A New Boatbulding Material?

Engineers at the eminent Fraunhofer Institute in Germany have developed an aluminium foam sandwich that is said to be 20 per cent lighter than grp and so stiff you can build shell structures with no reinforcing ribs. Sounds ideal for boats.

The material is shaped by embossing and in the process of foaming the metal filling (which is mainly aluminium with manganese, silicon and copper. I have been unable to work out how this is done because Fraunhofer's press release is a bit vague but the first product, a cab for a high speed train, looks damned impressive.

It sounds perfect for boatbuilding. Imagine a hull that is lighter and much stronger than grp, with no internal ribs. Bolt on a pair of rowlocks to the gunwales and a stretcher to the floor, add a box to sit on and away you go. Hmmm...

A sculling boat for the Great River Race?

I have been thinking a lot lately about a sculling boat that would be ideal for the Great River Race but not so specialised it would be unusable for general club use.

Langstone Cutters have a couple of Teifi skiffs and members own a small fleet of Salter skiffs, plastic reproductions of a Thames skiff.

The basic problem with both types of skiff is accommodating the passenger that is mandatory under GRR rules. Neither have much space, and putting the passenger in the bow digs it down and slows the boat. In the Salters, passenger and cox usually squeeze into the sternsheets so the bow lifts out of the water. And it makes it very difficult and time-wasting to change the passenger into the bow seat.

I came to the conclusion that a purpose-designed double skiff with a passenger thwart in the bow would be ideal as the bow could be made fuller to take the extra weight. In club use, the bow thwart would be used for an extra sculler making it into a very fast triple scull.

It seems that someone else has been thinking on the same lines. Paul Fisher's new design, the Loddon 20, is exactly that - a triple scull that can also be used as a double with passenger.

Paul's description reads:

The Loddon 20 is round bilged and can be made using foam sandwich (FRP) and strip plank Cedar construction methods. The moulds, transom and inner stem shape. She is designed for 2 or 3 rowing plus a cox or 2 rowing plus cox and passenger. The hull shape has a low wetted surface area shape with good stability and a reasonable freeboard for use in choppy waters. 

The only drawback might be that at 20ft long she would be handicapped to hell, starting at around 100 I would guess. Hmm..

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Sprite kits available again!

I've got a new job, thanks for your concern, and I've been rowing a lot, and restoring my grandmother's old boat so it has been a busy time.

The big news this week is that Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats is going to make kits for one of my favourite sliding seat sculls, the Chippendale Sprite. That's me in my Sprite Snarleyow hammering up the Hamble in 2008, and she is up there ^ at the top of the screen too.

The late Jack Chippendale designed the Sprite with Andrew Wolstenholme. Andrew tells me the design process was a bit of an odd one because the way the hull is made (by sewing the bottom planks together along the keel and then folding them apart over the frames) makes it impossible to generate the shapes on a computer.

The result, however, is a super-light hull that is easy to build, goes like a train but has enough volume and freeboard to take out in quite aggressive conditions. Her only vice is a tendency to hobby-horse as the weight of the rower shifts along the slides - see how the bow sticks up in the photo. But, of course, the rower is <ahem> heavier than average.

Ted Bird continued to supply kits and develop the design when he bought Jack's business but the current owners seem to be more into furniture these days and the kits have not been available for a while.

So I was delighted when Alec rang to say he is about to add the Sprite to his range, and it is advertised in the new edition of Water Craft. 

Let's hope Alec makes the double version, Otter, available too. I rather fancy the idea of fitting out an Otter as a fixed seat single - at 19ft and very light she would be fast and seaworthy. Ideal for bashing round the Solent.

News from British Columbia

Harold Aune of Whitehall Rowing and Sail in Canada has sent over his latest newsletter which includes this picture of Adam Kreek and Andrea Guyon rowing into the sunrise as they cross the Juan de Fuca Strait from Victoria to Port Angeles. To see the sunrise, watch the video at: https://vimeo.com/46461349. Also see the waves, monster ships, and fog. Wisely, the expedition was abandoned with just 7 miles to go.

