Gavin Atkin's weblog for the sort of people who like looking inside boat sheds. It's about old boats, traditional boats, boat building, restoration, the sea and the North Kent Coast
This is Prince Helfrich, a pioneering river runner, leading an expedition down the Owyhee River in the mid-sixties.
My thanks to reader John Ost of Portland, Oregon, for the tip-off. John tells me he has made the same trip with his wife and friends in his drift boat several times – he does it as the river is dropping and is clearer than it was when this film was made.
Pembrookshire based Bill Dowell is clearly a devoted chap: he’s a man who enjoys restoring and maintaining clinker-built boats, and has a particular interest in Redwing sailing dinghies, designed by Uffa Fox for racing on the open sea.
The latest object of his attentions is Nanw, a strongly built 15ft rowing and outboard dinghy built at Penarth some decades ago, and which remained in the Pembrokeshire area.
Bill believes she was used in the making of the Robin Hood movie starring Russell Crowe, which included scenes shot at Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire during the summer of 2009.
He runs a weblog about his exploits with the small clinker hulls (which I intend to follow), and another about cruising his Finesse 24.
Rather you than me!