Winsome's Debut at the Broads Green Boat Show

Winsome made her public debut at the Broads Green Boat Show at Salhouse Broad, Norfolk, on Saturday 30th September 2006. The venue was fitting, since the concept was inspired in large part by David Williams' Cyclone pedal canoe, which has cruised the Norfolk Broads for 40 years. Winsome is the first commercialisation of David's basic design concept of a pedal boat with a two-person crew facing each other. To prove Winsome's portability credentials, both boats were shipped to Norfolk on roof racks. Here's what production boat 1 looked like on the roof rack as we set off from Swallow Boats in Cardigan. This roof rack is a side=loader from KariTek, of Coylton, Ayrshire, who developed it specially for Winsome. The special sliding roof rack makes it easy to load her Word of our trip reached BBC Radio Norfolk, who requested an interview at Horning the day before the official launch. Clearly, lots of people listened to the broadcast on Friday evening and came to the show the following day to try out the boat(s). The show re-united the first glass fibre production Winsomes with their wooden prototype, which had been around in some form for almost two years as the various design parameters were finalised. The prototype was being tried out by the first Winsome customer - Barry Peck - and he not only extended the hospitality of Horning Sailing Club to launch the first production Winsome, but pedalled her down to Salhouse Broad for us. Here are Barry and his wife Rosemary cruising production boat 1 on Salhouse Broad. The Beautiful Norfolk Broads are perfect for Winsome Meanwhile, Nick Newland brought the production boat 2 - a rather fetching raspberry red boat - over from Cardigan to Norfolk. He arrived too late to launch elsewhere, so we had to carry the boat from the show car park to the quayside along half a mile of footpath. Fortunately, this is quite a common requirement for a portable boat, and we have tested several "portage" solutions. The best one we have found so far is an Eckla trolley designed for large open (Canadian) canoes. Here's a picture of Nick Newland about to launch production boat 2 over the quayside at the show. The boat is on its trolley, but is no longer strapped down as it was on its trip from the car park: Launching Winsome using the Dolly As usual, there was a lot of interest in the boats, and once in the water they were all out on the Broad most of the time. The great thing about Winsome is that anyone can learn to operate her in less than a minute, and it still gives us a kick to see and hear how delighted people are at the experience. Our surveys suggest that this is a product that appeals mainly to mature couples, but it is also a hit with kids. Unfortunately, we haven't yet designed a proper kids' seat for the boat, so we have to put a lower limit on leg length! Despite the familiar method of propulsion, cycling fans aren't always enthused by Winsome, but if we can get them into the boat we can generally win them over. We were pleased to welcome two experts well-known in cycling circles to give the boat a critical once over. They had lots of suggestions and advice, but seemed pretty impressed. Here they are giving production boat 1 a bit of welly, or in this case, cleated cycle shoe. In the stern seat is HPV designer Mike Burrows Towards the end of the day, we were able to launch both production boats and try them out with their prototype. We are pleased to report that the production boats are every bit as good as the prototype promised. Here are a couple of shots of the combined fleet manoeuvres: They are not designed for racing, but... ...non-competitive side-by-side boating! As you can see, the production boats have a slightly lower profile. Underwater, the hull shape has been modified to grip the water better, so the production boats do not need a dagger-board even in windy conditions. This reduces the drag and while it doesn't make the boats faster (because the hull length is unchanged) it further reduces the effort required to sustain a given speed. The difference is not pronounced. At the end of an exhausting day, we recovered the boats from the water and trundled them back to the car park to be loaded up for the long journey back to Wales. We're pleased to report that they both made it, and are now being further tested on the Monmouthshire and Brecon Canal and the Teifi Estuary. We're planning a further "open day" on the Thames in a couple of weeks time. Those who have registered an interest will be notified by e-mail. If you haven't yet given us an e-mail address, but want to try the boat on Sunday October 15th, at the Swan Hotel, Radcot-on-Thames give us a call or an e-mail or just turn up between 11am and 3pm. If you let us know you are coming, we can decide how many boats to bring. If you can't make that day, but are willing to trek into mid-Wales, we're offering trial cruises on the beautiful canal near Brecon. Call 01874-665401 to arrange one.