Crowds withstand showers as rain fails to dampen our parade

THOUSANDS of boat enthusiasts and spectators braved unpredictable and extreme weather to attend the Thames Traditional Boat Festival last weekend.

Numbers suffered on Friday and Saturday due to heavy wind and rain, which made river conditions unstable for boaters, but “hardcore” boat owners still turned up, with some camping over in a neighbouring field for the event, which is held annually in Fawley Meadows, Henley.

Unfortunately, the CMB 9, a motor torpedo boat dating back to the First World War, was unable to make it to the event, and the war plane fly-overs were cancelled due to dangerous crosswinds.

But amphibious cars drove up and down the Thames and Alaska, the oldest passenger steamer afloat, gave tours.

On land, illuminated vintage bicycles travelled along the towpath and vintage and classic cars were on display, accompanied by commentary from Jan Stanton and Jane Percival.

In the evening, an illuminated parade of boats went past. Returning winner De Zwaan was parked on the bank with a slideshow projected on to its sails showing photos of its past and present.

Peter Green, the skipper and owner of Alaska, said: “There are lots of likeminded people and interesting boats. It’s a social occasion as well because everyone has the same interests.

“We were about the only boat out yesterday (Saturday). The wind makes it interesting, or difficult, depending on how you look at it, but a lot of people had come a long way to have a trip on this so we didn’t want to let them down.”

Chef Paul Clerehugh’s Crooked Billet restaurant in Stoke Row had a stall selling drinks and food and hosted live music. It served nearly 10,000 customers over the course of the weekend.

On Friday, saxophonist Art Themen, from Henley, performed jazz and blues and the Covered performed pop, rock and soul favourites dating from the Fifties to the present day.

On Saturday, Mickey Gallagher’s Exmen performed covers of the songs by the Bay City Rollers and the Kinks, followed by Forties swing and jive band Ding Dong Daddios.

On Sunday, Joe Martin had the crowd singing and dancing together, bringing on special guest “Ringo Starr”, who walked around after singing With a Little Help From My Friends taking photographs and chatting to the audience. To finish the event, Clearwater Creedence Revival performed the greatest hits of their Sixties near-namesakes.

Ross and Suzanne Ahlgrew, of Wargrave, have been coming to the “Trad” for the last six years with their boat Chin Chin. Mr Ahlgrew said: “I’m a friend of the event and Suzanne judges some of the competitions. Usually, the weather is beautiful but it’s the camaraderie of the people that keeps me coming.

“Obviously, the weather is a bit bad, but the hardcore people are here and it’s still lovely and people still turned out. Even on Thursday evening, we partied until 11pm and when we left, everybody was still going. Friday was raining all day and Saturday was windy.

“Normally, there are twice as many boats on Saturday. A lot of people have stayed away and parking and everything else has been a nightmare. So, not a lot of boats are out today, but they’ll be out tomorrow.”

John Chew, of Wargrave, brought his slipper launch, Elsalisa. He said: “Our boat has been coming here since 1986, although we haven’t. All of these boats here would be from between 1930 and 1950.

“I chose a slip launch because modern boats, which we call Tupperware boats, are designed so that all the people can sit around and talk to each other. Whereas in these boats, you have two people at the front, the two men looking forward, and the two women would be at the back, chatting. That’s really the difference between these very old ones and the modern ones.”

Tony Knights, the director of boatbuilders Henwood and Dean, based in the Hambleden Valley, had a stall to talk to customers and visitors.

He said: “We have bought a 30ft slip launch which we have been working on for about two years. It’s a complete rebuild. It dates back to around 1948.

“We are entering it into competitions. Previously it won the Andrews trophy which is for best slip launch and looks at maintenance and restoration.

“We come every year to talk to customers and other boatbuilders. It’s obviously very, very wet but today (Saturday) has been good and I think tomorrow will be better as well. The boats haven’t been going out much today. It’s too dangerous and you just get blown off course.”

Former winners Inga and Marcel Linssen, who own De Zwaan, came back from the Netherlands “to return the silverware” from last year. They dressed in Forties’-style clothing Mr Linssen had made specially. He said: “In Holland, they had the first regatta organised where women could compete. Not for speed, for grace and elegance. They had these dresses to wear. We were last year’s winners, so we had to come back to give back all the silverware.

“We have had this boat for about 16 years now and I have been working continuously to restore her, so she has been ready for about the last six years. I am an amateur — I was a dentist. I love seeing everybody, being seen, we don’t have these in the Netherlands. ”

Trevor Mulford, of Cookham, brought his 1929 boat Tolbert to show. He said: “The atmosphere is lovely and it beats everything else. Everybody is so lovely.”

Stalls sold food and goods ranging from gin and pizza to vintage furs, scarves and jewellery. Vicki Clark, who runs the sales and events team for Henley Gin, had a stall with Helli Thornton.

Ms Clark said: “It has got better and better as the weekend’s gone on — you couldn’t have got worse really on Friday. Drinks sales have been really good, from a really good combination of locals and visitors.

