The blog records the voyages of PicoMicroYacht, a seaworthy small sailing dinghy converted for rowing long distances. This includes the 26th July 2012 crossing of the English Channel, as well as rowing along the south coast of England, down the river Thames, around London and across Ireland. PicoMicroYacht is a converted Laser Pico Sailing Dinghy, with a sliding seat, riggers and cleaver oars, fitted with a shortened main mast and a mizzen mast and can be set up as a reduced rig sailing boat.
PicoMicroYacht was inching up the river toward Weybridge, launched again courtesy of the Mosely Boat Club. There seemed to mainly juniors training, the juniors clearly having a good time of it.
As the river widened in places there were sailing clubs. Enterprise class dinghies were racing against the odd GP 14, their blue sails contrasting with the leaden skies.
Coming down stream were two rowing fours, resting whilst they received instruction.
Eventually PicoMicroYacht arrived at Weybridge as the light began to go, the riverscape yielding a last wintry look as the sun was dipping in the west.
A clip of the Enterprise dinghies. At one point in this clip you will see PicoMicroYacht appearing to race the boats to keep them in view. In fact I was trying to get out the way, the sailing boats hit by a gust of wind.
The Lost Route to the Sea took me onward, starting at Richmond.The Thames here become more rural as it wind its way through to Weybridge.
The starting point, Richmond is a place to eat and watch the world go by. The riverside looks classically refined, but look closely at the buildings and you will see they are facsimiles
of 18th Century architecture, still managing to create an impressive
backdrop.
The riverside from PicoMicroYacht
Richmond abounds with boats and is a good place to do a spot of serious old fashioned rowing, the boat businesses adding character as a counterpoint to the shiny houses.
A rowing boats slightly out of season at Richmond
The late winter silvery light contrasted with the trees as they started to show some colour.
Further up the river some geese flew by
The old barges that went this way were powered used a mixed
of horses, oar power, wind and the tide. Fascinated by the river traffic and the surrounding nature the great artist
William Turner used to sketch on this part of the river and eventually built a house near Richmond as a retreat to escape the business of
central London.
The Thames Near Isleworth by William Turner
I learned first from my art tutor how landscapes are filtered through the eye of the artist, who then uses their art to share the things they see. The landscapes transform the way you see the world to the better. Never was this more true than for William Malford Turner.
House Beside the River with Trees and Sheep 1806-7
Turner painted the rivers and the barges in sketches and
would transfer his ideas in the studio into formal masterpieces for exhibitions and to sell. He did this to good effect when painting the classic views from Richmond Hill.
View from Richmond Hill on the Prince Regent's Birthday - painted in the style of Claude Lorrain
When I arrived at Richmond I had the idea of asking whether I could use a pontoon mooring at Richmond Bridge Boat Hire. However, it was clear that this would not work.
The pontoons were festooned with wooden rowing boats, despite being out of season. The stream had set against me and very flowing rapidly against the moored boats. If I approached the pontoons there was a real danger of my riggers gouging holes in the side of the boats.
The Richmond Boat Hire pontoons on a summer's day - from Tim Koch - 'Hear the Boat Sing' 2016
https://heartheboatsing.com/2016/11/01/richmond-upon-thames-part-ii-64-years-with-bill-colley/
So I went beyond the bridge and found a ferry wharf, a large structure, with two ferries winter moored. At the end of the wharf was a fixed iron ladder which stretched down to the river. I gingerly transferred to the ladder to get on to wharf with my painter, realising that with the very strong tide and river speed, slipping could be fatal. At the top of the ladder I clambered over the metal railings, again with great care.
St Helena's Pier, Richmond - one of the many chefs in Richmond takes a break
Having secured PicoMicroYacht with a rope to allow for tidal drop, I went over to the workshops situated by the river under bridge arches.
Richmond river scenes
These contain businesses that follow on from the historical boat building that has occurred in Richmond for centuries. Two legends of boat building exist in the workshops, Bill Colley and Mark Edwards.
Bill Colley began building boats in 1952
Mark Edwards built the famous barge, Gloriana
The boat building businesses from Tim Koch - Bill Colley's workshop is in the middle and Mark Edward's one is on the right
I had the pleasure of meeting up briefly with Bill Colley who, as I posted in 2014, built the wooden frame that converted a Laser Pico dinghy into PicoMicroYacht. Bill has been building wooden racing boats since the 1950s and is still building aged 80 years, the last remaining builder of this type in the UK.
My Laser Pico was taken to Richmond and stored his is workshop whilst he created the rowing frame about ten years ago. I thanks Bill profusely for his work, since he had made measurements perfectly so that the rowing system was well balanced and this meant that PicoMicroyacht has been a pleasure to row over the years.
Bill looking our from his workshop
We chatted briefly about boat building. He told me that he had kept going with boat building in retirement because it stopped him getting under the feet of his 'missus.' He reflected on the arguments for wooden versus plastic racing boats. The latter were made more accurately but he mentioned a University of London boat engineering study that the precise shape of a boat made no difference to speed. Despite this, the plastic boats were viewed as faster.
I reflect on the irony that racing shells are both works of art and built for speed, but perceived speed had trumped art in this case.
As the last in the line of traditional wooden racing boat builders he was hoping for a revival in the future as people realised what they were missing.
I went away inspired to have another boat, but then reality set in as I realised I had I already had Bill Colley's PicoMicroYacht and this was all I needed for rowing.
The next stage of 'London's Lost Route to the Sea' was from Putney to Richmond, continuing along the river Thames, starting with the Oxford and Cambridge boat race course.
The Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race Course mapped out.
On Tuesday 13th March I arrived early at Putney to catch the tide. As PicoMicroYacht was being set up, blue minibuses with Oxford University signs started to appear and I realised that the Oxford rowing teams were there to train, the racing being in less than two week's time.
I looked round and saw the first and second VIII women rowing crews gathered for a pep talk from their coach.
Further along the men teams had assembled, with their two boats at the ready. A lanky oarsman wanderd out from a clubhouse to check on something. I recognised him as being the stroke for the first VIII, Vassilis Ragoussis, part of the winning crew last year.
As the women started to launch their boats their coach, Andy Nelder, paused to chat. He was telling me that over the years he had coached the lightweight crew as well as the women. He discussed races his crews had won and the occasional one they had lost, which he said still hurt. He mentioned the logistical problems of all the crews racing on one day at Putney.
As his crews were nearly ready to go he went off to his coaching launch, leaving me to get going.
The men also set off. The habit is to use only four of the crew in turn to warm up. Remarkably the stern four were not taking it so seriously and they were were out of time.
It was time to go.
I rowed up to where race starts, turned PicoMicroYacht to face upstream, and for fun practiced a racing start in front of the Oxford men's crew, then settling into my usual rhythm as the tide helped PicoMicroYacht up the boat race course.
Further along the course the Oxford first and second VIII's caught up and I took a photograph.
They were putting in a training speed burst, more impressive now.
I passed the Harrods Depository, a classic boat race landmark.
Soon I was at the end of the boat race course, at Chiswick Bridge, and took a short break at the rowing club where the boat race crews take out their boats.
Further on the low light was catching the buildings, producing pastel colour and shades you could easily paint.
Time seemed to go quickly, with a strong tide and it was not long until I was approaching Richmond Lock. At this point the tide turned against but my my voyage had nearlfinished as I passed under the Richmond bridges.
Postscript - I don't know how many people have dreamt of rowing in the boat race. Here is the PicoMicoYacht version:
