The Saul Canal Festival & Folk on the Water Weekend is a fund raising event organised & operated by Cotswold Canals Trust Volunteers. All surplus funds are used to further the restoration of the waterways link between the Rivers Thames & Severn.
Conditions on Saturday were extremely windy. Because of her sleek hull shape, Winsome barely notices the wind as long as we are pedalling straight into it. However, we really struggled to make a U turn into the wind in the narrow confines of the canal at Saul junction – the minute we turned across the wind, the bow would catch the wind and spin back to leeward. This made life interesting with 20 ton narrow boats bearing down on us – sometimes from both directions. However, inspired by the Dutch tradition (see below), the crew deployed a paddle as a makeshift lee board whilst turning and the problem was effectively solved. Phew.
The afternoon saw us take part in the “Interesting boats parade” complete with tannoy commentary. Unfortunately for us, the parade moved at such a snail’s pace that a light boat like ours couldn’t maintain steerage way in the gusting 4-5 wind. With a crowd of other parade boats which were several times our length and weight, this was somewhat alarming.
We opted for being the last boat in line so we could drop back far enough to create open water and then pedal at a reasonable pace to maintain steady steerage way. Because I slightly overestimated the gap we needed to leave (according to the view of the crew), we ended up passing the parade viewpoint at a cracking 5-6 mph (into the wind) which clearly impressed the waving, cheering crowds ashore!
We were pleased by the interest which Winsome attracted from cyclists, narrow boat owners and the occasional sailor. As ever, the experience of actually going in the boat created a new set of Winsome converts. Even in the blustery wind and rain showers, she continued to surprise and delight.
No comments:
Post a Comment