About

In 1977 Beaujolais, then an eleven year old boy, watched his Father paddle under Westminster Bridge on Easter Sunday. His Father, Harry Yeomans was part of the Royal Canoe Club Senior K2 team that won the team event that year. That team consisted of:

Fowler J F & Greenaway B – 1st place,  Greenham B R & Cornish T J- 3rd place, Farrell E J & Phelps J- 4th place, and Kelly M J & Yeomans H- 24th place.

The 3 other crews were well known entities at that time. My Fathers crew was not, Mike Kelly was in his very early twenties and my Father in his early forties- both were relatively new to paddling, let alone DW. Although they finished hours after the others they were towards the end of the race the best supported Royal Crew on the Water, They had made Teddington with minutes to spare before the tidal window shut, they were in bits, but had to finish as without them the Royal Canoe Club would not have enough to get the Team Trophy (1977 was the Year of the Queens Silver Jubillee). When they did eventually finish in a time of 23 hours and 03 minutes, they we’re greeted by what looked to be the entire membership of Royal, you would have thought it was them that had won the race, with the other paddlers in the team being the most vocal in celebrating their finish.

2 years later in 1979, in the company of my Father in a car, I followed Brian Greenham and Tim Cornish down the course, in the year they set their record.

Those 2 Easter’s were never forgotten. Shortly after 1979 we as a family moved from Walton on Thames to Scotland. Canoeing dropped of the radar and was replaced by Rowing, Sailing and Hillwalking. But the memories lingered.

Beaujolais and Dirty D by our normal training “ground” the beautiful Loch Lomond.

Summer 2009, and Beaujolais, now a slightly older boy, approximately the same age as when his Father had completed his DW, decides to have a go himself. Well not truly on his own, as the first thing you learn is that you cannot do this event on your own irrespective  of whether you are in a K1 or a K2 you need a support crew. This was provided by Cortisone- who is much much more than a support crew+ but we shall leave that there- who mentored a rather Chubby Beaujolais as he came to terms with a thin, wobbly Marsport Macros K1. The first outings were farcical although I had bought the macros with the sales tag line “the K1 for the bigger bodied paddler”- don’t call me fat! and had had it fitted with a larger cockpit, my arse was still too big for the boat. Initially the only way I could get in was by cracking the cockpit. A further consequence of the size of my rear end, was every time I capsized the boat ended up wedged to my bottom- this was problematic and as I capsized at rate of one swim for every 10 metres in the early days, there was a real fear that Cortisone would die laughing. But on Loch Lomond the boat and paddler eventually reached some sort of uneasy truce. I can honestly say that in the 8 years I have been paddling I have never mastered the boat. So Easter 2010 Beaujolais, Cortisone and Henry the grandson of the original Yeomans family DW paddler arrive in Devizes to find the 1977 crew of Mike Kelly and Harry Yeomans have reunited to provide additional support. So a 4 day trip down the Kennet and Avon Canal and the River Thames (and memory lane). Westminster was reached in 19 hours 35 minutes and that part of the mind in which DW had lingered for so long was rendered safe…. or was it.

2011 Jack my oldest boy and I complete the Junior Vet K2 event.

2012 Emlyn and I fail to complete to Senior straight through K2 event- another itch starts to develop.

2013 Morgan and I complete the Junior Vet K2 event.

2014 Dirty D and I fail to complete the Senior straight through K2 event- the itch gets painful- especially as it is my body that fails to get past Old Windsor.

2015 Morgan and I complete the Junior Vet K2 event.

2016 Dirty D and I complete the Senior straight through K2 event in 23 hrs 23 minutes (2O minutes slower than my Fathers time- another itch develops).

2017 I Support Dirty D with her K1 entry.

2018 Dirty D and I are prepped and ready for Senior K2 at our hotel close to Devizes when we realise that the reality is that the race cannot happen due to the River conditions and so return to Scotland and Loch Lomond.