Assembling a collection of boats to meet one or all three of our criteria – prototype, fame or representation – was a lot of fun as well as a challenge. The most significant were destined for display, including the historical bookends of eight-oared racing consisting of the cutter that won the first University Boat Race for Oxford in 1829, and Carbon Tiger, a revolutionary prototype that made its entry in 1976.
A Cornishman working for Isaac King in Oxford built the Oxford boat – sometimes described as a cutter, sometimes a gig – for Balliol College in 1828. It is of clinker construction (aka lapstreak, consisting of overlapping planks) with seats either side of the keel and owing design features to ocean-going Cornish pilot gigs and boats that plied their trade on the non-tidal
Thames. It was liberated from the Science Museum, although there was a dodgy moment when its keeper had second thoughts about releasing it just as we allotted it pride of place in the rowing gallery. The RRM’s CEO, Jonathan Bryant, called me to his voice and asked what I would do if the Oxford boat remained in South Kensington.