Trubble on te Thames.

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oldgit

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am getting a tale or two about serious verbal abuse towards several boats returning from their holiday.
Appears to be not from rowers above Teddington but from the clubs in the lower reaches.
Not the usual complaints eloquently expressed in the best accent that money can buy,but a tirade of four letter words describing parts of a ladies anatomy and an apparently popular night time activity.
Recently was subjected to a virtually identical verbal assault by two members of the rowing club located on The Esplanade at Rochester.
My grandsprogs were quite interested in the gesticulations of the rowers of course . :).
 
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teddington_lock said:
A 180 degree turn accompanied by an increase in revs usually sorts people like this out.
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One of the skippers on the receiving end did express a wish to debate the matter and going back to discuss the matter further,fortunately his wife told him to just carry on or else.
Do not not remember things being this unpleasant in the past.
 
oldgit said:
One of the skippers on the receiving end did express a wish to debate the matter and going back to discuss the matter further,fortunately his wife told him to just carry on or else.Do not not remember things being this unpleasant in the past.
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Oh dear. Really sorry to hear that. Can you remember where and when it was? Any chance you saw the three letter club code? You should report it to British Rowing directly.
 
SnowCat said:
Oh dear. Really sorry to hear that. Can you remember where and when it was? Any chance you saw the three letter club code? You should report it to British Rowing directly.
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one skipper did mention that he was of a mind to write a letter but suspect it is best left to blow over and forgotton about.
 
I agree with everything that has been said. However I was out on the river last Saturday on the tidal reaches (Chiswick bridge to Teddington and back via the pub). This is an area which is designated for water sports, it is also an 8kn area. When you're going against the tide you can be reaching 10kn through the water, sometimes more and can generate a lot of wake. When we went through on Saturday there were 8 large Brooms (perhaps a club meeting) stonking along against the tide doing their 8kn's and having a whale of time. They setup the most incredible standing waves between the island and shore just above Kew bridge. There was a rowing four and a pair stuck right in the middle of it. We were in an 18 foot Sealine with a 75hp outboard on the back and felt very uncomfortable. They looks miserable. The pair had taken quite a lot of water on board. We offered assistance (a bucket) which was greatly appreciated.

Whilst I agree rowers can be a pain and some of them are very militant and think they own the whole river, I can understand why they may perceive us as the enemy- if they were caught in that on a regular basis. The Broom owners seemed to be completely oblivious to what was going on. As an observation: the veteran rowers seem to be generally happy and charming, its the younger ones who think they have a chance of an Olympic Gold you have to keep your eye on!
 
JorgeinLondon said:
When we went through on Saturday there were 8 large Brooms (perhaps a club meeting) stonking along against the tide doing their 8kn's and having a whale of time. They setup the most incredible standing waves between the island and shore just above Kew bridge. There was a rowing four and a pair stuck right in the middle of it. The pair had taken quite a lot of water on board. We offered assistance (a bucket) which was greatly appreciated.
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While not wishing the throw stones in my own personal greenhouse, a very similar thing happened to me while at Chelsea Harbour a few years ago.
It involved exactly the same model of boat and about the same number.
Not sure if they had just left St Kats/Limehouse or were returning from further afield.
As the owners of such craft tend to be of a more mature nature and have probably been boating for a while you would have thought.......
 
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oldgit said:
One of the skippers on the receiving end did express a wish to debate the matter and going back to discuss the matter further,fortunately his wife told him to just carry on or else.
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Perhaps he should have carried a big sign saying "If you were any good you'd be in Rio".
 
When I was coming up from Limehouse at the end of July in my barge - (58ftx12ft which rolls like a b***er) I did experience some idiots in one of those more modern Sealines (the boxy ones - about 42ft) caning it (inward bound with the tide in their favour) near Chas Newens which is inside the 8 knot speed limit area. I turned the stern into the wash as my boat tends to get a bit uncomfortable in short high waves but if I had been a rower it would have been real trouble.

I mentioned it to the lock keeper at Teddington and he said yes they were idiots.

It goes both ways - idiot rowers and idiot moboers.

Its a bit silly when rowers shout at narrow boats to slow down (I witnessed this in Oxford yesterday) but if there are a lot of pillock boaters throwing up too much wash this will cause agro. Just an observation.
 
I used to use the stretch between putney and kingston on a regular basis and I can tell you the worst rowing clubs are in the richmond area, I always slowed for them but still got bad attitude from them,I found that rather than rise to their obscene language and ranting I just ignored them, this would send them into an appoplectic fit.

One of their members even had a website ( the slug or similar ) with advice on how to pee off fisherman kayakers sailers and motorboaters

Interestingly by Putney and wandsworth you couldnt find a better and more polite lot !!
 
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