Letter from an English Village: Messing about in Boats.
Now that Easter has passed, it is time for me to take my boat out of storage and smarten her up for a summer on the river. Through winter I keep her in storage at a local farm, secure under layers of canvas and with all her cordage and soft furnishings removed and stored in my garage loft. Past experience has taught me that hungry field-mice will make short shrift of anything gnawable which I may be tempted to leave in the boat.
I have had a love affair with boats as long as I can remember. Through the years I have had about 18 boats, mainly high-performance sailing dinghies, but ranging from a small sailing cruiser, an inshore fishing drifter and converted ships boats down to canoes. Whilst my childhood friends read football papers, I bought boating magazines and sent off to manufacturers for brochures. I overdosed on the Ransome books. My father built my first boat for me when I was about 12. He came home one day to find me and my friends building a boat out of tree boughs and canvas, which we intended to try out on the river - a wide and fast river. I remember that he shuddered, then set about plans to build a proper boat for me which I could safely use on the canal. I was very spoiled and she was beautiful. She was powered by oars and a Seagull outboard motor (which is still in working order) and in time I added a miniscule sail. As I grew older and bigger my father lengthened her accordingly by cutting her amidships and adding a section. He was a builder and very handy.
My mother named her 'Teena' and I have given that name to almost all the boats I have owned since then. The first Teena went into storage in my father's builders yard when I went to sea and came out again to be properly converted to sail when I finished university and couldn't afford a new boat. In time I could afford a proper racing dinghy and she went back into storage in the yard. When our children arrived she came out again to become their pirate boat in the garden. My children outgrew her and she went back into storage, then to my younger brother's house for his children to play in. She finally sailed off to the great boatyard in the sky when he moved house and his children had also outgrown her.
My current 'Teena' is an Edwardian style reproduction Thames Rowing Skiff (- think 'Three Men in a Boat' or 'Wind in the Willows'.) A design based on the long keel Thames ferry skiffs of the 17th century and refined for leisure use in the 19th, she is a sleek 17 ft of sheer grace and elegance. Two beefy pulls on the oars and she will glide at least 5 boat lengths. Ok I'm biased but for me she is a poem of fine lines in Oxford Blue paint outboard with pale blue inboard. The timber is all gloss varnished caulk-jointed teak and the fittings are gleaming brass and stainless steel. White cordage and 'ladies seats' fore and aft with backrests, blue cushion upholstery and black curly ironmogery. Even the oars are picked out in gold filigree and there is a rattan hamper in the sternsheets for champagne and a picnic, together with a discrete sound system for calm pastoral music. She also has a tiny electric motor, which is very difficult to see from the river bank. When I am feeling too lazy to row I switch to the silent motor and greatly enjoy the puzzled looks from people on the river bank who can't see how she is being propelled, as the middle aged man with the straw boater hat lolls about in the aft seat sipping white wine and languidly waves to them.
I came by Teena by pure chance. Always preferring sailing dinghies I was, nonetheless, ready for a change. A man wanted to buy one of my marine paintings but was not in a position to pay the going price. Knowing that I am a boat nut, he offered the skiff as an exchange for the painting. I liked the poetry of the offer - a real boat for a painting of one, so I accepted. He delivered her to a boatyard by the canal in the village and I spent part of a summer restoring her. That is worth another blog to describe. The yard was close by an old bridge and a staircase lock. In breaks from restoration I sketched the scene and painted it in my studio - it should show below:-
( from my online gallery at http://ianconway.biz )
In summer I keep Teena on a wide river about 12 miles from the village, which is kept above tidal level by a weir. The river is lined with fine houses, eating places and pubs with landing stages. It runs by the ancient walls of city which was once a Roman garrison town and is now a tourist centre. More about that in another blog. Large boats take parties of tourists for day trips upstream, where there is an ancient great house occupied by one of our richest Dukes. There are rowing eights from the three old clubs on the water, together with craft from the canoeing, sailing and motor boat clubs - as well as boats launched from the slipways, many of them Edwardian classic styles like mine. On a sunny day it is very busy.
I have just realised how long this blog has become. Sorry. I shall make them snappier anon, but I have enjoyed writing about my passion for boats.
I think a consuming passion can be a very good and stimulating thing, so long as the subject of the passion is healthy. It can be a great experience for children as they develop - even if they ditch it in time, unlike me. What is more important though is that a parent should try to help and develop a healthy passion once discovered, so that a child can experience the wonder of it. I was very lucky, my parents indulged and supported me, so I tried to do the same for my children. What will they do? …Ripples in a pool perhaps…
More next week, Deo volente.
