JMB asked me to write a piece for the Newsletter, about the new landing stage (pontoon in old-speak) that was installed last Summer by Carl and myself, with Keith Vaughan of Tantara Ltd. Now anybody who has read construction reviews must know that they are pretty dry and boring. So, with Peter Bossom's permission, I have tried to lighten things a little, because without his presence and actions, the stage certainly would not have been commissioned or constructed.
Bossom (noun): an accidental event, precipitating a chain reaction initiated by a random act.
To Bossom (verb) : to create a situation by a random act that has no logical conclusion.
A little bit of history to begin with: the old pontoons were installed in the mid-70's by what JMB would describe as 'BoyPower', and I'm sure some readers know exactly what I'm talking about, having been on the receiving end of his exhortations at some stage of your adolescent life, in the form of cheap labour. (It doesn't happen now, of course!)
The original stage was a new design of Ferro-concrete, constructed in 9m x 2m slabs with polystyrene buoyancy tanks moulded on the underside. Originally there were four sections giving us just under 40 metres of staging. In the 80's, all four went floating off towards Bath in a flood, and we managed to rescue only three. An attempt as made to tow the fourth up Warleigh Weir on which it had lodged. The Boat Club Land Rover, along with JMB, BSM and no doubt some BoyPower survived the experience. After the flood had subsided, the raft was drifted down to Minerva Rowing Club on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Over the years the polystyrene has been worn away by contact with the concrete steps down to the river, and various trees, rocks, barrels, bikes, etc., that have got stuck underneath it. The buoyancy was never really adequate and it always floated a little low in the water, but by the beginning of last year, things had got 'pretty bad'.
Come mid-March 2004, enter Peter Bossom (stage right) (hence the O.E.D. definitions above.) Peter looks after the 3rd form in a very enthusiastic and individual way. This particular afternoon, he came bounding down the steps towards the river, carrying one of our new outboards and headed onto the stage, only for it to give way and deposit him and the outboard into the river. Having extricated the outboard first and then Peter, Carl and I decided that enough was enough, and something had to be done as it was not just an inconvenience now, but also a Health and Safety issue.
Now, timing is everything in these situations and the next day saw the two of us sitting in the Bursar's office arguing the case for a new stage. As it transpired, this was just three days before the final decisions were made on the capital budget for 2004/5. We must have sounded pretty convincing, because by the end of the following week, the Bursar, Patricia Bremner, gave us the good news that we could indeed go ahead with the project.
The rest is history. July saw the remains of the old stage removed and the river cleared for the new one. This involved much paddling in waders in some very smelly mud, trying to clear the 30 year-old accumulation of rocks, trees, remains of a pre-war stage, old riggers, rudders and a vintage mobile phone, from where the new structure would be located.
August saw the arrival from Austria of two 40ft lorries, containing what appeared to be 400 plastic drums. These were deposited at Longmead and then floated down the river for eventual installation at the Boathouse. Now we have a brilliant new stage set at the correct height in the water, and it should be there for the next thirty years, if not longer.
At present it is anchored with a long chain to the Dundas Aqueduct. British Waterways, who own that structure, are not too keen on having the stage attached to a Grade I Listed monument and want the chain removed, so I suppose we'll just have to anchor it to that other Grade I listed monument of Monkton Rowing, namely, JMB!
So, thank you Peter Bossom, for your intervention on that cold March afternoon, for without it the Boat Club would still be struggling with wet feet, if not bodies, every tine we went rowing.
p.s. since writing this piece, and just before leaving for a walking
holiday in October, we were informed by the Wiltshire Wildlife Society
that we have a family of otters now established in the Eastern Abutment
of the Aqueduct, and the habitation must NOT be disturbed on any
account. So, a double thank you Peter and Patricia. Had another two
months gone by, we would never have achieved our goal.
Mike Smith