“We took the gazebo down last night because I was so worried I would turn up this morning (Sunday) to half of it in the river and my stock everywhere. This is our third year here and we love it, it’s a proper feature in our calendar. Numbers day to day are definitely down but I am hopeful that people who were potentially going to come have put it off until today.” Lilly Fung, of Windsor, came with her friend Lyndon Yorke, of Booker Common, who owns an amphibious car.

Ms Fung said: “I am into anything vintage, retro, old fashioned because I’m an engineer, so I work on really high tech aircraft. I love the contrast of high tech aircraft technology and then the old mechanical things, old technology, the old cars. I find it absolutely fascinating. This is amazing to be here. This is the first time I’ve been here to see all of these.

“The weather was not good but the spirit is amazing. Everyone is happy and there’s a really good community spirit and you can feel the passion of the people who are exhibiting their boats, the love they have, their machines, the knowledge they have of the restoration work they’ve been doing.

“The enthusiasm of the people here was brighter than any sunshine and really blasted the rain away.”

Adam Toop, co-chairman of the event, announced the winners of the various prizes given out to boats on Sunday.

He said: “This is a quintessentially British event, so I’m going to talk about the weather and I’m going to point out that last year I had beads of sweat appearing on my shirt before I’d said a word. This year we have been overwatered and overblown, but I have to say there is a common theme. All of you have walked around with huge smiles on your faces, have been incredibly positive and been very British about it and unlike other festivals I could mention, we didn’t cancel just because it was windy.

“We are absolutely committed to making this as inclusive as possible compared to anything else on this reach of the river. This event is the most inclusive and the most accessible, irrespective of budget. The site costs continue to spiral, the insurance costs continue to spiral. It’s not a complaint, it’s an observation.”

He thanked Michael Shanly, Grundon, Hobbs of Henley for its ferry service and estate agent Hamptons for sponsoring the event. He also thanked treasurer Paul Owen, Lyndon Yorke, Peter and Sue Harris, Cliff Colburn, Solent Cycle Club and Lady McAlpine.

Mr Toop also thanked the judges. He said: “Their depth and breadth of knowledge is astonishing and I’d like to think that whatever the results of the judging, people come away better for the experience, knowing a little bit more.”

He announced the winners of each category, who came on stage to receive trophies of different shapes and sizes.

Michael O’Brien won four trophies for his boat Lockheed and the Linssens won the Aqualite trophy for best eccentric dress. Mr Toop jokd: “The Aqualite was judged last night in trying conditions, so congratulations just for participating.

“Winners of the unpowered craft, best illuminated — it’s the Dutch again, isn’t it? They cycle home with an indecent amount of our silverware and then come back just to do it again. If it wasn’t enough to win prizes for boats, he then actually made his wife’s dress. And now they have to come back next year to return the trophy.”

Lady Judy McAlpine, who is also co-chairman, said the weather had made running the event more challenging. She said: “Friday was horrible. To see the rain coming down at 6am and knowing it’s not going to stop was awful.

“Saturday was marvellous because although the weather wasn’t much better, we had an awful lot of people here. But it was terribly sad because we didn’t have a flypast and a lot of the boats couldn’t go out. A lot of the boats haven’t come or came and found it too difficult because of the wind and the speed of the river.

“If they tried to turn in here and they’d be blown against the pontoon or they couldn’t even turn in because of the wind and the movement of the water. So, they were having trouble. So quite a few didn’t stay which is a shame. But it has had a good buzz. I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve got two traction engines here this year, it’s the first time I’ve had one here. They’re restored beautifully from a pile of rust and the owners are such lovely people.

“If I’m honest, it’s more stressful than fun. Actually, I suppose my pleasure is seeing a good event well run and making thousands of people smile. It is wonderful to walk along the riverbank and see all these smiling, happy faces.”

Her grandchildren were recruited to help around the site, with some waitressing, some moving tables and chairs around and others acting as security, checking people had bought their tickets.

Lady McAlpine said: “It was chaos on Saturday night, even I was waitressing and the pub was absolutely rammed. We had three private parties and had to find cover for them because it was raining. We put some in the members’ enclosure and I commandeered the tea tent which by that time had closed.

“You can imagine trying to get 50 hot meals from the kitchen to the tents while they were still hot. It was quite fun although I keep saying I am not doing it next year. I said I’m retiring when I’m 80. And nobody believes me. So I’m trying to delegate. Everybody’s lovely. Everybody makes an effort and everybody’s smiling.”

Lady McAlpine criticised people who had come on to the meadows to take part in the event but without paying for a ticket, and some had also entered the members’ enclosure.

She said that she, her children and festival staff were abused by spectators who were without tickets when they were confronted them.

On Saturday night, they went around checking tickets and made an extra £3,000 from people who hadn’t paid for entry tickets.

During her time running the event, she has expanded the festival to cover vintage vehicles and motors on the bank as well.

Lady McAlpine said: “I wanted it to be like the sort of boat version of the Goodwood Revival. I wanted people to dress up in costume as well, but a lot of boats date back to Edwardian times and it’s harder to dress up that way than Fifties’ style.”

She said the amphibious boats did a parade that was loved by the children. She added: “And of course the bicycle club, who are amazing. They’re so supportive. They dress up, they dress their bikes, so they do the illuminated parade on that and they’re so good.”