Ian Conway
(Goodreads Author)
I have had a love affair with boats as long as I can remember. Through the years I have had about 18 boats, mainly high-performance sailing dinghies, but ranging from a small sailing cruiser, an inshore fishing drifter and converted ships boats down to canoes. Whilst my childhood friends read football papers, I bought boating magazines and sent off to manufacturers for brochures. I overdosed on the Ransome books. My father built my first boat for me when I was about 12. He came home one day to find me and my friends building a boat out of tree boughs and canvas, which we intended to try out on the river - a wide and fast river. I remember that he shuddered, then set about plans to build a proper boat for me which I could safely use on the canal. I was very spoiled and she was beautiful. She was powered by oars and a Seagull outboard motor (which is still in working order) and in time I added a miniscule sail. As I grew older and bigger my father lengthened her accordingly by cutting her amidships and adding a section. He was a builder and very handy.
My mother named her 'Teena' and I have given that name to almost all the boats I have owned since then. The first Teena went into storage in my father's builders yard when I went to sea and came out again to be properly converted to sail when I finished university and couldn't afford a new boat. In time I could afford a proper racing dinghy and she went back into storage in the yard. When our children arrived she came out again to become their pirate boat in the garden. My children outgrew her and she went back into storage, then to my younger brother's house for his children to play in. She finally sailed off to the great boatyard in the sky when he moved house and his children had also outgrown her.
My current 'Teena' is an Edwardian style reproduction Thames Rowing Skiff (- think 'Three Men in a Boat' or 'Wind in the Willows'.) A design based on the long keel Thames ferry skiffs of the 17th century and refined for leisure use in the 19th, she is a sleek 17 ft of sheer grace and elegance. Two beefy pulls on the oars and she will glide at least 5 boat lengths. Ok I'm biased but for me she is a poem of fine lines in Oxford Blue paint outboard with pale blue inboard. The timber is all gloss varnished caulk-jointed teak and the fittings are gleaming brass and stainless steel. White cordage and 'ladies seats' fore and aft with backrests, blue cushion upholstery and black curly ironmogery. Even the oars are picked out in gold filigree and there is a rattan hamper in the sternsheets for champagne and a picnic, together with a discrete sound system for calm pastoral music. She also has a tiny electric motor, which is very difficult to see from the river bank. When I am feeling too lazy to row I switch to the silent motor and greatly enjoy the puzzled looks from people on the river bank who can't see how she is being propelled, as the middle aged man with the straw boater hat lolls about in the aft seat sipping white wine and languidly waves to them.
I came by Teena by pure chance. Always preferring sailing dinghies I was, nonetheless, ready for a change. A man wanted to buy one of my marine paintings but was not in a position to pay the going price. Knowing that I am a boat nut, he offered the skiff as an exchange for the painting. I liked the poetry of the offer - a real boat for a painting of one, so I accepted. He delivered her to a boatyard by the canal in the village and I spent part of a summer restoring her. That is worth another blog to describe. The yard was close by an old bridge and a staircase lock. In breaks from restoration I sketched the scene and painted it in my studio - it should show below:-
( from my online gallery at http://ianconway.biz )
In summer I keep Teena on a wide river about 12 miles from the village, which is kept above tidal level by a weir. The river is lined with fine houses, eating places and pubs with landing stages. It runs by the ancient walls of city which was once a Roman garrison town and is now a tourist centre. More about that in another blog. Large boats take parties of tourists for day trips upstream, where there is an ancient great house occupied by one of our richest Dukes. There are rowing eights from the three old clubs on the water, together with craft from the canoeing, sailing and motor boat clubs - as well as boats launched from the slipways, many of them Edwardian classic styles like mine. On a sunny day it is very busy.
I have just realised how long this blog has become. Sorry. I shall make them snappier anon, but I have enjoyed writing about my passion for boats.
I think a consuming passion can be a very good and stimulating thing, so long as the subject of the passion is healthy. It can be a great experience for children as they develop - even if they ditch it in time, unlike me. What is more important though is that a parent should try to help and develop a healthy passion once discovered, so that a child can experience the wonder of it. I was very lucky, my parents indulged and supported me, so I tried to do the same for my children. What will they do? …Ripples in a pool perhaps…
More next week, Deo volente.
Ian Conway
(Goodreads Author)
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