Previous expeditions in the name of research

In the interests of research, whilst at university, some friends and I ran an annual cruise down the River Taff in cheap inflatable boats. It just so happened to be a brilliant day out, complete with beer, relaxing, and – unusually for Wales – sunburn. All in, it cost around £5 each for a day on the river, including a couple of beers. If you are a student, you live in town with a slow river, and it's sunny, I'd recommend organising something similar.



We naturally found that we grouped the vessels whilst just sailing along. We sailed mostly on drift (like Open Sailing) with occasional separation for paddling. We rode down wiers, over stones and down the rapids, over broken bottles, into abandoned trolleys, and lost just one boat per year. The grouped structure worked best for handling the weirs, both in terms of not capsizing and adding a bit of a challenge.

It's remarkable how well a series of boats costing less than £10 survive a day of intensive sailing, particularly given that they were laden with two or three fully-grown adults, yet supposedly designed for kids.

All in the name of research...

Ollie Palmer