Sunday 16 November 2008

Rowing the polbeiro

Two-handed rowing

One-handed rowing




I’m afraid the photos are truly appalling but hopefully the hull form is clear and the rowing technique can be deciphered through the blur. The owner, sailor, demonstrator who had been using the boat for many years was convincing of its qualities and I found the crude yet ingenious simplicity summed up in the construction of the anchor wholly appealing.



Also at the boat show Bolger’s ‘Light Scooner’. The schooner was brought to Catalonia from Maine and serves as a trainer for ‘Sea Stars’—a brigantine whose wake Onawind Blue crossed on our summer trip north. While the rep couldn’t confirm the schooner was Bolger’s he did say, as one would expect, that it really shifted when sailing off the wind.
The design has interested me since I came across it while embarked on the search that led to the Light Trow. Radical and audacious it seems to raise the hackles of the conventionally minded, but despite their doubts about the large sail area, the narrow beam and the off-centre daggerboard the design clearly works within the parameters that Bolger intended.


4 comments:

Chris Partridge said...

Interesting. I would imagine the single handed rowing technique would allow him to 'troll' forwards at low speed while putting out a line with a lure. He couldn't get any speed up with one hand though, or could he?
Love the anchor. Functional but stylish.

Chris Partridge said...

...and I've hijacked one of your pics for rowingforpleasure. I hope you don't mind.
Lots of very nice boats in the background. I suspect that people (ie Gav) will be demanding further and better particulars, as we lawyers say.

Anonymous said...

Partridge speaks the truth.

Ben - do you have a series of posts in mind looking at the range of boats in the phots?

The polbeiro is an interesting form.

And I've fancied a ride in a Light Schooner ever since I first read about them in Bolger's books. People speak very highly of them!

Gav

Ben said...

That's right Chris single handed is for trolling, in the pics he's actually sticking his hand out, wielding a pretend rod. He certainly couldn't reach top speed one handed. I suppose max speed could only be reached with two rowers.
I'd like to discover more about the polbeiro but won't be writing about it or the scnooer for the moment. I'm away working and fairly short of time. There's something on lateen rigs in the pipeline though.