Punting at Beale

This is a racing punt from Dittons Skiff and Punting Club in Thames Ditton, with one of the club's most senior members in the stern and a rather junior but clearly very proficient member in the bow.
Although apparently this punt cannot be raced. Proper racing punts are made in matched pairs, known as 'best and best', and this one is a singularity. It was one of Mark Edwards's first commissions, and although it is just as narrow and tippy as proper racing punts is also slightly shorter because of the limited space available in Mark's workshop at the time.
I know you will be disappointed, but there is no picture of me pricking this punt. I simply hate driving in wet knickers.

Whiff Gig

A whiff was a light, clinker-built fixed seat single sculling boat with outriggers, usually about 20 to 23ft long and under 18in wide.
They were designed for racing and training, but were rather tippy for novices. So the whiff gig was developed with a broader beam (about 2ft 8in) and shorter at 19ft. A coach could sit in the seat and steer, making the whiff gig ideal for training and pleasure as well as carrying one of the most charming names of any boat type. Whiff gig. Lovely.
Willow is a beautifully restored example of a whiff gig, shown by a Thames Traditional Boat Society member. A great deal of the structure had to be replaced, as the accompanying board with bits that had to be rejected shows.
And I got to row her. Nick Wilder kindly held my camera on shore and took this snap, from which you can see the usual problem of inadequate legroom. Behind is the umpires' steam launch Consuta, whose great length gave her the speed to keep up with racing eights.

Rowing Relatives

As this Thames skiff went past during the TTBS display at Beale Park, I was amazed to hear the announcer say that it was owned and rowed by the Wilder family. My mother was a Wilder, and the family had been based only a few miles away in Wallingford, and we had a double skiff almost identical to this one...we must be related, mustn't we?

So I introduced myself to Nick, Jan and Stuart Wilder and it turns out that we are, sort of. Their family owned a farming estate in Sulham, near Pangbourne, since the 15th century but until recently it was thought there was no connection between them and the Wallingford lot. But now, it seems, a link has been found some hundred or so years back.

So we are distantly related. On that basis, they took me out in Wrey, a double skiff built in Pangbourne in the last century and unusually equipped with sliding seats and square-pattern rowlocks. Despite the slide, I still had the usual problem with legroom but she is a lovely boat to row nevertheless. Stuart, who rowed at the University of Hertfordshire, went bow. We went through the bridge and took a tour along the river. What a pleasure.

How to Age Gracefully

Inspiration at Beale Park for all of us entering the final reach of life's row with Noel, a lovely little single skiff that was used until fairly recently by a lady who rowed and camped on the Thames well into her 90s.

I have to get a camping boat right now.

Beale Park Boat Show

To Pangbourne yesterday to the Beale Park Boat Show. The highlight for me was the display by the Thames Traditional Boat Society who not only had a very welcoming tent and static display but managed to fill the lake with fabulous rowing boats of all shapes and sizes.
In the foreground is Hope of Glory, a single skiff built as a hire boat by E. Messum & Sons in Richmond in the 1920s. The current owners have had her beautifully restored.
Later on I got to row her. The usual problem: not enough leg room. But she moved lightly through the water as you might expect from a boat that is 22ft 3in long and only 3ft 8in beam.
The owner took a picture from the cox's seat.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Steve Woods has moved away from Langstone (shame!) but will be coming down regularly to row (hooray!) and has stored his Virus Yole sliding seat scull in the boat park. So when I went for a row last night and no one else was around I simply had to take it out for a bit of a thrash.

The good thing about the Yole is that it is ready for action at a moment's notice. The aluminium outriggers fold into the boat, and Steve leaves the blades in the gates so all you have to do is swing the riggers out and you are good to go.

The wind was brisk (F5/6) and the tide had yet to cover the saltings properly so I ventured gingerly down the narrow channel. The bad thing about the Yole is its open transom, which is supposed to be self-draining but actually sucks water in when you slide the seat forwards in the recovery. It is very depressing watching all this water sloshing in and out of the boat, wasting energy and sucking you back.

And it seemed to be getting worse. The boat was settling down in the water and getting heavier. Turning was becoming a struggle.

Then I noticed a stray item being dragged in and out of the boat by the water, on the end of a bit of string. I had left the bung out...

Time for a swift return to the beach. God that boat was heavy - getting it back on the launching trailer needed muscles of Hercules. It took about ten minutes for the water to drain out.

That's the ugly part of the design. The bung hole is at the end of the skeg where the rower cannot see it, and the rotomoulded construction means you can't see the water coming in either. And when the penny finally drops, it is impossible to get to the narrow stern and put it in.

By this time Les had turned up so we went out in a Teifi skiff instead. No bung, no worries.

Atlantic Rowing

People have been rowing all over the Atlantic suddenly.
Here is the amazing Chris Duff arriving off Iceland in his Snarleyow-alike skiff Northern Reach,seven days after setting out from the Faroe Islands to complete his epic row from Scotland.
Chris writes on his Facebook page:

I arrived in Breidalsvik at 5:30 this afternoon. Many of my Icelandic friends had read my last update and had estimated when I would arrive- they were all there on the seawall to welcome me into calm waters and warm hearts... I know some of my updates from onboard Northern Reach were a bit rough to say the least. That is because at times the water was quite rough as well and I had a hard time just reading the tiny keyboard and trying not to be sea sick..Thank you all for your prayers and concerns for my safety. The passage was an unbelievable experience which will take some time for me to process.

What a great achievement.

Another landfall last weekend was the 20ft skiff Aurora, rowed in to Portree from the remote Atlantic island of St Kilda by a group of novice rowers in aid of local charities. The boat was built in the 1890s but was stored in a boat shed in Portree in 1913 and forgotten. She was restored for the row by local boatbuilder Iain MacLean. Another great achievement!
And on Saturday a Langstone Cutters/Coastal Rowing Blakeney crew took the St Ayles skiff Hoi Larntan on the Atlantic - well, they poked the nose out on the ocean at the start of the Ocean to City race in Cork. And they won a trophy for fastest four-oared wooden boat! Congratulations to them!
Back at Langstone I didn't get anywhere near the Atlantic, though I did get quite close to the English Channel with this lot: