Plywood Boat Plans | Rowing the Atlantic When you need to be a Tiger

Plywood Boat Plans

If you hang around long enough with ocean rowers, and find that youve developed a taste for expedition rowing (albeit in events you can fit into a weekend), sooner or  later youre going to come to the conclusion that, if your piggy bank can cope, theres really no good reason NOT to row an ocean yourself.

And so it was that my husband and I set off from the Canary Islands in our tiger-striped boat, and landed in Barbados nearly 11 weeks later. Along the way, wed lost a rudder, been brought another, seen dolphins for 30 seconds, enjoyed eating biltong in bed (only one of us), listened to all seven Harry Potter books, and been reminded almost every day that ocean rowing is much more about the ocean than it is about rowing.

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Event: Talisker Whisky Atlantic Challenge 2011

Where: La Gomera (Canary Islands) to Barbados

Distance: 2,549 nautical miles (as the storm petrel flies)

Duration: 75 days, 1 hour and 29 minutes

Boat type: 23 plywood ocean rowing boat Dream It Do It

Number of crews in the event: 17 started, 12 finished

Event Organiser: The race is now organised by Atlantic Campaigns

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We were last in our race, but were eternally relieved to have finished. A famous solo ocean rower, Gerald dAboville once said "You do not conquer the ocean rather, it lets you pass." Spot on.

Heating up Christmas lunch. The best meal of the trip.

But whilst our row was slow (as it turned out, we decided we couldnt really be bothered with the 2 hours on/2 hours off routine that is the quickest way to get across, given our only objective was to get to the other side, still happily married), our expedition blog proved to be very popular – not least because the supporters of all the other crews found them,selves suffering from ocean rowing-supporting withdrawal symptoms once their crews had finished (the fastest two finished in just over 40 days).

The links below point to some of the better postings from our original blog. Please bear in  mind that it was written whilst at sea, which explains some of the bad spelling (our Land Team Communications Manager did her best to sort this out, but she was working with some pretty awful material) as well as the deranged humour.

Day 9: Wildlife at sea

Day 14: Making tea at sea

Day 17: On salt

Day 18: Outbreak of OARS in SW London

Day 25: A day at the sales

Day 29: The catch

Day 32: The Atlantic Ocean plc

Day 40: Ocean strategy

Day 44: Im just going to have a quick shower

Day 52: Wildlife action

Day 69: The sounds of the sea

Day 72: How would you like your ocean?

Barbados is a very nice place.

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Boat Plans Bateau | Posture Pixies and their relatives

Boat Plans Bateau

For most of us, long distance rowing is demanding on the back. The good news, though, is that help IS available, and I dont just mean taking a couple of 12-hour Neurofen before you start (though I am a strong believer in doing that). There is no need to struggle to sit up, keep your back flat and engage your abdominals on your own.

The Posture Pixie is there to help.

As anyone who has paid attention during Peter Pan or has read Terry Pratchetts Small Gods knows, creatures like the Posture Pixie exist if you believe in them. I called it into being in 2006 when  I was vaguely organising ("coaching" would be to strong a term) a very tall, very thin young man, who generally tried to row as if he were about a foot shorter than he actually was, and I was worried that he as going to do himself some permanent damage if he did that for the full 50km of the Boston Marathon.

Fortunately, he survived, thanks to some great work by a Posture Pixie who sat on his shoulder the whole way, whispering "Sit up, Charlie" at regular intervals. Other members of his quad later voiced concerns that he had developed an ongoing friendship with the Posture Pixie, but he was over 16 by then and it really wasnt my problem.

Posture Pixies are very useful, but
somewhat limited conversationally.

I was asked recently, by the coach of an adult novice squad, where she could buy a supply of Posture Pixies, as her coachlings desperately needed their help. All I can say suggest is that, if the belief route doesnt work for them, I look forward to readers pictures of any that they have a) made out of PlayDoh, icing sugar, or similar substances or b) knitted.

This woman is beyond help from a Posture Pixie.
Her only hope is to scull.

The Magic Rigging Fairy
This is where the belief thing doesnt work. We all WANT there to be a Rigging Fairy, and weve probably all rowed with someone who apparently believes that she exists. But she doesnt. Sadly.

This is what we want the Rigging Fairy to do.
Do you see her in the picture?
No. Because she doesnt exist.

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Boat Plans Catamaran | Fiberglass Tape epoxy encapsulation

Boat Plans Catamaran

Yesterday was a bomber of a day.  Total Goat Island Skiff immersion.  Well over 14 hours of spanking.

Basically, I want to float test this boat.  My pond, frozen with several feet of New Hampshire ice iced out overnight.  I woke up two mornings ago to find that the ice cap had literally disappeared, and the boat was not ready.  So the hustle began.

First, I planed to fit a 3/8" poplar dowel for the the bow.  I scratched up the epoxy on the bow, scratched up the dowel, and stuck it on.  This will be glassed over with fiberglass tape.

I held it on with painters tape.

Then, off to the races.  Taping the chines with fiberglass tape (FT) is easy, and kind of rewarding.  First, I measured the tape to fit the chine, and cut it off.  Then I slopped on some unthickened epoxy along the chine, and placed the tape along it, dabbing it down to hold it in place.  This tape has a "selvage" edge to it, which according to the plans should be removed.  Basically, its a plastic string that holds the fabric together, but its a real pain in the ass to sand down, or so I am told.  It came out really smooth on the fiberglass I used for the blades, but on this FT it just mocked me incessantly.  So I said "screw it!" and glued it down with the edge on the bottom.  In case I couldnt sand it down at least it would partly hidden.  After the tape is laid down in position, I slopped on epoxy to wet it out and get it to stick.  Work from the middle to the ends of the boat.  Some gentle tugging got it in a good straight line and evenly over the rounded chine (round with a few passes of a plane and hit it with the sander).

 I did this to both sides, and the bottom/transom joint.  Im not sure if the side/transom joint needs to be done or not, and I can always do that later.  The bow will be glassed when the epoxy has cured on the dowel and I can fair it to the hull.

After that came the fun fun job of spreading the epoxy on the bottom and the sides.  I did the bottom first while I debated how to do the sides.

 I did not pre-coat my panels because A: I wanted to see my boat! and B: I wanted to ensure the most effective gluing surfaces and I did not feel like taping their positions off.

In retrospect, the bottom was very easy, the sides a little more work.  I would suggest that any builder at the very least, pre-coat the outside side of the sides for simplicities sake.  Pouring the epoxy onto the sides and spreading it around was a little more of a challenge on the vertical surface, but due diligence paid off for a pretty neat job.

Back to that selvage edge.  After the epoxy had cured a bit on the glass, I decided to grab my utility knife and see if I could cut it off!  I could, and it worked awesome.  Pulling it out first before glassing would have been preferred, but this was the next best thing.  Holding the blade close to the edge I was able to get a nice clean cut down the the length of the hull, and then all I had to do was pull it up.

Presto!  As you may notice you can still see the weave in the FT.  This weave took a lot more work to fill in than the glass on the blades.  On the suggestion of my compatriot in Sacramento, I threw on two coats of slightly thickened epoxy and it filled it in much better than the straight undiluted stuff.

Heres a before and after:

A long day, but worth it.  A float test is quickly looming in my future!


 

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Boat Plans Bolger | Ive been out having little adventures

Boat Plans Bolger

Last week I took the ship out up to Kawau Island, about 2 hours away by sea, visited friends their then went to meet up with the beginning of the Kiwi Raid at Sandspit.

I was the “baggage barge” for the first day, baggage including camping gear for about 30 people was a good sized cargo but there is plenty of space in the covered cockpit aft so apart from needing four loads in the inflatable to get it all ashore at Martins Bay where they were to spend 3 nights at the motor camp while exploring the river at Mahurangi and the islands in the area, it was no problem at all.

I had the pleasure of the company of Roz for a couple of days, she is the organiser behind the Taweh Nugganah raid in Tasmania, those people being the bulk of the participants in our raid here.  Nice to meet you Roz, thanks for the pleasant time, you’re a great “deckhand”.

Raid progress reports here, I wish I could have stayed longer,  next year!

http://nzcoastalrowing.org/page/2/

More Kiwi participants too, this is a fabulous event, well organised, well supported with escort boats, the campsites all arranged, food provided, well done all the organising team.

From there, it was Mahurangi Regatta time, the annual event for classic yachts held in the entrance of the Mahurangi River,  there are usually between 250 and 300 boats there and while I’m primarily interested in the small boats, and admit to being biased and wanting pics of some my own designs, this is a fabulous event and one that I hate missing. 

This time, with the aid of Denny on the helm I was able to get around the fleet, hopefully not inconveniencing any of the racers, and got some very good shots.

Waiting near the beach, this is Carlotta Ann, soon to be renamed Kairos, I dont have any connection to the original name and she was an opportunity not to be missed.  Shes my most of the time home, big, comfortable and capable. I still have five other boats two of them with sails so Ive not defected from the small boat fold.

Breeze, 65 ft on deck, operated by an Auckland Maritime Museum volunteer group, a lovely sight at the Mahurangi Regatta, she sails the course with all of the racers and adds much to the spectacle. Yes Ive been up on that yard, while shes not a big ship its still a long way down.

Four of the St Ayles skiffs from the raid, all Tasmanian crews. Thanks for coming over people, great to meet you.

A sloop rigged Pathfinder,   http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/pathfinder/index.htm 

At this stage of the race  lying second to a boat that has won the event multiple times, local knowledge makes a huge difference on this course.

Rogue, slim, easily moved by that big sail. She finished second, well done. 

http://www.jwboatdesigns.co.nz/plans/rogue/index.htm

Saturday Night Special, designed to be a really quick and easy build for events such as the Texas 200, while not at her best in the very light winds ( the T200 is a notoriously windy event, there is an alternative larger sail area rig) she more than held her own among a fleet of very competitive small racers.   http://www.duckworksbbs.com/plans/jw/sns/index.htm

No excuses for just chasing pics of my own designs, the opportunity does not come up very often so I take it where it happens.  But Ive more pics and will post again.

We took the ship up the river to Warkworth, the town at the head of the navigable part of the river, being a midday tide and a holiday weekend, plus the Raid boats were up there with John Dory their escort,  it was way too crowded and no space at the dock so I managed to turn us around in the smallest space imaginable without touching anyone else, a maneuver that I was very proud of, tied up at the kayak jetty ( not being used at the time) for an hour then headed back out.

Perfect weather, light winds, just enough to move the boats, sunny and calm, itrs a lovely venue and ideal for boatwatchers, birdwatchers as well, there was a big flock of Fluttering Shearwaters resting just off the point as we came in.

I’m back at my home dock now, have a few jobs to do before I catch the bus into the airport and fly across the Pacific to Santiago to meet up with Howard Rice to help prepare the way for his planned Southern Ocean adventure with his SCAMP.

Check it out here.   http://www.below40south.com

The fundraiser is to make a movie so everyone can share the adventure. The cameras are organised, the filming planned, it’s the production costs that we need to cover, even ten dollars will help.  Please.

I’ve not been to Chile before, New Zealand has strong trade ties with that country and quite a few Chileans live here, but this is a first on that continent for me.

I’m very much looking forward to it.

Watch this space for reports.

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Small Boat Plans And Kits | Rudder and daggerboard ready to be shaped mast lumber!

Small Boat Plans And Kits

Today was a surprisingly uneventful day in the my personal Goat Island Skiff world.  Ive been stumbling around lately trying to get traction on a number of projects, some held up by other projects that needed to be completed.  Two large steps forward happened today.

First:  I wandered into Goose Bay Lumber haphazardly and found 4 pieces of 20 x1x4 finished Douglas Fir boards.  All of them were straight, maybe three knots in the bunch, and relatively nice straight grain to boot.  Just four, all four were good, I grabbed them.  These will be my mast that powers my vessel.  I had them cut to 15 8", since the mast is just a smidge over 15 6" tall, this gives me an inch of "oof" space.  Also, they had a 15" planer, I had my daggerboard, and we fed it into the mouth of the machine.  It spit it out a little thinner, and nice and smooth on one side.  The planer was not a precision machine, and while I can lose 0.75mm, Id rather do that by hand than take out a huge chunk or something.  But it helped.

Second:  I called my bro-in-law and he was home, with his 13" planer.  I strapped my mast bits onto the roof of my sedan in a fashion that screamed "I will impale the person in front of me if you rear-end me" and roared up the interstate to the second planer.  In short order I planed my rudder down to the requisite 22mm and it came out amazing.  Then, away I planed my mast stock down to the 1/2" it needs to be.  Back on the roof with a little less mass and a little more wobbliness and back to my garage where I trimmed the trailing edge of my blades and got them ready for shaping.

 

Heres my mast stock. Hmmmm Hmmm delicious stock.

 

So I need to shape the rudder, to make the rudder box, so I can install the rudder hardware to the boat, so I can finally glue down the rear seat.  Then, daggerboard so I can glue down the centercase.  Then, make the mast, make some spars, and then I can start finishing my boat.  One day, one step, at a time.

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Boat Plans Bartender | Tour du Leman 2013 Like how you DREAM sculling to be

Boat Plans Bartender

The problem with my fifth experience of the 160km Tour du Léman a lAviron, round Lake Geneva, was that everything was so perfect, theres a serious risk that all future participations can only be a disappointment: the weather was idyllic; our safety boat driver kept us entertained in ways no safety boat had ever tried before; and we even found a solution to one of our major food issues.

Mind you, we did struggle a bit with a wonky rudder, and a trapped nerve in my neck meant that I found out my left arm didnt work properly during the race when the rate went above 24, but it would be boring if it were simple...

Food for thought... and for fuel
Although not all of my crew-mates are always in agreement with me on this, I rather enjoy the fact that the 40CHF entry fee includes free accommodation for three nights in a nuclear bunker "dormitory" just up the hill in Cologny, from the organising club, the Société Nautique de Genève. 

However, one challenge with this arrangement is that its self-catering. The German contingents, who generally arrive in their clubs minibus (and theres another distinction  – most British rowing clubs dont even have a club minibus), unpack impressive spreads from their cool-boxes including interesting-looking breads (I imagine theyve carefully tested quite how high-fibre a meal is advisable before sitting in a rowing boat for 15 hours) washed down with crates of beer and cartons of orange-juice.

For our first few occasions at this event, we tried eating out, but this proved to be expensive, and also it took too long by the time wed walked into town (lacking a club minibus) and back. And then there was the question of how to get a decent breakfast early in the morning on race day before the bakery round the corner opened.

Rowing is a fuel-demanding activity.

This year, we got it right. Helped by the fact that one crew member had accrued a lot of air miles from business travel and so could fly British Airways, with its generous luggage allowance, as opposed to that available on the budget airline the rest of us used, a crew saucepan and kettle were packed, and we each brought our own plate, mug and cutlery. The dinner solution involved a packet of pasta (gluten-free for one crew member) and each girl bringing a Dolmio tub sauce of her choice. Meanwhile we were thrilled to find that you can now get "porridge pots" that already contain dried golden syrup (no, I have no idea how your dry golden syrup either), and come in gluten-free as well as gluten-full varieties for Little Miss Difficult Guts, which miraculously comes to life with boiling water. 

Weather warning
The default start time for this event is 9am, but wed always felt that this was a bit of a waste of good daylight rowing time (given that event the fastest crews take around 12 hours and so you are bound to finish in the dark), so we were delighted when it was announced the day before that the start would be brought forward to 8am. The reason why, was less good news, though.

The organisers always work closely with a local weather forecaster, whose gloomy prediction was that there would be a nasty storm at the top of the lake around 5pm. Which is roughly when the slower crews like us (we were the only womens crew this year) would be getting there. We felt that their official advice on how to deal with this situation – "row as fast as you can to get past there as soon as possible and then stick close to the shore if the storm does break" – wasnt particularly cunning, but it wasnt like we could actually think of a better one ourselves.

Jockeying for position at the first turn.
(This photo is too small to show the big grin on my face!)

Who coxes when?
The start of the race was the usual frenzied 1km sprint across the lake before turning through 90 degrees round a buoy to head out along the northern, Swiss shore of Lac Léman. As usual, we started off with me in the coxing seat because, although everyone takes equal turns coxing ad sculling in this event, Im a cox who sculls, whilst the others are rowers who cox, and so this was not only our fastest combination, but I was the one who positively enjoyed steering through the melee.

We were quite pleased to reach that point in 5th place overall, although inevitably various mens crews then powered past us as we settled into a sustainable rating.

SSSHH
Our flag this year read "SSHHH" which are the first letters of our names. Rather appropriate, we thought, for an event where the primary selection criterion is the ability to "shut up and row" which, I learned from the website of a French womens ocean rowing crew called, very neatly, "Rames Dames", translates exactly as "tais-toi et rame".

Despite being reinforced with a coat-hanger, the flag had a tendency to swing round to bowside which, as it happened the boat did too. We never quite worked out why, and it stopped doing it after a few hours, but it did make navigation a little difficult, especially if the cox was busy getting a sandwich out, retaping her hands, or carrying out other personal activities of the type that these blogs dont go into, remember?

Hey Monsieur Music Man
As I mentioned in my account of the 2009 race every crew has a motor cruiser assigned to it as its safety boat, although their attentiveness and patience with shouted exchanges in school girl French has varied over the years. And whilst our 2009 safety crew were lovely, this years boat took their duties to a whole new level. Talking to them afterwards, it turned out the boat was skippered by the Head of Safety for the whole event, and this was the last year he was in charge, so he seemed to want to go out on a high, which he certainly achieved. 

The first hint that this wasnt just another cruiser patiently following us at a polite distance came at some point in the early afternoon when we were plodding away, putting in the strokes, Suddenly, the National Anthem came blasting out across the lake! We all burst out laughing, and the jolly feeling was a real help.

Perfect sculling conditions.

Later, towards the top of the lake, we were enjoying sculling along (at square blade, of course) on the most perfect flat water in "baby bears porridge (pot)" sunshine (not too hot, not too cold, but just right), and I had just commented to the girl in front that "this is how you DREAM sculling to be like" when a small motorboat headed out from the shore at high speed, throwing up a huge wash, and on a path that was clearly going  to intercept us. Immediately, Superstar Safety Boat hunted him down and successfully headed him off. Such attentiveness to our sculling pleasure!

As darkness fell, he found yet more ways to help the long kilometers just fly by, but more of that shortly.

Tightly round the island at Villeneuve.

Round the bend
The race organisers provide GPS co-ordinates of the various markers that all crews have to pass round during the race. This ensures, amongst other things, that we all really do go ROUND the lake, and dont just nip up the middle and go straight back. The event is the Tour du Léman, after all. 

But given that this is Switzerland, the homeland of accuracy, weve always been slightly bemused that the GPS co-ordinates given for the one waypoint which is actually a small island (and therefore is fixed from year to year, unlike the buoys which can move) are always marked as "approx" and, from past experience were more like "inacc" or even just plain "wrong". So, this year, making use of the marvels of modern technology, Id take the actual position of the little wooded island at Villeneuve from Google Earth, and was delighted to find that it was spot on.

Having passed Villeneuve at 5.45pm, there was no sign at all of the forecast storm, but as we reached the next point, Le Bouveret, where we saw one crew "abandoning" (wed noticed that they were a mature crew who appeared to be being coxed by a teenage girl who we think was the daughter of one of the rowers – and we later learned that she was shivering with a temperature by this point, so they sensibly pulled out), drops of rain started to fall.

The best conditions ever.

Was our blissful row up to this point about to descend to the horrors wed experienced in 2012?

To our immense relief, no. Those few drops were all we got, and the rest of the evening remained pleasant. Whoever was coxing did put on the communal coxing coat whilst they werent rowing, but the rest of us finished the race in shorts and t-shirts. Just wonderful.

On and on and on
In due course we passed Evian, where the brightly lit casino gives you something to look at for 10 minutes or so, after which darkness fell completely. However, as we passed each little town, we were amazed that people appeared on jetties shouting positive (albeit slightly unidentified) things, which we found most energising. We couldnt work out at the time quite how all these lovely people knew we would be passing, especially as the field was quite spread out by now, though we later learned that the amazing organisers had contacted various watersports clubs round the lake about the event, and as every boat was carrying a tracker, they were watching to see when each crew would pass.

Anyway, we were loving the attention and having a great time, when Super Safety Boat added the icing to the cake by getting his speakers out again and playing us some bursts of the Spice Girls, Abba, and anything else to do with powerful women and water that he could find clips of on YouTube.

Later, having exhausted his store of musical puns, he played some more extended chunks of booming rock, which was great for us, but we always wondered if the organising club received complaints later from residents of quiet lakeside villas who had their repose disturbed so uncharacteristically at 11pm.

We gave top marks to the timing team at Sciez who whooped and hollered as we swung round that buoy (although the timing teams at other points had been on particularly good form this year too).

Helpful young men.

Help when you need it most

And whilst were on the subject of the many lovely volunteers at this event, an absolutely top team is the bunch of club juniors, mostly boys, who are tasked with helping competing crew get their boats onto the water before the race and, more critically, off the water after. 

Managed by the wonderful, tri-lingual Norina, a bunch of young men is just what you need after 15 hours rowing!

However, one of these young lads finished up doing rather more than hed signed up for: a local crew arrived for the race with the news that a crew member had been taken ill overnight and was unable to row. Im not sure how much "volunteering" was involved, or whether he was simply handed a pair of shorts and told to get on with it, but one of the boat boys was rapidly "recruited" to take his place, and successfully rowed the lake. An impressive feat psychologically as well as physically. Respect, young sir.

"Wow, look at that amazing, magical fairy standing on
your hand! Its a special one that can only be
seen by people who have rowed round Lac Léman!"

Magic

As always, the organisers do a great job of making an occasion out of each crews successful completion of the tour: each one is presented with a bottle of champagne and theres an official photograph, no matter how late is is. The photo on the left was snapped by the official photographer, with the wonderful Stéphane, Chairman of the Organising Committee, poised to present us with our champagne. I cant remember what we were actually discussing, and it was probably our stroke girls impressive lack of blisters, but its a shot which just demanded a caption competition...

Detail, detail, detail
In case you havent noticed, I love this event for the size of its challenge but also for the lovely people who organise it and help out in so many different ways, from collecting us at the airport armed with a sign on a blade, to the weather forecast, the timers, the safety team, the boat boys, the chef who produces lasagne late into the night for the crews as they get in (and a totally separate dish for Miss Gluten-Intolerant) and above all to whoever laid the trophies out for the prize giving with a nautical theme. 

Every competitor gets a trophy,

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Boat Plans Skiff | Tour du Leman 2006 It cant be done

Boat Plans Skiff

This 160km, non-stop race round Lac Léman (Lake Geneva) was the first big expedition rowing challenge I actually rowed (rather than coxed) in. 

Completing it changed my whole mindset, gave me a belief in what I could do on the water, and taught me the No.1 rule of long distance rowing, as far as Im concerned.

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Event: Tour du Léman à lAviron
Where: Geneva, Switzerland
Distance: 160km non-stop
Time: 16h 23 mins
Boat type: Touring coxed quads (known as "yolettes")
Number of crews in the event: 19
Event Organiser: Société Nautique de Genève

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Why we finished up doing it
A club mate at York City RC came across a poster for this event whilst visiting a gig club whilst on holiday in Cornwall. It obviously had to be done.

Why it happens 

The event started in 1972 when the Société Nautique de Genève (SNG) celebrated its centenary, and each part of this multi-watersport club was charged with coming up with a way of marking the occasion. The "rowing circle" suggested the audacious plan of rowing the whole way round Lac Léman, the lake on whose western end Geneva sits.

Before the race

We were the first crew to arrive in Geneva, and were impressed that, as promised, someone from the club picked us up at the airport. The race fee also promised free accommodation in "dormitories", which turned out to be in the local nuclear bunker. We should have realised: Switzerland provides a bed in a nuclear bunker for every one of its citizens, and in times when theres no immediate threat that the superpowers might press the button, these are made available as accommodation for community events.

See, it was turning out to be an unexpectedly socio-cultural tour already!

Being a mixed crew, we politely split up into girls and boys rooms for the night, and went to bed. We heard various other crews turn up during the night. In the morning, our socio-culural education was further extended, when we realised that continentals just arent aware of British niceties of male/female separation, and that all the rooms had become mixed. Well, no problem. 

On the other hand, we did find the tendency of German rowing gentlemen to wander around in the type of undergarment sometimes referred to as "budgie smugglers", rather more than we wanted first thing in the morning.

But on to the rowing...

We prepared the boat the day before the race by taping up the riggers in case of big waves, and stowing vast amounts of bottled water, jam sandwiches, and other snacks aboard. And then enjoyed the pre-race cocktail party, complete with canapes provided by the in-house restaurant, who were clearly experienced at quite how many nibbles 95 long-distance rowers could pack away.

Crews sprint off the start, en masse.

The race starts when a gun is fired, and the assembled mass of crews, sprint for about 600m past the famous Jet dEau, across the lake before turning through 90 degrees to head out along the Swiss (north) side of the lake. Within a few kilometers, we were past the iconic UN building and the field spread out. Some of the lakeside towns looked charming; many featured little chateaux typical of the region. At Lausanne, where the IOC is based, we said "Wow!" at the sight of  huge Olympic rings on show at the lakeside. 

Somewhere between Nyon ("Nylon without the "L") and Lausanne we finally got the hang of sculling yolettes, which involved rating at 24 and just tapping it along. If you rate lower than that, as we had for the first several hours, its like picking up a floating sack of potatoes every stroke.  You have been warned. 

Navigation
To ensure that all crews really do follow the perimeter of the lake, the organisers issue a number of waypoints round which all crews must pass. We had a borrowed an old hand-held GPS, and programmed the various waypoints into it. Bearing in mind that this was 2006, and the iPhone was yet to be released, we found this rather tremendous, and enjoyed the count downs to each point.

Practising swapping before the race.
We didnt get much better at it.

Swapping strategy
Most crews swap the cox every 30 minutes, so that each crew member rows for 2 hours, and then coxes for half an hour. The swapping procedure is rarely elegant. And most of the jam sandwiches met a sticky end under my foot during one of the changeovers.

And back to the rowing again

The day was hot, and we made sure we were drinking plenty, but even so, by the time we go to near the top of the lake, we realised we had over-catered rather in the drinks cabinet, and poured litres and litres of the bottled water wed bought, over the side. Given we were due to pass Evian in due course, this felt somewhat like the a watery equivalent of bringing coals to Newcastle.

Around 5pm - wed done a good days rowing, and rounded the top of the lake. Except we still had to row all the way back down the lake, albeit along the shorter, French side, to our bunker beds in Geneva. Hmm. As dusk fell, we turned on our navigation lights, which allowed us to see what we thought were the crews in front and behind. But frankly there were several little twinkly lights in the distance, and it was impossible to tell what was going on. To paraphrase The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy: Lac Leman - its big. Really big.

As we headed away from Evian, things were getting pretty grim, and here I learned one of the key things you MUST know when youre doing expedition rowing (or expedition anything else, pretty much). When you feel so tired that you cant imagine anything can possibly make you feel less tired, including eating, which would require more energy than you can muster anyway, eat. You WILL feel better. Yes, it sounds obvious, But youd be surprised how long it can take the bring to figure that one out, if it doesnt already know, and is having to come up with it for the first time when its tired and hungry.

And then the batteries in the GPS ran out. And in their case, not even the offer of jelly babies was going to persuade them to make any more contribution to the trip. And the problem with this part of the lake is that there are all sorts of bays you DONT need to go into, and one you do, and we frankly had no idea which was which, which got rather stressful. So we finished up "missing a mark" although only after a rather confused, shouted conversation in French with the safety cruiser that was shadowing us, in which they thought we were saying that we wanted to "abandon", when all we really wanted to know was where we were. Maybe "Nous sommes perdus" has connotations of "All is lost" - we never got to the bottom of that one!

On-board entertainment
Strangely, the black comedy of this situation rallied our spirits and soon someone reminded us all how, when we had announced what we were doing at the club, and answered questions like "How many days will that take you?", one of the elder statesmen had pronounced firmly "It cant be done." Actually, we were all fond of the gent in question - whose name was Colin Jones, and having reached the stage where you have either to laugh or cry, we chose the former, and launched into rousing choruses of "Colin Jones, Colin Jones, Colin Jones" to the tune of "Ere we go, ere we go, ere we go." Really, it helped at the time, and youll just have to believe me.

Despite our best efforts, attempts to play "Today I went rowing and I saw..." didnt last for more than a few letters as the boys hadnt grasped that youre meant to "see" things in alphabetical order, so we were mightily relieved when FINALLY we rounded the last corner and saw the lights of Geneva spread out ahead of us.

It gets better and better
After crossing the finish line, and paddling round the club landing stage, we were immensely relieved to find kind helpers to help us drag the boat out of the water (still with too many drinks on board), and we were served with a 3-course meal - SNG are just the best event organisers in the world. Two of us fell asleep after the soup, with our heads on the table, and were mercifully whisked up the hill to the dormitories, whilst the other three made the most of the situation and ate our mains and puddings as well as their own. No point in letting a good lasagne go to waste.

Rule No.2 of long distance rowing (Rule No.1 is EAT):
wear gloves (this was the AFTER photo).

If youre impressed so far with the airport pick ups, the idiosyncratic accommodation, the cocktail party, and boat-carrying help and pasta when you really need it - get this - there was also a Sunday lunch provided the next day after the prize giving. Honestly, if SNG made lager, it would be brilliant.

A couple of FAQ
Q: You were on the water for over 16 hours. Er, how did you go to the toilet?
A: We all agreed never to talk about that again. So were certainly not telling you.

Q: Will you do it again?
A: At the time, the other woman in the crew and I agreed that we were terribly proud to have done it, and there was no need to do it again. Do you think we stuck to that, though? Find out here!

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Kayak Boat Plans | How to be a good ocean rowing supporter

Kayak Boat Plans

Rule 1: Its not about you.
Your support and encouragement are incredibly valuable to your rower. However, as life at sea is incredibly tough, and sending messages 10 times more onerous, and 50 times less immediate than it is on land, craft your messages (content and frequency) based on what THEY would enjoy receiving not what YOU want to send.

Everything else derives from this rule!

Here are some detailed Dos and Donts for how and what to communicate whilst your rower is at sea. Be careful, though, because you may find that you develop OARS (Obsessive Atlantic Rowing Supporting) or the related condition SPOT (Serious Pacific Ocean Tracking) Syndrome!

Please note that the advice below is my personal view, based on my experience. It may not be appropriate for ocean rowers in different situations and with different objectives! Apart from Rule 1, which always applies.

DO remember that the crew are NOT on the internet. 
Although theyre writing blogs that APPEAR on the internet, they email those blogs in to the host site/social media page. 

Why arent they on the internet? OK, do you remember before there was broadband we had 56k modems? Slow, werent they, compared with broadband?  Well, the speed for a satellite phone modem connection is 7k. And thats why theyre not logging in to Facebook or Twitter... Oh, and there are no mobile phone signals off shore either. (NB their land team may well be texting on good messages on Facebook etc to them, and theyll love having a permanent record of your messages once they finish – all the ones in the phone will have got deleted.)

DONT state the obvious.
For example, "Youre nearly at half way". They KNOW. They have a GPS on board. and being 50 miles from half way may seem like "nearly" to you on the map, but its a lot of strokes theyve got to take.

The cabin is cramped.

DO identify yourself clearly. 

This doesnt have to take up lots of letters but over-abbreviation can have its hazards "Love, E" may be obvious to you, but particularly when there are multiple crew members on board, the nearest and dearest of all using the phone may include little sister Elizabeth, drinking mate Eric, Auntie Erin and colleague Elizabeth. 

A friend on our row provided an excellent example of good ocean rowing supporting in this area. Early on, he sent a text saying "Dave Heffernan here, Ill be signing all my messages to you DH". This used up half a text, but it was a great thing to do: he established the code, and then used it consistently.

DONT ask them questions that you could find the answer to a) by speaking to the crews land team or b) on Google. 
Replying to messages from an ocean rowing boat is DIFFICULT (see * below) and it takes up time that the rower may well prefer to spend sleeping, eating or wiping their back side with surgical spirit. As YOU want to support THEM, you can help by not adding to their "to do" list.

DO use spaces.
Being "clever" by leaving all the spaces out between words and using capitals at the start of each one, so you can squeeze more in means that the start of the message doesnt come up on the tiny phone screen  so the rowers have to scroll down and try to find it again later and, more importantly, its hard work deciphering the message in a sweltering cabin on a rocking boat. 

DONT ask for updates if they have indicated they have a problem.
They will update you when they are ready to. All sorts of things may be going on that they dont want to share with you. See Rule 1.

DO include mundane things from your everyday life on land.
We were at sea over Christmas, and enjoyed hearing about Mels roast duck and Lisas presents (including a Kindle). We also liked getting news of the effect of cold weather that we struggled to imagine, including one text from a teacher who admitted she was currently "doing a cover lesson for 2nd year Latin and looking out the window at the snow-covered playing fields". 

DONT ask if they got your message, unless its REALLY important. 
Some crews (mostly smaller solos or pairs) respond in their blogs to text messages theyve received: "Loved that joke Baz", "Congrats on the new job Geraint". These personalised messages from the sea are lovely to receive, but if they DONT happen to mention your message in the blog, dont then text them again saying "Did you get our last text?" especially if your last message was of the "Youre doing really well, were so proud of you" type. They will get lots of messages during the day, and mostly only blog once a day. It is tough to remember who messaged. Be confident that they enjoyed getting it. But remember Rule 1. 

DO make a collection to "debrief" them on whats been happening in the World whilst they were away.
A great way to do this is to keep the front page of the paper (or even the whole paper) once a week, and present this to them when they get back (or send it out to the finish with someone who is going, if youre not).

Those with a written learning style will find it hard
to solve anagrams in this situation.

DONT send anagrams.
(Unless the crew are known crossword geniuses). Most people can only solve these by writing them down, and you just cant do that on a boat when youre either rowing or lying on your back in a cramped cabin.

I apologise profusely to ocean rowers to whom I have sent anagrams in the past. I wont do it again.

DO send riddles/puzzles that can easily be remembered and mused over whilst rowing. 
The very best ones we had were from a vicar friend (his profession is actually irrelevant to the point Im making, but I feel it adds colour to the story) who, a couple of weeks in, sent us five "Tube Station" riddles such as "Monarch not happy", "Posh Spice" and "Entertainment in a seat of learning"**. He offered that there were more where these came from and we replied that we loved them, but could he just send a few and only once a week?

A good ocean rowing supporter, wearing
a "I didnt row the Atlantic but I know
someone who did" t-shirt.

This he duly did, and it actually gave structure to our otherwise unstructured weeks. "Hey, Jims latest tube station riddles have come in!" A nice example of the application of Rule 1 (poor bloke must have had to diary doing this, and remember to fit it in "faithfully" of course, in between writing sermons).

DONT send many messages in the first 5 days.
It takes time to establish the routines of ocean rowing, most people feel seasick for the first week, and the conditions are generally choppier nearer land. 

DO remember that consecutively-sent messages will not necessarily arrive consecutively.
If you have to send several consecutive messages because you want to deliver an essay, put "Part 1/3" or "2/3" at the beginning so that they can figure out whats going on more easily.

DONT suggest to the crew that they row slower/faster towards the end so that they arrive in daylight/you have time to get there. 
They MIGHT be happy to accommodate this, but probably not. Best not risk it.

Children who had contracted OARS Syndrome.

DO take a picture of yourself supporting your rower.
We loved getting pictures later of supporters in our team t-shirts in various places, and also snaps of them raising a glass when we safely arrived.

DONT duplicate what the Land Team is doing.
Your rower will almost certainly have arranged for their Land Team to send them information on where they are relative to the rest of the fleet, weather forecasts and possibly other things, to a particular schedule. Check with them what this is before taking it upon yourself to send this kind of material.

* And finally, if you want to get a feeling of what writing an email is like in an ocean rowing boat:

• Remove everything from the cupboard under your stairs (if you dont have one, go to a friends house which does, though because of the next but one point, it will have to be a very good friends house).
• Turn a fan heater on in the cupboard for at least 5 minutes. It needs to be hot enough that sweat runs down your face.
• Take your clothes off.
• Put sun cream on so youre sticky.
• Put some woolly gloves on to make your fingers as hot and clumsy as they would be if they were stiff from rowing all day for weeks.
• Get a large hardback book and a tin of beans. Lay the bean tin on one side, put the book on top of it, and sit on the book (in the cupboard) so that you can rock from side to side. If you cant sit in the cupboard because its too low, lie down in it, leaning on one elbow.



I used to sit up, wedging myself against the
foam-padded arch on the left, with my feet braced against
 the other wall of the cabin on the right (out of shot)
to type blogs. But Im quite small.

• Set up an lamp to shine into your face - if your rower is crossing the Atlantic from E to W, as most do, and are writing their blog in the eve ing, as most do, in the stern cabin, as most do, the sun will be shining straight in through the door, making the screen impossible to read.
• Fire up your laptop. Yes, it is hot and sticky having it on your hot, sticky lap. 
• Whilst lurching unpredictably from side to side, write an email. It needs to be factual, funny, mention at least 5 people by name, include data, be different from the ones youve written on the previous 32 days despite the fact that youve done virtually the same thing for the past, said 32 days (hopefully – dramas are generally the last thing you want on an ocean rowing boat unless they involve the sighting of dolphins). 
• To send it, connect a phone to the external aerial, and also to the computer, wait for the satellites to come over so that youve got 5 bars of signal, and then press Go.

** Kings Cross, Victoria, Oxford Circus. It took us ages to get Oxford Circus.

The final task for ocean rowing supporters!

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