I have been looking to get myself back on the water for quite a while now.
I have been sitting here going green with envy reading posts by some of the members discussing their shells and then more recently some others and their new learning to row On The Water (OTW) exploits, it all started to become a bit much.
The collective OTW stories on this forum keep reminding me how much I miss rowing. I miss it so much that watching a race, even on YouTube will bring me to tears.
My Father passed in October last year, we were not close, I have no fond memories of him, he did not treat me very well as a child and we had not spoken in 10 years, but my sister and I did eventually inherit a little from the sale of his house.
I wanted to use some of the money to buy something to have a positive memory of him, otherwise it would probably all just be slowly frittered away.
Buying a racing single seemed the perfect solution, it would be a positive reminder that he is the reason I went to the school that taught me how to row.
Looking on the rowing classifieds, there are not that many singles available suitable for someone in the 95Kg bracket, and of those that are in that bracket, most are outside of my price range.
Over the past few months I have found a couple of possibilities, but they all sold before I would be going anywhere near them to arrange a viewing.
For some reason I happened to search on Facebook Marketplace and found one that was actually not listed on the classifieds site, wasn’t too far away, Henley, and was within my budget, only problem was it did not list the weight category.
The main reason it caught my eye was because of its name:
How could I possibly ignore this omen?
I contacted the seller to ask if it was still available and what weight class it was built for.
He replied in the positive and said it was rated for 95Kg (Heavyweight).
Next I needed a car rack to carry it. Facebook Marketplace to the rescue again, with a Sims Racing Vee carrier, also in Henley and only £35.00, these retail for over £125.00! The stars were definitely starting to line up.
Now I just needed a club to join. My ideal club would have been Hillingdon Rowing Club, less than 5 miles away. Unfortunately they had to close recently as the new HS2 train line is going through the middle of their lake!
I was thinking about rowing on the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, which is less than 2 miles from my house, but at its widest it is only around 10m (32′ 10″) and is only around 14′ (4.2m) at many bridges, not ideal for a boat that is 8m (26′ 3″) long and 6m (19′ 8″)wide with the oars out.
I started looking along the Thames looking for a clubs that were on non tidal sections and eventually settled on Staines Boat Club as the closest and potentially the frendliest.
I contacted them on Wednesday and enquired about joining after providing them with my rowing history.
Things then moved quite rapidly, On Friday I signed up with UK rowing, Joined Staines Boat Club, arranged for some rack space, outside unfortunately as inside is full, arranged to buy the car boat rack and go to view the shell, I also bought some insurance as the club do not cover you for privately owned boats.
Only an hour from my house to Henley and I had arranged to collect the rack at 09:00 Saturday (today), then head over to Upper Thames Rowing Club to see the shell.
Unfortunately the U bolts that came with the rack did not fit over my Thule Aero bars, so I was transporting the rack inside the car on the way to view the boat.
I arrived at Upper Thames Rowing Club met the seller and his wife and look over the boat. He has been the only owner from new and is retiring from rowing at about 35 having competed for a seventh and final time at Henley this year.
The boat is in excellent condition, the spine is still very stiff, and he goes to find some oars so I can try it out on the water so I can listen for any creaks and see if it fits me.
It has been over 30 years since I was last in a racing single, and that occasion ended with me swimming the shell back to shore, so I was incredibly wobbly, sorry no photos. I did not go far from the landing stage but I did manage to do a small circuit, very slowly with no slide, and back to the landing stage without getting wet which was a huge win in my book.
I agreed to buy it and after strapping the carrier to the roof bars with a ratchet strap, we set the boat on the carrier and I secured it ready for my 20 mile drive to Staines.
The boat is a 2004 Janousek with a stern wing rigger and a pair of Addidas shows (size 12) that have seen better days. He also included the Speedcoach Gold in the price, the boat is also fitted with an impeller for the SpeedCoach.
These are the photos from the Facebook advert:
Safely unloaded at Staines, where I measured the span and rigger pitch. prior to putting it on a rack.
He did have a set of oars for sale as well, but these sold before I found the boat, they were C2 Vortex Edge, but I think I will treat myself to a set of C2 Skinny Comps.
First steps are to build up some sculling confidence, so I will probably row with the leisure crew in quads or doubles for a week or two before joining the masters crowd at the club, again probably a quad or double.
The membership secretary said that with my Erg times, I was potentially fast/fit enough for their Open class once I have my put in some seat time and got my confidence back.
Now I just need to get my sculling up to a level to be worthy of the boat and be able to race it.