Life can be boring, dull, ennui finds residence in the pockets of your dressing gown.
But if you have a boat, specifically an electric boat, and a place to go on a sunny Sunday with a bunch of friends it’s a fine reason to put your shorts on and get on with the day.
The venue was Abingdon, a charming town I last visited as an air cadet at a summer camp1 back in the 70’s.
We mustered at 10.00 hrs ready to sortie at 10.30. Our mission, code-named ‘Sunday Roast,’ was to get five miles up river, enter the Kings Arms, blend in with the locals and return leaving zero carbon footprint to the slipway at Abingdon. Present and correct on the day were of the following crew:
Name | No of Attendees | Boat Name | |
Ian and Sylvia Rutter with Tim Knox and Barbara Penniall | 4 | Watts Ahead | |
Jeff Kenworthy and James | 2 | Primrose | |
Nick and Oscar Goldring | 2 | Silent Adventure | |
Yvonne Goldring and mum | 2 | Just for lunch |
Primrose is a new boat built by new member Jeff Kenworthy, he was joined by his old friend John. Jeff very recently built Primrose himself out of marine ply from a bought plan. He has made a great job of the hull but is still working on the propulsion. That said, the easy to use and install electric trolling motor he is currently using is a very cost effective way of proving the hull. I sense a winter project coming on. Jeff too is using lithium batteries. Light and packed with power.
I always like travelling in other people’s boats, this time I was with Ian and Sylvia on Watts Ahead. A very comfortable and practical boat. Only 12’ long and built out of fibreglass she is easy to maintain and tow. Barbara Penniall joined us too. Barbara was the EBA’s secretary for a number of years.
Watt’s Ahead cruised against half a knot current. But despite this she made good speed over ground. She has a 24v 1.5kW fairly standard AC induction that directly drives a 3 bladed prop through a thrust block. The power comes from lead acid AGM batteries and has roughly a 15 mile range but it is dependent on speed. The faster you go the further you don’t go!
Silent Adventure, a hardy perennial of EBA rallies, was up to her speed stealth tricks. She has a DC motor with a 2:1 poly ‘V’ belt. Belts can be noisy if they have teeth. This is because air gets trapped between the teeth of the belt and that of the pulley. No teeth on the poly ‘V’ pulleys, just grooves to give traction, so no noise. Lithium batteries on this boat.
Silent Adventure was piloted by Oscar, Nick’s grandson. Oscar has been messing around on boats since he was a very young lad courtesy of his grandfather. Not only has Ocsar got a special bond with his grandfather but he has a special bond with the water, boats and electrics.
My father loved sailing. In front of me as I write this article is a picture of me and him working on the deck of ‘our’ small cruiser in the boat yard at the local sailing club. I was only 5 years old at the time, but the smell of the salt air, the blow torch and burning paint are as vivid as ever when I look at that old black and white photo. Bring your children and grandchildren to these rallies – we love having them with us.
After Abingdon we are very much in the countryside. Electric boats are so convivial. No noise means lots of conversation, not only between those on your boat but between boats. At one time all three boats were abreast of each other with several conversations going on. You can do this on horseback or whilst walking but neither of these activities can be done making and drinking tea. This is why electric boating is popular with clever people!
We need to come back to the subject of clever people and locks and locks on locks later but we need some background.
First operation ‘Sunday Roast’ or burger for Oscar. Joining us by land was Yvonne and her 96 year mother. These events are always sociable. If you are a member and can’t come for the whole day you are more than welcome to come for lunch. If you are not a member and would like to know a little more about electric boating or are thinking of buying an electric boat, come along too. There is always a spare seat on a boat and you’d be more than welcome to come along for the ride.
The King’s Arms at Sandford on Thames is a lovely waterside pub and does a great Sunday Dinner. I sat next to our newcomers Jeff and John and Oscar. Both Js retired and Oscar just starting at college. We had a wide ranging conversion from Europe to propeller efficiency. One snippet of wisdom from John to Oscar “the world is always moving, changing, individuals, can’t stop it, it’s out of your control, you have to learn to forever change with it”. Then desert. Then our return journey.
Back to clever people. Both Js are well educated with Phds in science based subjects. There’s me and the lock with locks. The King’s arms is just up river from the lock. Silent Adventure and Watts Ahead decided to tie up below the lock. Primrose wanted to come through. New boat syndrome. Lock keepers are one of the reasons Thames is such a delightful waterway. But they have a lunch break and the locks are made self service.
In the self service mode the lock works in safe mode. It’s slower. Lock keepers are trained and able to override the system. It’s faster. We clever people expect things to be faster. However when everyone is ‘helping out’ by pressing seemingly every button at once to avoid disaster the lock locks. And that’s that for a few minutes. But the lock doesn’t tell us that we have been locked out and we keep on pressing buttons. Until the penny drops and we stop being clever and are patient instead. 30 minutes later we get through the lock. But we learn and going back is a lot quicker.
With everyone on board and heading downstream it’s time to reapply sunscreen. It is a beautiful day, glorious. And the conversation continues to flow.
A fun topic is boat names, there are always puns, names of songs, puns with names of songs, then names that spark another conversation trail. We passed a boat called Blue Peter III. I asked Syvlia who was her favourite presenter. “Sarah Green” she said. I said “John Noakes”. “Before my time” she said “but I did meet him a few times”. After a certain age it’s not polite to ask a ladies age but I had a hunch that Sylvia had had a few more birthdays than me. Curious, I asked what her relationship with the program was. “Assistant Producer” she said. I was travelling with royalty.
A similar thing happened on a previous rally from Lechlade. I was briefly in a boat owned by Simon West. Through conversion I found out he was an action film director and nice chap. When I got home I IBDMed him. He was one of the cast of the original Swallows and Amazon film. Blue Peter, Swallows and Amazons, Electromagnetic Forces. Spooky!
I really don’t mind travelling up and down the same stretch of river in a day, you see the world from both sides. And then we are back in Abingdon marina. It’s a great marina, good slip, good parking and cheap.
We all help each other retrieve our boats and say our goodbyes. Human batteries fully charged.
See you on the water next year – Thames as always, Norfolk, Lakes, Nene maybe and the River Cam to Cambridge.
All the best and thank you for the memories.
