Last weekend – 23-25th May 2009 – the HBBR non group had their second meet at Barton Turf on Barton Broad (Pictures  here). Apart from the delights of seeing the native boats in action (of which more later) my trepidation at the thought of having to use my baby canoe, Stangarra, on big water (relatively) was rapidly dispelled by the number of members who actually wanted to try her out. Notably the youngsters who really made her fly, the combination of light weight, technique, and Iain Oughtred’s slippery hull design was a winning combination. It made me realise just how much effort I have to put in ploughing the water due to my excessive bulk. My one excursion in the canoe onto the Broad (just) encountered some large ripples, couldn’t really call them waves, which she rode with aplomb suggesting that my concerns over wave swamping may be exaggerated
Young Sapphi kept coming back for more – to the extent that when I eventually nerved myself for my second paddle I found the little beauty had vanished - out on the open spaces of Barton Broad. Great relief. Anyway we did manage to capture some moving images of Sapphi and Stangarra which we offer below.

The large red objects in Bow and Stern are my new buoyancy bags – which were almost unnecessary – I might post the brief clip we captured showing how Sapphi demonstrated their effectiveness later.