Time to Upgrade the Boat

We had loved cruising our Hurley 22 round the south coast and she had taught us a lot. I had never really been the owner skipper of a boat before despite having been sailing since the age of 7. Audrey, my wife, learnt nearly all her sailing skills in Kemara bar a couple of charters in the Ionian. We had however become tired of having to dismantle our sleeping accommodation to use the heads, not being able to stand up straight anywhere below. Finaly, a 17 foot waterline makes it just a bit too slow sometimes and we yearned for the extra knot or so and extra comfort afforded by a longer waterline length. Better still, my Brother expressed an interest in taking over Kemara so there would be no trauma of parting with a loved member of the family.

Next, fortune put us in the happy position of moving into my “in laws” house while they moved back to Jamaica and we were able to put our flat on the market and think seriously about what sort of boat would be what we wanted. I have mostly sailed in heavy displacement cruisers and have inherited a keen sense of the aesthetics of a boat. I have successfully passed these on to Audrey. This narrowed down our range of choices. I spent untold hours surfing the various websites looking at Vancouvers, Rustlers, Tradewinds and similar boats. My love of classic lines do not extend to wooden hulls and gaff rigs. Of course, all these boats were outside of the budget we had given ourselves. Once we knew that we would be in a position to actually realise our extension to our yottie dreams my obsessive surfing took on a slightly more definite angle and I stopped looking at the boats that I would get should Mr Camelot grace us with a few of his millions. A couple of moorings away from our Exe mooring was a Rival 34 and we always admired her lines though I knew nothing about these boats. An article a couple of years ago in Yachting Monthly extolled the virtues of the Rival 32 so some more research followed. It looked better and better but the reading I did on the web pointed to the Rival 34 being a preferable choice over the 32. I must say I liked the long counter a lot even if the accommodation was essentially the same. The late great Geoff Pack had sailed on on an Atlantic circuit and the pictures on the Owners Association website showed several ones in places that we really wanted to go to.

Last winter when we laid up Kemara, we managed to meet the owner of the rival near us on the Exe and we had a good chat with him. Predictably perhaps, he was a huge fan of the boats and firmly encouraged us to get one. I liked what I saw below which felt cavernous to us but would also feel impossibly cramped to the owner of a Bavaria 34. We felll back on the dismissive description of such boats as AWBs. At that time there were about 8 Rival 34s on the market and then a couple in the States as well. One, in Portsmouth looked very good for us. She had been reduced in price quite a lot but was not selling owing, I think, to being in relatively poor cosmetic order. We put the flat on the market and even accepted an offer. Of course, it was a good bit less than we might have got a year or so ago but it was enough. Just then, some other dreadful person put an offer in on that Rival and she was lost to us forever! I looked in more detail at the others and was itching to call up the brokers but, knowing what it was like for brokers to show what we called fender kickers – people who dream but do not have the money to buy a boat – kept me from actually picking up the phone.

The Importance of Rowing

On my two most recent cruises I was struck by the fact that I only twice saw someone rowing their tender to and from their boat. Modern inflateables are in many respects so much easier to row than the old floppy floored Avons of my childhood. Of course, small engine technology has advance enormously as well. I find it slightly sad, though, when every boat has the ubiquitous Mariner or Honda clamped to the pushpit. Bring back the oar is a battle cry I should like to hear from St. Peter Port to Fort William.

Rowing is supremely good exercise and will help you to continue sailing beyond the point where others have to swallow their metaphorical anchor. Of course, the style needed to propel a rubber duck through the harbour chop is going to be a far cry from the elegant style demonstrated at the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. Care must also be exercised to ensure that rowing does not either worsen or lead to a bad back. Still, there is no doubt that it is a very good way to burn off extra calories.

We yotties should be able to feel a little bit smug that our enjoyment does ot contribute to global warming but this is not strictly the case. Eschewing the outboard will however go a long way to reducing our carbon footrpint as well as benefitting the local envirionment enormously with less noise a fewer nasties being released into the water.

If you are serious about dumping the oversized egg whisk, you will need to give some thought to how you are going to do it. Notwithstanding the benefits of more rigid bottoms, many modern inflateables are ill equipped for rowing. I despair of the piddling little oars manufacturers now give as a token to self sufficiency in the event of you forgetting check that there was enough fuel in the tank. Flat wooden transoms create a lot more drag than the old round tail shape. Of course, the ideal rowing inflateables are the very well made but rather pricey Tinker Tramp and Traveller.

You will get lots of admiration if you do leave the outboard behind and get around harbours the old fashioned way. It is much more in keeping with the spirit of our sport and more fun as well. Even if they don't row themselves, people will admire you for doing so. I look forward to the day when oar makers outnumber outboard stands at the boat shows. Finally, fuelling up the engine with choice food and wine is much pleasanter than buying a few litres of overpriced unleaded at the fuel barge.

© Roger Kynaston, 2007