Tag: chris partridge

Faroese rowers racing on BBC Television

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Faroese rowersFaroese rowers working hard

The past few weeks have been an amazing time for interesting boats on BBC Television – and the latest sighting, racing Faroese rowing boats on an episode in the Coast series, is available on the BBC iPlayer.

I can hardly believe I’ve beaten the usually alert Chris Partridge of Rowing for Pleasure to posting about this, but the programme shows the interesting and elegant boats in action and includes an interview with a group of attractive if powerfully developed Faroese women rowers. It’s noticeable that their English is excellent – and we’re told that they learn the language using the Internet.

Way up north of Scotland, Orkney and even Shetland, the Faroes are remote but these days far from isolated, as the presenter points out.

Like their tall, blonde rowers, the Faroese craft are clearly the result of the Viking era, and even the modern fishing boats in the harbour show a close kinship to Viking ships.

Click here for a photo of a Faroese women’s rowing team taking part in a race.

Click here for a Flickr gallery of Faroese boats.

Click here for still more photos of Faroese boats on the Wikimedia Commons.

800px-Fuglafjordur_fishing_boats,_Faroe_Islands

Modern motorised Faroes boats still show their evolution from Viking ships: taken from the Wikimedia

The Wexford cot and film of a gun punt in use

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Heard of a traditional boat type called the Wexford cot? Or seen footage of a gun punt in use? Neither had I until I caught up with Monday’s episode of Coast, a BBC-Open University series about our coasts that has been fascinating many people in this country for several years now.

The cot is a fairly basic double-ended flattie with rounded clinker sides developed for the shallow water of Wexford Harbour. These days they seem to be made with a small transom, presumably to take an outboard, but they’re traditionally rowed by two men with an oar each. I was strongly reminded of the Weston flatner, which is another flat-bottomed and round-sided boat type, and struck by the thought that Wexford and Weston aren’t so very far apart.

The gun punt footage mercifully saves squeamish people like me from having to look at any carnage in detail but it’s interesting to see the boats, which have just 10in of freeboard, being propelled and steered using a quant. More, it’s astonishing to see how little recoil the boats exhibit when the big gun mounted on their foredeck is fired.

The episode includes a nice interview with Larry Duggan, whose family has been building these boats for generations. Over at the Rowing for Pleasure weblog, Chris Partridge has picked up a Flickr photo set put up by Alan Duggan, which is well worth looking at.

If you’re in the UK and have access to the Internet, do try and catch it on the BBC iPlayer before it’s replaced by this coming Monday’s episode.

For a post about gun punts in the East of England including a splendid quotation from Victorian scholar and man of the cloth Sabine Baring-Gould, click here.

Norfolk Broads boat sheds and boat houses

[ad name=”intheboatshed-post”]

Boat shed sign seen at Stalham

Sign spotted at a Stalham boatyard

Impressive thatched boat house at Hickling More boat sheds at Hickling Boat shed at Whispering Reeds boatyard, Hickling

Boat sheds at Hickling, including the Whispering Reeds boatyard

Following Chris P’s Rowing for Pleasure post, by coincidence I have also been making a little study of Broadland’s boat sheds and boat houses. They seem to me to have almost as much character as the people of the area and, when open, their doorways often offer coy glimpses of something wonderful inside.

Most of my Norfolk Broads shed photos from the past week were snapped under a typical leaden East Coast sky – but I hope they’re entertaining nevertheless.

Boat shed on the Thurne with geese Boat shed on the Thurne with geese Boat shed on the Thurne

Boat sheds and boat houses on the River Thurne

Boat shed on the Thurne Boat shed on the Thurne Boat shed on the Thurne

Still more boat sheds and boat houses on the Thurne

Boat shed on the Thurne Boat shed on the Thurne

Two further boat houses on the Thurne

Boat house at Irstead on the River Ant

An impressive home and boathouse at Irstead on the River Ant

Finally, I thought I should add a few more photos of some unusual features that can be seen from Broadland’s rivers. One of the themes of the Broads is the circular structure – many local churches have them, there are many round windmills and they are reflected in at least some other structures.

\'Dutch Tutch\' house on the Thurne Summer house on the Thurne How Hill Estate Windmill, from the River Ant

‘Dutch Tutch’ house on the Thurne, a summer house on the Thurne, and a typical Broadland windmill

Finally, here’s a real landmark of a shed sited by the river on the way to Hickling. It’s used by eel fishermen working with nets, and is equipped with a large illuminated sign used to warn shipping when the nets are set.

Eel-netter\'s shed near Hickling

Eel-netter’s shed, near Hickling Broad