Rowing & Sculling Boats

Sea trial of Nordic Explorer

On bank holiday Monday I trained in the morning in a double scull with Di Moore, my regular training buddy, in preparation for the World Rowing Masters Regatta that we will be competing in next week. It is to be held at one of the World's Most beautiful rowing venues, Bled in Slovenia. Really looking forward to it.

Then in the afternoon, I took the Nordic Explorer to Colwyn Bay and launched from the slipway at Rhos-on-Sea, with the intention of going to Llandudno and back. But that's not quite how things turned out.

It was a good job I had my car key on a float!

Order your new Nordic Explorer here.

TS515 heaven!

Click to enlarge and get the full impact of this great photo.

One delighted customer, Clive Robinson, sculling his new TS515 Training Scull on Lake Como in italy. Idyllic.

Winning at Stourport Regatta

It's a long while since I competed at Stourport Regatta. It's a challenging course. 1100m long and with a few bends and obstructions to catch you out.

The first time I raced there was in 1970 in novice fours and it was raining so hard when we arrived on the Friday night that we put our tent up inside the marquee!

The next year I raced in novice sculls in committee boats (boats provided by the regatta committee) which were open cockpit and in one race mine nearly sank!

I was probably last there in about 1987 because Keith Barwise came and chatted with me and reminisced about my girlfriend of that time, who is still one of my best friends.

This time I was racing in G/H 1x and in the final had to give my opponent an 11 sec start, as I had done at Shrewsbury earlier in the year. I finished 22 sec ahead of him on that occasion. But this time I was only ahead by a couple of lengths at the end. He had been training in a quad in between time!

I also raced with my awesome training partner, Diane Moore, in E/F Mixed doubles. This time we got the handicap advantage, being older, and our opposition did not encroach on our lead at all. We just jumped in the boat and did it. This was only our third outing together but neither of us would ever let the other down and we won easily. :-)

Launching 2 Nordic Explorers

Why launch one when you can launch two Nordic Explorers at once?

This is what you should do. Make a fuss of your boat. Have a celebration. The standard script is: "I name this boat Nordic Explorer. May God bless her and all who scull in her."

Then pour some bubbly over the bow (leaving enough for your friends & family). This task should always be undertaken by a lady. I had a retired friend, Sue Corbin, lined up to do the honours but then a former girlfriend, Helen Marriott, was cycling by and I managed to persuade her to Christen one of the boats.

Don't attempt to smash the bottle on the boat! She is not a ship.

Order your new Nordic Explorer here.