Winsome visits The Green Boat Show

For the second year running, the Winsome pedal-powered launch took part in the Green Boat Show at Salhouse Broad, Norfolk on Saturday September 8th. According to its
website, this is “the only boat show dedicated to sustainable boating and green energy. The aim of the Show is to encourage ‘low carbon’ propulsion for boats – rowing, paddling, pedalling, sailing, electric and biofuel-powered – as well as to promote other aspects of environmentally-friendly design and construction.”



The Electric Boat Association plays a major role in the show.


Salhouse Broad is a beautiful location with plenty of room for people to try out the various boats in a lovely, friendly and relaxed atmosphere. A warm sunny September day also helped add to the enjoyment especially with a floating ice cream seller on hand.




We travelled to Norfolk a day early so that we could enjoy some time on the Broads. We launched at Salhouse and pedalled first to Wroxham to get some lunch and visit the excellent chandlery there and then down to Horning and back to Salhouse (~10 miles round trip). The Broads feels tailor made for Winsoming – there are endless miles of waterways to explore, lots of places to land and enjoy eating, drinking, shopping.

This is not surprising given that The Broads is actually the home of Winsome – the whole idea of boat like this pedalled by two people facing one another was invented by David Williams of Horning some 40 years ago for his own personal enjoyment and he has recently built his 3rd pedal boat (Life Cycle) which he brought to the show.



We were delighted that Winsome proved so popular once again – she was barely out of action all day with lots of different people keen to try her out.





The feedback, as ever, was nearly all positive, “that was simply magical”, “that’s the first time my husband and I have been in a boat together and not argued!”, “that’s so much more relaxing than canoeing”, “these seats are SO comfortable” and “what a wonderful way to exercise”.



We also learned that The Broads Authority are keen to promote this kind of eco-friendly boating and grow eco-tourism according to their chief executive, John Packman, who took time out to try out Winsome for himself at the show. Watch out for him running into the ice cream....



Sadly the show came to an end for this year and I leave you with this lovely shot of Mrs Jean Williams leaving for Horning in David's elegant electric launch.



Many thanks to David C. Williams and John Tate for the photos and Pam Williams for the video.