Camping at Henley

Training for the regatta passes our campsite.

Rowing in the Rain

Rowed down the Thames to our first campsite.It rained and the wind blew straight from Siberia. Now I have to try and get a nights sleep in this thing.

Rowing is for Pleasure

 Today has been a blizzard of work, too tedious to detail. Tomorrow is the start of a week of pleasure, rowing down the Thames in the delightful company of the Home Built Boat Rally.
Each day we will cover about 12 miles, a good row but not painful. We will gather in the evenings for conversation, good food and good beer. It will truly be rowing for pleasure, as long as the rain keeps off, as it did a couple of years back.
Just as I strapped the oars on the roof rack, I got an approach from the dark side.
It reads:

Dear Blogger, 

I'm writing because you've been identified as one of the top 100 bloggers in the fitness, multi-sport or well-being space worth talking to. We have gone into great detail and effort to look through your site, make sure that your point of view and quality of content was on par with our initiative. Which brings me to why I'm writing. 

We are introducing a web-based series for fitness and multi-sport enthusiasts called Crossing The Line, with world champion rower, triathlete and fitness presenter, Josh Crosby. Within a few seconds of watching it, you'll see why we already have good buzz; it's high quality, engaging content.
We have free cases of Gatorade's new GSERIES FIT product line, a free subscription to Rowing News magazine, athletic accessories and other freebies.

I'm very flattered at being identified as one of the top 100 bloggers in the 'fitness, multi-sport or well-being space', or in anything really, but I suspect they haven't actually read my words.
Josh Crosby is a fine man in many respects but he is the opposite of everything this blog stands for.
He wants to get fit for the sake of it.
He eats carbs, proteins and fats. Not food.
He is a 'member of the fitness community', not a member of the human race.
So I think I may decline his kind offer. I am not at all sure what Gatorade is, but it sounds as though it is made in a factory in somewhere like Birmingham and is unfit for human consumption. I suspect it may not even have any alcohol in it, unlike beer which is scientifically proven to be the best drink for rowers.
Sorry Josh, but no. If you happen to be around Chichester way, drop by and come for a leisurely paddle round the harbour and pint afterwards. You are are in the chair.
PS
A message for Goran Buckhorn, Swede, oarsman and nice chap: here is my reading matter for the week.

Then and Now

Peter Miller in Sydney has sent me a couple of pictures that show how things change.

Above is a picture of Fort Macquarie, built in 1817 to protect the harbour. This photograph was taken in late Victorian times, shortly before it was demolished to make space for a tramshed which was also built to resemble a castle, rather bizarrely.

Nowadays the site looks like this. I have no opinion on the architecture, but it is a pity that all the rowing boats have disappeared. Let's hope that more rowers follow Peter's splendid example and reclaim the harbour for real boats.

Coble launches at HBBR

There is usually a new boat launching at HBBR events, and last weekend it was this lovely Selway-Fisher designed Northumbrian Coble.
The builder (seen at left) has a great talent for scrounging material including lots of lovely mahogany from an old bank building in the City, so it is a really superior boat.
It rows well too, as this picture of the happy couple shows.

OK, someone help me out here. I have forgotten the couple's names...someone pop them in the comments box, please.

Cordless Power

The Amateur Yacht Research Association joined the Home Built Boat Rally at Barton Broad last weekend and far be it from me to imply they are a bunch of raging eccentrics. Jolly nice, though.

One of them has added electric power to his catamaran for the upcoming Water Craft magazine Cordless Canoe Challenge at the Beale Park Boat Show on the Thames next weekend. The challenge is to get round a dogleg course powered only by old cordless power tools (you can just see a couple of cordless screwdriver/drills in the picture). I thought of entering with a single-sheet canoe, but my cordless drill is so shot I wouldn't stand a chance.

Water Craft's website has details of the next issue, incidentally, and it includes plans for a new design of coastal rowing boat from Paul Gartside. Can't wait for my copy to drop through the door.....

A classical temple on the River Ant

This little Parthenon in wood and corrugated iron stands on the River Ant at Wayford Bridge. It is a bit sad really, neglected and rundown, a storage space for unused boats. That lawn should be covered in deck chairs occupied by ladies in floaty Art Deco frocks and gents in striped jackets and boaters, drinking cocktails brought by stewards in starched whites.