Tandem Yuloh
Today’s industrial revolution is in the Knowledge Economy. By contrast the Industrial Revolution of the 18th-19th centuries concerned heavy engineering and heavy raw materials - coal, iron ore and later, cement. As roads were bad and railways non-existent, carriage by water was critical. So away from the coast, canals had to be dug, and it was cheaper where possible to route them through the plains rather than the hills.
The decline of heavy industry thus explains one of today’s social problems: unemployment is highest in areas remote from either the sea or the hills that elsewhere provide people with healthy and challenging recreation. Fortunately, the canals do provide an alternative, thanks to the vision of a few enthusiasts some fifty years ago. They had the foresight to see that the very decline of the industrial use of inland waterways created both the need and the opportunity to exploit their amenity value.
So today thousands of pleasure boats cruise the canals, and thousands of people fish in them. However, neither of these activities provides the physical challenge that many young people want – or, as their elders say, they need! Canoeing is an exception, but the placid water and speed limitations of the canal make them less fun than rivers. There is thus a case for a canal craft that offers robustness comparable to a narrow boat while demanding the teamwork and physical exertion of a rowing four. But conventional rowing is awkward on narrow canals, especially when maneuvering through bridges or into locks. Luckily, ‘yuloh’ ( usually but less satisfactorily rendered as ‘stern sculling’ in English) provides the answer, as the blade need never move beyond the beam of the boat.
Used in a catamaran hull with gaps in the deck, two or more crew can paddle in tandem, generating ample power to carry a full cargo of camping gear and provisions. Thus:-
‘No more engine, no more noise
Except the shouts of girls and boys
In a team and not alone,
Rejoicing in Testosterone’
Key words for Google:
Yuloh
Ro
Sculling
[email protected]
August 2012; updated July 2013
Click on the links below for more detail.
The decline of heavy industry thus explains one of today’s social problems: unemployment is highest in areas remote from either the sea or the hills that elsewhere provide people with healthy and challenging recreation. Fortunately, the canals do provide an alternative, thanks to the vision of a few enthusiasts some fifty years ago. They had the foresight to see that the very decline of the industrial use of inland waterways created both the need and the opportunity to exploit their amenity value.
So today thousands of pleasure boats cruise the canals, and thousands of people fish in them. However, neither of these activities provides the physical challenge that many young people want – or, as their elders say, they need! Canoeing is an exception, but the placid water and speed limitations of the canal make them less fun than rivers. There is thus a case for a canal craft that offers robustness comparable to a narrow boat while demanding the teamwork and physical exertion of a rowing four. But conventional rowing is awkward on narrow canals, especially when maneuvering through bridges or into locks. Luckily, ‘yuloh’ ( usually but less satisfactorily rendered as ‘stern sculling’ in English) provides the answer, as the blade need never move beyond the beam of the boat.
Used in a catamaran hull with gaps in the deck, two or more crew can paddle in tandem, generating ample power to carry a full cargo of camping gear and provisions. Thus:-
‘No more engine, no more noise
Except the shouts of girls and boys
In a team and not alone,
Rejoicing in Testosterone’
Key words for Google:
Yuloh
Ro
Sculling
[email protected]
August 2012; updated July 2013
Click on the links below for more detail.
Ackers
Click on the below photographs and use the left right arrow to scroll through to see my latest Yulohing Oxford June 2016.