Rowing at the HBBR

Am I letting my rowing enthusiasm cloud my judgement, or was there a lot more rowing going on in 2007 than last year?
There were three rowing boats, an Oughtred Mole, a Woods Linnet and a Wolstenholme Sprite on the water.
Here is Talpa, Graham Davies's lovely Thames skiff, and Graham himself setting out for a brisk scull in the Linnet.

On the artificial beach, here are (from the top) Linnet, Talpa and my own boats Nessy (a Conrad Natzio-designed Sandpiper) and
Snarleyow (an Andrew Wolstenholme-designed Sprite).

Graham looks deservedly happy taking Talpa out for her maiden row.





And here I am, fiddling with the experimental square rig on Nessy. I am considering buying a downwind rig for a canoe to see if that works better. It did seem to give extra oomph when rowing, but having one's back to the sail was a little unsettling. Chris Perkins took this pic.