Indian Ocean Row

The bonkers rowers I met at the Earl's Court Boat Show last year are now on their way from Australia to Mauritius, and by the magic of the internet you can track their progress at the Indian Ocean Rowing Race website.
The Ocean Angels (rowing Pura Vida) are about 500 miles into the 3,000 mile voyage, and Guy Watts and Andrew Delaney (Flying Ferkins) are over 200 miles out, which shows the big advantage of having four rowers rather than two.
Both crews are blogging from the boat, and great reads they are.
Ocean Angels in particular sounds as if they are going through hell, what with the heat, adverse conditions making rowing impossible for days at a time and salty drinking water. Go girls!
The boats are only 11 days out and already three of the 11 boats have had to retire. It is clearly a tough race.
No pictures of the boats under oars yet, but this picture of the boats arrival at Geraldton, on the coast of Oz north of Perth, is impressive.

Expedition rowing

I think these picture show the start of something big. Canadians Colin and Julie Angus are amphibious explorers, rowing and cycling. Here they are towing their boats up a hill in Scotland, and rowing them across the English Channel with the bikes and trailers stowed inside. And below you can see them camping in comfort, the boats rafted together with a tent on the top.

Last year Colin and Julie rowed and cycled from Scotland, where his family comes from, to Syria, where Julie's family roots are. The trip took in the Rhine, the Danube, the Black Sea and the Med. You couldn't imagine a better demonstration of the effectiveness of the row/bike combo. There is a great log of the trip here.
So it is great news that Angus Rowboats are making and selling the boats from next Autumn. The 18ft Expedition model, as taken on the trip, will cost about $1,500 in kit form, ready to build using stitch and glue techniques, plus $1,890 for the sliding seat and rigger parts. There will be a 15ft version suitable for sheltered waters but still capacious enough to carry a bike. I imagine city folk buying them to hang in the hallway and tow to the river by bike for weekend or evening rows.
For us on this side of the pond, adding shipping and VAT to the cost would probably be prohibitive, but considerately plans are being offered at the modest price of $120.
I live about a mile from the water's edge, so I always feel a bit guilty about firing up the car to get the boat afloat. I could definitely do with a towbike....

Mirage power at Melbourne

Mack Horton in Melbourne has sent over a couple of links to videos of his remarkable two-person skiff powered by Hobie Mirage drives, Ripple, as a post-script to an earlier Rowing For Pleasure post. She is truly like a swan - elegant, graceful, fast and you can't see any of the frantic flipper-waggling below the surface. For river cruising she would be difficult to beat for exercise combined with fun. The design is by Chris Ostlind in the US, and Mack has posted pictures of the build process here.

Spot the Deliberate Mistake

Langstone Cutters held a spring regatta today, featuring events such as fetching the bars of silver from Hayling Island, rowing blindfold and this event. To a casual glance it looks as if Gladys and Mabel are rowing home, but look at the coxswains - they are both facing backwards. And indeed both boats are moving away from the slipway to the start line for the rowing backwards race.
I would not have believed how tiring rowing backwards is. Not using the legs must be the explanation, as my arms felt limp at the end and we only went a few hundred metres.
That's me at No3 in Gladys, and we went on to win, not that I am in any way competitive or anything.
Later on, I found myself so far abandoning my life-long aversion to racing, or exertion of any kind, that I volunteered for the Great River Race. What have I commited myself to?
(Thanks to Paul Zink for taking the picture)

Clovelly Scull at Langstone

Paul Zink brought the prototype Clovelly Scull to Langstone today, on high spring and a stiffish southerly breeze bringing up white horses in the harbour.
Last time I tried the Clovelly Scull on the Hamble, the water was mirror-smooth, so it was interesting to experience how stable she feels in a chop.
The wind also highlighted how useful the retractable skeg is. When it is fully retracted, the boat broaches to quite forcefully, but dropping it by releasing the conveniently-placed rope brings the boat back on track instantly.
The picture shows how difficult it is to photograph an interesting boat without getting a screen full of behinds.

Rowing in Catalonia

Ben at The Invisible Workshop has gone rowing with the local team in their llagut, an eight oared gig that can also set a lateen sail (this is not the boat he went out in, but one from Calafell just along the coast to the east - picture from calafellvalo's Flickr photostream).
It was not a friendly crew, Ben says. They just went out and did it. And the boat lacked any flotation, bailers or lifejackets. I don't think he need be concerned - rowing boats don't lean over sideways like sailing boats do, so they rarely take in any water at all. And the freeboard looks high enough to prevent almost all waves from tipping water inside.
I also suspect the crew will become a bit friendlier if Ben returns - as one of them told him, all clubs see a procession of people turning up unannounced expecting a brass band, but are never seen again. It is worth sticking with it though. Rowing as part of a crew on song, everyone exactly in synch, is a wonderful experience.
A hint of this is shown in this video of the women seniors' race at the Catalonia Llagut Championship 2006.

Sam Manning's big expedition

Joe Des Lauriers has very kindly sent me this month's issue of Wooden Boat magazine, which contains a splendid account of Sam Manning's trip under oars and sail from Gloucester, New Hampshire, up the east coast and round Nova Scotia, in the summer of 1955.
Sam had rescued a 23ft seine dory from dereliction and rigged her as a dipping lug schooner, and persuaded an old navy friend to accompany him on his voyage north.
There were two main obstacles. One was getting across the isthmus that joins Nova Scotia to the mainland - accomplished by going ashore, finding a farmer with a tractor and a trailer, and giving him $10.
Getting to that point through the Bay of Fundy required a navigational rethink. The tides there are among the highest in the world at 17m, rushing in from the Atlantic into the bottleneck between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. A drunk they discovered living under the town wharf at Jonesport proved an unexpected source of knowledge, having traded timber under sail in the Bay. He told them: "Don't get caught when the tide turns. Be sure to go up with the tide and grab onto something when it turns."
A great tale. Pop out and get April's Wooden Boat before the May issue arrives. The article is by Donnie Mullen.