Thursday 31 July 2008

Trad rowing boat on eBay

Puddle, a traditional clinker-built 11ft by 4ft rowing boat, has come up on eBay. She's lovely with lots of twinkly varnish and brass, and would look fab ambling round Chichester Harbour with me aboard, though her native habitat is Henley-on-Thames. She comes with two pairs of nice brass rowlocks, square pattern for neat and precise feathering, and two pairs of rather elegant spoon blades which are of slightly different lengths so I suspect were made for the boat.
The bottom has been sheathed in fibreglass which is reassuring in a boat of this age.
There is a step for a mast but no mast or sail is supplied. This is not a boat that would sail particularly well, though sailing not particularly well would still be preferable to firing up the small outboard that comes in the package.
There's a trailer and launching trolley, and it even comes with a canvas boat cover and a canvas bag to put the cover in.
There's obviously a lot of interest in Puddle as five bids have already been placed, pushing the price up to £770. The auction ends on Sunday.

UPDATE
Bidding reached £1,021.00 but failed to reach the reserve.

UPDATED UPDATE
Puddle is back on eBay here, bidding starting at £450. Presumably the reserve price has been adjusted downwards - it will be interesting to see what happens this time round.

FINAL UPDATE
The boat has sold at £1,000 after a brisk auction - five bidders were after her.

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