Good day for rowing

The high pressure had been hanging around for over a week with the resulting light winds and fine weather, I'd gone down to the sailing club to do safety boat duty but without the minimum number of boats turning up racing was cancelled.

With the prospect of a sea breeze in the afternoon cancelling out the light northerly rowing seemed a good way to make the best of the day. 

I wasn't alone in total I say 6 other boats out rowing including some I recognised from Hamble River Rowing club. These two I didn't recognise, the one at top to too far away to inquire why they were towing, presumably good reason.

Below really nice looking boat, seems about as small as practical for two rowers.

 It was a perfect rowing afternoon, so hopefully everyone had as much fun as I did, the tide was on the 2 hour stand so pretty much perfect conditions.
 

Vlad

 Vlad the Impala - what a great name

 Probably only popular or even known in UK, the Hunter Impala was designed by David Thomas and built between 1977 and 1984

LOA:	28.00 ft / 8.53 m
LWL:	23.17 ft / 7.06 m
S.A. (reported):	335.00 ft² / 31.12 m²
Beam:	9.25 ft / 2.82 m
Displacement:	4,300.00 lb / 1,950 kg
Max Draft:	5.50 ft / 1.68 m

 

Winter SCOWs

With spring very firmly in the air it's easy to forget that some hardy SCOW sailors were out in the depth of winter.

Here Lymington SCOW fleet were out on the river on a cold clear Saturday with just the right amount of wind.

It was quite a short course up to the breakwater and back just be, low the RLYC to where I suspect a few would be retiring after the races.

The yellow/green boat is a very similar colour to MRS BB's SCOW Lollipop, except it has red sales like the  boat in front, hopefully that's a sign that red sails are faster :O)

Latest performance clothing for iinshore sailing

 Example of the latest inshore sailing clothing designed for comfort at sea and to look stylish and sophisticated at the yacht club bar

 Shown here a sail training instructor wearing the latest 2026 inshore kit which might look like a regular two piece lounge suit, but features high visibility shirt, the latest water repelling fabric technology and self inflating buoyancy lining

Shopfront

Occasionally pulled away from the waterfront by Mrs BB in pursuit of one of her main hobbies, I found myself waiting patiently outside the wool shop in Lymington.

 With my head still very much in the boating scene, at first glance I remember wondering why a wool shop would have lengths of broken mast as a shop sign - durr. Would also make a nice sign for the Needles cafe.
 

Barcelona Street Views

Apologies but combination of fine weather, a new phone and being in Barcelona brought out the latent street photographer in me.

There's a lot of encouragement on the internet to budding artists, crafters and photographers to not worry too much about how good you are, rather just go out and do it, practice, practice practice. 

So apologies for inflicting my bad photography on you, but I did rather enjoy looking at some of my favorite parts the city through a new lens. 

The last thing the internet needs is another travelogue on places to go in Barcelona, but staying away from the major hot spots is probably good advice, although you should at least go past Las Rambla, Sagrada Familia and Parc Guellon while you're there.

If you go there the best advice is to just wander the city and enjoy.

 

Rowing trainer

Interesting rowing skiff which may or may note be the Ahoy Boats TS515 and has  a pair of small training floats mounted under the rowlock arms to help stability.

It seems a good way to introduce people to sliding seat rowing in a fast, slim and long boat with better stability compared to a conventional skiff of the same size.