The original guys who did the Three Men in Boat trip carried out their journey while paddling a skiff. A skiff is a round-bottom clinker-built rowing boat and these are still very common on the River Thames even today. During the year, skiffing regattas are held in various river-side towns in England—the major event being the Skiff Championships Regatta which takes place each year at Henley. More on this later in the book.
On the downward journey we spotted two such skiffs at Cleeve lock and then again at Goring lock. These two skiffs had started from Oxford and were rowing down to Kingston and their occupants were trying the emulate the journey of the original Three Men in a Boat. When asked by the First Mate “Why do you have a crew of five then?” , the leader of the group, a carrot headed chap, called Melvyn told us “ We have a crew of three rowers and the other two in the back are non- rowers and are our chief cooks and bottle washers.”.The First Mate looked over at the couple of dogs sat in the back of the boat, smiled and said “Guard dogs as well eh” .Melvyn laughed and replied “ They’re twins you know, and they’re both called Monmorency “.” Get away the First Mate “said” You must be joking “”Well you started it “ chuckled Mervyn.
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