Harold also included this, which just about encapsulates my attitude to the dreaded ergo:

"8 Ways that ‘Less’ is ‘More’ With Outdoor Adventure Rowing

Getting outside on the ocean river or lake in an ‘all water’ rowing boat equipped with sliding seat rowing gear and lightweight carbon fiber sculling oars can change your life for the better in small ways that are very, very big.

1. Less Boredom – More adventure!
Less staring at the same four walls on the same rowing machine, doing the same motions, in the same room temperature. With outdoor rowing it’s always changing, views, wind, waves. It’s so much more of an adventure!

2. Less Stress - More peaceful, happy feelings!
Less tense muscles and mind load. Rhythmic breathing produced by rowing greatly reduces mental stress.

3. Less Health Issues - More ease of movement and fitness!
Less aching joints, weak muscles, weight gain, depression, etc.

4. Less Stale Air - More fresh, crisp, oxygen-rich air!
No odors produced by sweaty gym rats or recycled indoor air in the gym.

5. Less Pollution - More clean air to breathe. More nature sounds!
Less stinky exhaust gasses, less noise, no fossil fuel consumption. Leaves no oily footprint behind.

6. Less Noise - More sounds of nature. More serenity!
No roar from an engine and no yelling over it to be heard. Less disturbed and frightened wildlife. Noise travels a greater distance on the water.

7. Less Chronic Pain - More fun moving!
Less need for medication for arthritis, less stiffness, faster healing of damaged joints. Rowing is a great way to warm up the joints.

8. Less Impact On Your Body - More time feeling great!
Less need for surgeries due to impact on connective tissues of knees or hips causing joint damage as with jogging, etc. Rowing offers: a symmetric balanced loading of 90% of the body’s muscles in a smooth fluid motion.

Rowing is one of the best health and fitness activities in existence. It’s a total body workout that is gentle and effective. An ‘all water’ rowing or sculling boat is safe and can easily handle wind and waves and this means you can row all year long."

The only thing wrong with this list is that "less health issues" should be 'fewer health issues.' (Sorry, once a proofreader, always a profruder).

Whitehall Rowing's latest product is interesting too - a fixed seat, drop-in rowing unit for a stand-up paddle dory:

Brewery Row (cont) (eventually)

Sorry about the delay in continuing the saga of the Row to the Brewery.

The approach to Southampton took us past several rather large cruise ships. Rachel looks calm and collected because she is facing the other way.

There is no apparent entrance to Town Quay - you have to thread your way between several pontoons designed to keep the wash of the Isle of Wight ferries out. They have no effect whatever.

The Platform Tavern and Dancing Man Brewery are decorated with the reticence and understated good taste for which Southampton is famed.

A pint of Dancing Man's Pilgrims Pale Ale is piquant and refreshing. Two pints are even more refreshing. Here we are getting totally refreshed.

Recovering the boat. Note the blocked exit to the marina.

Off we go. The sudden drop is no danger at all - it was the bloody post that was the problem. There was a bit of a breeze and the wake of the high speed catamarans nearly pushed us on it. They should take it away. Bloody post.

(Thanks to Ron Williams for the pictures with me in them).

All Saint's Day

A day well spent on the boat. The paint and varnish are now removed from the transom and one side. Tomorrow will see it all gone, I hope.

There was just time to take Kittiwake out for an hour between the tide coming in and the sun going down. It was blowing Force 4 from the southwest, so it seemed a good idea to slog SW to get a bit of a push on the way home. I rowed for three quarters of an hour upwind, where I took a picture of the sunset. Portsmouth's Spinnaker Tower is just visible against the sun.

A few minutes later the sun had faded enough to change the colours of the sky completely.

With wind+tide behind, it took just 20 minutes to get back. And so to pub.

Hallowe'en

It was the warmest Hallowe'en in recorded history. Time was limited with a late tide (half past four) and the nights drawing in (sunset twenty to five). I was going to pop out on my own in Kittiwake but a little posse arrived as the tide filled the rithe to the mill.
Anne Plater turned up with her son Michael, a former rower of eights, so he went out with Victoria in her coastal pair and Anne coxed Mike and me in a Teifi.
It was the last day in October and we were in T shirts.
As we returned Mike got this shot of the coastal with Hayling bridge behind.