the Knight Rider to a rowing eight...the Hoff changes pace.
More pics from the Upper Thames Rowing Club at row2k.com.

Beer Boats are a'comin'

The handover of the Presidency of the European Union from the Czech Republic to Sweden was marked by the symbolic passing of a barrel of beer from a boat rowed by the Czech minister for EU affairs, Stefan Fule, to a boat with a delegation from the Swedish embassy, in the middle of the Vltava River in Prague last Saturday, AFP reports.
This could be the start of something big. Why didn't we celebrate the appointment of a new Speaker of the House of Commons by getting Michael Martin to pass a six-pack of Special Brew to John Bercow on ceremonial shallops in the middle of the Thames? It would make a lot more sense than dragging Mr Speaker to the chair. And Andrew Motion could have handed the new Poet Laureate her barrel of sack from a Thames Waterman Cutter opposite Shakespeare's Globe.

Bembridge comes to Langstone

On Saturday evening, members of Langstone Cutters RC rowed the Solent Galley Bembridge from Portsmouth to her new home in Chichester Harbour.
The boat is part of the collection of the late Pat Sherwin, and is now on permanent loan to the Cutters from the Pat Sherwin Trust.
Bembridge was picked up at the slip in Old Portsmouth - that's her on the lower level of the trailer. Above is Doreen, which is going to another club.
The long, light and elegant boat was carried down the slipway by the crew and launched into the rather intimidating waters of Portsmouth Harbour, where warships, cross-channel ferries and speeding ribs are frequent dangers. She seemed very close to the water, and a number of slightly alarming leaks were apparent - she has been out of the water for a while. She is also a bit tippy compared with the wide Clayton skiffs we are used to.
But she rowed beautifully, moving along almost without effort, and we soon became much more confident.
We rowed upharbour passed the Spinnaker Tower, the naval dockyard, HMS Victory and Whale Island. At the entrance to Hilsea Channel, which separates Portsea Island from the mainland, the tide was only beginning to fill and we had to row lightly through the narrow, meandering channel.
The light was fading as we approached Langstone.

When Mabel gets going, the tough change their underwear

The crew of pulling boat Mabel went out for our first training row today in preparation for the Great River Race in September. We didn't capsize, run aground, hit an iceberg or anything. It's looking good.
In the picture, Mark Taylor, Peter O'Sullivan, Carol Baptist, Dawn Thisby and Jenny Munns.
Go Mabel!

1902 Thames skiff at Beale Park

This lovely thing was for sale at Beale Park for £6,200 including the trailer. The sign said Talk to the man in the boater - so if you want to do that his phone number is 01276 33509.

A Phil Bolger Sweet Pea at Beale Park

The late, great and very much lamented Phil Bolger had fixed views about adapting rowing boats to sail, and vice versa.
Discussing the rationale behind his Sweet Pea design, he wrote in Boats with an Open Mind: "Aside from getting the proportions just so, the hard problem was to give the boat lateral plane and a rudder without totally spoiling it for rowing, as uaually happens if you yield to the pervasive impulse to rig a nice rowing boat to sail (fitting a good sailboat with oars is usually more profitable)."
Bolger's solution to the problem was to design a slipping keel and inboard rudder that could be removed when rowing. A friend of his built one and kept it on Bolger's pontoon but apparently never made the keel because it was never sailed.
So it was great to meet Paul Apps with his own Sweet Pea at Beale Park, to find out how Bolger's slipping keel and rudder work in practice.
Paul leaves the keel and rudder in place all the time because it helps the boat track straight - apparently she slides all over the place without them.
When rowing the rudder is held straight by reversing the tiller so the end falls into a slot in the sternpost, a feature that mightily amused Dynamite Payson, apparently. The picture shows Paul's hat demonstrating it.
Paul reports that the rudder is effective and under the small spritsail she goes about nicely most times: if she stops in irons it is simply a matter of getting an oar out and giving a helpful nudge or two. Pointing is not particularly good but she was as fast as anything else on the Beale Park lake, Paul found. But he still rows more than he sails, although this is partly because he lives near rivers rather than lakes.
An unexpected advantage of the slipping keel and removable rudder is that when they are removed the boat sits nicely on its trailer.
The boat is beautifully made and is even equipped with Bolger's favourite long bronze crutches, even though they cost a fortune to import from the US.