Old boat, new boat

Warning: this post is of limited general interest, unless you (like all right-thinking people) are interested in rowing. More photos than you could ever wish to see are here.

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We got a new eight today (well actually it turned up during the week, as Amy already noted; but this was the first outing); "we" being Chesterton Rowing Club (yes, I know, the site is in bad need of update). It is a shiny new Janousek, though I'm sorry to say I don't even know exactly which model. Having looked for a long time for a decent affordable second hand boat we eventually said "b*gg*r it" and bought a new one, mortgaging our souls in the process. Still, it is lovely. The only downside, as someone pointed out, is that we have no excuses any more: no longer can we blame the boat for our rowing.

DSC_3991 Anyway: the main pic: new eight (so far unnamed) in the water, K8 (the Karlisch VIII; maybe the same make as FaTs? Curiously enough, the new J is modelled on a K shell) on trestles, and in the background Peterhouse boathouse which we (the men) boat from. It is conveniently opposite the Fort St George and just down the road from the Old Spring, which does better chips. The little pic shows James the Captain pouring celebratory champagne and misc folk drinking it.

Meanwhile, what about the poor old boat?

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Look closely: you can see the words "PYE RC" dimly visible under the varnish.

DSC_4032-beautiful-patches The build quality and joinery of the K8 is a delight to behold. Even some of the patching it has had is splendid. The new boat is unlikely to last nearly so long. But alas it is definitely in need of some care and repair because the sticking tape was beginning to wear out. And also, although the build quality was superb, 40 years of use had definitely loosened its fibres; it was the only boat on the river that could be down to bowside in the stern and down to strokeside in the bows. Now it sits on blocks, awaiting renovation - it will still be used.

The most obviously thing about the new boat is that nothing is broken. Second, the slides: gloriously smooth and silent. It makes rushing the stroke a seductive pleasure. Thirdly the stiffness, though this was less obvious on the first outing: we sat it better, and were able to sit it better, though I think it will take a while to bed in properly. We need a new rowcoach / impeller, though: the one we had wasn't showing nearly enough improvement :-)

Update: nice ejector crab from Queens this Lents. HT: Paul "Lycra King" Holland.

Uupdate: it turns out we also have new sponsors, so I'd better puff them here: Inviteyou2.com. Are you looking to advertise in Cambridge? We have highly prestigous side-of-boat space going at quite reasonable rates :-)

More like this

This is known that cash can make people disembarrass. But how to act when somebody has no cash? The one way only is to receive the loan and just college loan.

I'm no "boat-spotter" but can they actually park that thing in there?

I think this boreal summer term will produce the coldest global temperatures for that time of year of the past 20 years- lots of indicators

I shoudn't have doubted the NH sea ice potential

sincerely-
lurking over here in the rowing section

By thomas hine (not verified) on 08 Mar 2010 #permalink

What will you do as the sea level rises? :-)

By David B. Benson (not verified) on 11 Mar 2010 #permalink

Haven't seen a Janousek on this side of the pond but it looks like a really nice boat. Enjoy it!

It didn't take much watching of that video to realize it was the two seat that was going to crab. But this still takes the cake: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XfSr2foKjQ

hmmm, I hear from my inlaws who have a small software business:

> our spring vacation -- we've rented a small cruiser ...
> moored on the Thames outside of London. ... I'm a little
> nervous about piloting our own boat!

What should I tell them to watch for, or are these different watercourses entirely?

[Ha, I know nothing of the Thames - though we are off to the Hammersmith Head tomorrow. I head it is quite a large river unlike our little one :-) -W]

"What should I tell them to watch for"

Tell them to pay attention to the instructions they get when picking the boat up, don't worry about basic their questions are, and don't moor up outside town centre pubs on Friday/Saturday night, and they'll be fine. Boaters *tend* to be a friendly bunch as long as you don't meet them at ramming speed.

IIRC (it's been a while) you have to go a considerable distance upstream before you hit a non-keeper operated lock (if indeed there are any at all).

Most importantly though, tell them to read "3 Men In A Boat" by Jerome K. Jerome while they travel.