Submitted by Bill Jaquette.
The La Conner race as become for me an opportunity to row my classic 17 foot by 4 foot boat, Thurgood. In comparison to those modern plastic wonders, Thurgood is a bit slow. Under easy pressure, she will go about 3.2 miles per hour; when pushed hard, I can get her up to 4.
In four of the races we went considerably faster when Rob O’Brien, Steve Wells, Jeff Knakal ,and this year Sue Dandridge each joined on as second crew. But other times, it was just Thurgood and I, arriving at the finish line to find most of the other racers packed up and ready for hot soup.
It is a bit discouraging to be left behind in the wake of the other competitors as they speed away and it gets frustrating to see the GPS reading less than 2 mph when the current we fought going out has switched and we are fighting it again on the return.
So why? I have one of those plastic wonders too. In the back of my mind I am remembering 2003, when several boats capsized, many turned around, and I spent much of the race telling myself how stupid I was for not having turned around too. Thurgood could have handled anything that February the northwest could deliver.
However, my reasons are more positive than negative and it has to do with what Thurgood represents. She is a wooden boat built on the lines of the Whitehall design that was used for water taxies on the east coast beginning in the 1850s. Boating historians preserved these lines in a table of offset numbers which define the outside hull dimensions at defined points on a three dimensional grid.
My joy in being on the water in Thurgood comes because I took that table of offsets from the book Building Classic Small Craft by John Gardner, lofted full sized plans on two pieces of plywood, built a mold, spiled the rectangular planks into shapes that formed the curves of the Whitehall, and steamed oak ribs to give the hull strength. All with the aid, I will admit, of lots of epoxy glue.
Bill Jaquette and Sue Dandridge chase the pack at LaConner
Some of that joy is simple pride. But another part of it is the connection I get with an earlier stage in human history when making things, especially boats, involved very sophisticated craftsmanship that was so valued that the workers who learned these crafts couldn’t be treated as commodities to be hired and fired with the ebb and flow of corporate need as workers are today.
Reason enough!Well put! Regards Mike Snook.
I was delighted to be invited by Bill to join him on board Thurgood for the LaConner race. Among my discoveries that year was the fact that there is little to be gained by pulling at full pressure when you will go almost as fast at 3/4 pressure. That means you can chat with your partner, and Bill and I had a much more congenial time than those races in which we’re both in “plastic boats” and I’m holding out hope that I might stay near him. I also remember discovering that Thurgood commands the right-of-way at the green buoy! It’s great to have mass on your side.
One other notion about Thurgood that I deeply appreciate and that’s the story behind her name. Get Bill to share that with you some time.
Sweet boat!. Clearly the pleaseure is as much with moving the boat through the water as it is the rowing!
Colin