A $1.5 million rowing boat

[Hwyl]

Built especially for the Queen's jubilee. I am impressed but I would have used one of the royal barges that already exist in the Greenwich museum. I remember one was almost completely covered in gold leaf.

http://www.motorboatsmonthly.co.uk/n...barge-gloriana

[Bob Adams]

Oh, you mean Pounds Sterling. I wuz gonna say, that would take quite a few oarsmen!

[Hwyl]

Oh, you mean Pounds Sterling. I wuz gonna say, that would take quite a few oarsmen!

I changed the title to dollars, Bob

[outofthenorm]

$1.5M? And we thought that $75K was a lot for a shantyboat. Somebody made serious dough on this job.

[Farfalla]

putting some finishing touches too her!
would've been a nice job building her but was it really necessary.
Maybe they can make some money hiring her out to rich russian business men , Arab oil sheiks or City bankers, for cruises up the River.

[landlocked sailor]

Except for commercial use no boats are "necessary". Rick

[Farfalla]

Shee will be the lead boat in the jubilee flotilla that will parade down the river. there will be more than 1000 boats.
none of the royals will be in her so i'm not sure why she's being called the "Royal' Barge", she is a copy of earlier ones.

[Hwyl]

The royal theme park is a commercial venture and I'm sure the jubilee will show a net profit. I just question whether it would not have been better to use an existing royal barge, like this.

[Garret]

Stb bow & port #3 are either getting yelled at or about to be!

[the_gr8t_waldo]

poor local boat builder,mark edwards, must be a VERY tired lad!!!

[Hwyl]

[bamamick]

That is a seriously large amount of money! What, is there a little nuclear reactor under there in case those guys get tired?

Mickey Lake

[keith66]

It has two electric outdrives in case the rowers get tired, and a bow thruster ffs.

[James McMullen]

That boat is worth every penny and you know it, people. What else were they supposed to use that money for? Two and a half hours of the cost of daily operations in the continuing war in Afghanistan? That boat is a freaking bargain, and far more useful!

[Larks]

It seems a little.......hmm..... inconveniently timed?.... to read about this and the Cutty Sark, as interesting as it is, straight after seeing this:

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?147074-UK-economy-in-double-dip-recession

[john welsford]

Perhaps, but think of it this way, that money will have kept a number of very skilled people in a living, in their trade, and helped to preserve not only the traditions that are part of those boats and that ship, but the skills of those people.
I'd rather see that, than see some very wealthy banker buy an island in the Carribbean or South Pacific and the money go to other rich ( insert your letter of preference here ) ankers .

Just as a by the by, those boats in the museum, will have dried out to such an extent that getting them to float would be a long and difficult process that would likely endanger their continued preservation.

John Welsford

It seems a little.......hmm..... inconveniently timed?.... to read about this and the Cutty Sark, as interesting as it is, straight after seeing this:

http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?147074-UK-economy-in-double-dip-recession

[Thorne]

What John W said - if your Monarch or President or Fearless Leader has to do some conspicuous consumption, why not put some of that money in the hands of craftsmen working with wood and producing things of beauty?

[Larks]

You are right of course John, it just seems to be, as I say, inconveniently timed that they both make news on the same day.

[Farfalla]

A private individual is paying for it and it in fact has nothing to do with the royal family. It is based on one of the original boats in the museum.
There is no way that those original boats could be used and they are part of the national heritage, not available for private use even if they could be reused safely which is highly unlikely!

Most of the jubilee regatta is being paid for by industry, not the taxpayer. But not local companies, they are almost all foreign companies. The locals all baulked at not being able to advertise on the various vessels.

[Hwyl]

Thanks for the information Sophie. She was apparently paid for by Lord Sterling the president of P&O and owner of Swan Hellenic. Good for him. Much of the wood came from Charlie's estates.

I should have said that my thought of refitting one of the barges in Greenwich(and I've since found out there is a Royal barge house at Windsor) was irrational, but this is the WBF where we celebrate irrational builds and restorations.

[kpenokie]

Forumites could have built it for $1 million and smiled while doing so.

[KABAR2]

Compare that to the number of trips Airforce one has made in recent years for vacations and it's a bargan......

[keyhavenpotterer]

Just 20 London boatbuilding craftsman working for 12 months, paid £50k a year comes to that.

[outofthenorm]

Just 20 London boatbuilding craftsman working for 12 months, paid £50k a year comes to that.

My point exactly. I'd think that on a based-on-profit job, that same crew could have built more than one vessel in 12 months. That's a lot of man hours. It's not as though they had to re-invent anything or do any trial and error work. The prototype is right there.

- Norm

[John Meachen]

Just 20 London boatbuilding craftsman working for 12 months, paid £50k a year comes to that.

Around here you could reverse the 50 and the 20 and ought to be able to get a lot more work done for the total cost.

[NickW]

Around here you could reverse the 50 and the 20 and ought to be able to get a lot more work done for the total cost.

John, if you did that then the boatbuilders would be seriously underpaid, most probably below the minimum wage. Thinking back on it, the cable guys (those who run electric cables but not connect them, that's an electrians job) working on the Jubilee Line extension (late 1990's) and on Heathrow T5 (early 2000's) got £50k a year!

Nick

[John Meachen]

John, if you did that then the boatbuilders would be seriously underpaid, most probably below the minimum wage. Thinking back on it, the cable guys (those who run electric cables but not connect them, that's an electrians job) working on the Jubilee Line extension (late 1990's) and on Heathrow T5 (early 2000's) got £50k a year!

Nick

I don't disagree with the sentiment but minimum wage is around £6.15/hour.I know a good number of local boatbuilders who earn about 40% more than that and they would regard £25K a year as almost impossible to conceive.I don't suppose too many people like to think about the brakes on their car being serviced by YTS boys either,but it happens.

[Gerarddm]

Looking at her profile, aesthetically it seems to me a modern looking bow married to a cool old antique stern.

[JimD]

Its funny looking.

[keyhavenpotterer]

We just spent 10 thousand million on two aircraft carriers. One already with a plane problem and it hasn't been built yet. The other we can't afford to float when it is finished. The one we did have we had to scrap early to help pay for them, so we are completely without. The spare in case of war is being fit out but not launched either.

So we've gone for a gilded rowboat: our secret trans-atlantic stealth project is now unvailed: anti radar, silent running, shoal draft. Those SBS boys will be trained to kill an argie' with an oar. Don't be fooled by this jubilee. Just a screen. Yes we're now fully ready for those south american bandits.