Paul Heiney

The dizzying price of a litre of diesel these days has given Paul much pause for thought when it comes to firing up the engine when the wind dies

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In a quiet moment while becalmed in the Irish Sea an uncomfortable thought crossed my mind, not helped by a dull and nagging ache in my thigh. The pain was French competitors in that race who seem better schooled than us Brits in the art of sculling , waving just one oar from the stern, which I have tried, but never really mastered - too easy to end up going round in circles. from my wallet which was still Having thought I’d exhausted all smarting having shelled out a other methods of forward propulsion large proportion of the National cheaper than diesel, a new one has

Debt for a tankful of diesel back just been brought to my attention. in Falmouth. I watched the It comes free, needs nothing other numbers on the diesel pump than your body, but assumes a decent clicking round, every click a pair of working knees - which in day’s wages when I was but a lad. my case is becoming an increasing

And now I sat in the middle of problem, but hopefully not for you. the Irish Sea, becalmed, drifting And now I must ask you to put backwards on the spring tide and down this magazine and turn to wondered if I should start the your online device, open YouTube engine. Oh, the costly pain of it. and search ‘gunwale bobbing

I used to be scornful of people Cambridge’ because what you will who switched on their engine if see there is, frankly, beyond my they weren’t doing full hull speed, powers of description. Off you go. but these days I’m not quite so hard-hearted and admit that I ‘I waited a couple of hours, Welcome back. Remarkable, wasn’t it? Just by jumping up and down have reached for the starter key satisfyingly saved myself a on the stern, as in a fit of rage (not when I could have hung on for a breeze. But I didn’t fire up this tenner, and a nice breeze did uncommon on a boat) you make progress through the water entirely time because I had been doing a little calculation, the bottom line eventually fill in and helped for free. That’s a slap in the face for the fossil fuel multinationals, ain’t of which was that at the price I had paid for the diesel it was getting me on my way’ it? In case you think it’s all a trick, delve further by going to the Trinity close to costing six quid an hour College, Cambridge website and to propel this boat at a decent search again for ‘gunwale bobbing’ cruising speed. I’ve only got a 38HP engine, and many where you find an amiable (and fit) looking professor who of you will be paying far more. So I waited a couple of will explain to you how it works. Apparently it’s all to do hours, satisfyingly saved myself a tenner, and a nice with generating a ‘wave field’, and harnessing the energy breeze did eventually fill in and helped me on my way. in that to drive you forward - he explains it better. Don’t

Since fuel prices don’t seem to recognise anything get too excited, but you might travel as much as a metre a other than an upward curve, what are we going to do if second, though only in a canoe. But with enough heavy we are to continue with the luxury of an internal engine? lads on your stern who knows how fast a yacht might go?

Electrical propulsion doesn’t seem to be taking any decent I now see that the internet is littered with canoeists strides forward, other than in bespoke and substantial and paddle boarders who can do this peculiar dance to vessels, which are beyond the pocket of most of us get themselves moving again. So why have they kept it a anyway. I suppose that at the levels of alternative power secret from the rest of us? There are problems, I admit. that most of us can embrace, it’s back to the trusty pairs My mate, who has a hefty boat with a million pound price of oars. Don’t laugh, but I did design an arrangement for tag, is going to need an entire rugby team prancing away shipping sweeps from my bow, complete with seat from on his stern to get so much as a twitch out of his boat. which I would do my feeble impression of Grace Darling Still, there’s always something about cruising that facing mountainous sea in the famous rescue off the can occasionally make you angry enough to want

Longstone Light. In fact, it was only ever intended to get to bounce up and down on the deck, so it might me through calms in a singlehanded ocean race, which be worth keeping in mind if fuel prices continue the rules allowed. I never tried it - too idle. There were to climb to ever more dizzying heights.

ILLUSTRATION CLAIRE WOOD