Saturday we drove up to Warwick to collect the boat that I had won on ebay from the 2nd Warwick Sea Scouts. It was in pretty good condition having been stored inside for the duration of it’s time with them. Everything seemed in order, overstern rudder worked, and pretty much all of the dents and holes had been well repaired.
On Friday I called in a favour or two and had a 7ft long cradle made up to carry the boat home with, but loading the boat onto the roof proved a trial, with my straps being too short to fasten it down. I had to get creative and in the end my knot work learned in the scouts 10+ years ago was holding the boat to the roof. The drive home proved quite a trauma with gusting winds snatching the 21ft long boat like a sail. The boat made it home in one piece and all was well in the world.
Sunday morning I collected Nigel and we headed off to Ironbridge to test the boat out. It was the first time either of us had been in a 2 man boat, it was also Nigel’s First time in a slender racing boat and we both knew that a swim in the river was on the cards.
After some initial problems floating the boat we were underway. My role in the front was pace setter and driver, all Nigel had to do was keep his strokes in time with mine.
Steering was proving to be a steep learning curve for me. In my normal kayak I can turn on the spot with a couple of strong strokes on one side, or maybe a back stroke, or even by leaning over. The 21ft long racing boat does not respond to paddle input really and steering is achieved with a rudder the size of half a dinner plate. The rudder is controlled with a joystick type affair with my feet and it took some getting used to, essentially move it to the left, steer left. With a boat this long it took a few boat lengths before input with the rudder took effect so I wasn’t sure if it was working so I was waggling it to the left and to the right in increasingly severe angles. I am going to take full responsibility for the first dunking we had as I had the rudder hard over and the severe angle just caught us out.
After we had emptied the boat and re floated we set off again, with more cautious use of the rudder and both Nigel and I relaxing a bit the boat became less tippy and we were able to get some good speed.
Turning round was a worry for me as I couldn’t envisage how to do it, but with the rudder hard over and me applying a low brace, while Nigel paddled on one side we managed quite easily. Returning back to where we launched we paused for a moment to talk through what we had learned so far, and I boldly declared that we had mastered this staying afloat malarkey. Within a couple of strokes of setting off for a second charge upriver we were dumped unceremoniously into the water again. Second dunking we have no idea what happened, I can only assume our cockyness was our undoing.
Undeterred we emptied the boat and tried again. This time the lessons we had learned were all starting to make sense and we successfully made it back to the bank for a dry departure. It did take us too long to manoeuvre close to the bank and this is something we are going to have to practice a lot if we are going to successfully manage the portages.
I was pleased with the session in the boat, it wasn’t very long but a lot was learned. Nigel surprised me with how instinctively he was paddling, even when I made it hard for him to keep in time by dropping a second stroke on the same side (a naughty habit from my playboat I am going to have to drop). Having always relied on my own abilities in a boat I didn’t know how we would work as a team but I now know that I can trust Nigel 100%.
The boat is now off the road for a little while, there are some minor repairs to the fibreglass that need to be looked at and the rudder could do with a bit of a service but she should be re-launched better than ever just after the Easter holidays.
In the afternoon we went ice skating. This sport, on reflection, is not something I should be doing with a half marathon coming up and kayak training that must be pursued. The boots have near crippled my ankles, and a bad fall has damaged my left hand and wrist, where even changing gear in the car is now painful.
And then because there aren’t enough endurance events in my calendar this year, I have entered myself into the Great North Swim which is a 1 mile swim across Lake Windermere in September.
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