Double Thames Skiff 'Laura II' for Sale

Laura II is a double leisure skiff, fully restored by Mark Edwards at Richmond Bridge in 2014. Her outer hull was revarnished at Tom Jones Boatyard in 2024.

Unplated, her early life is unknown but she is thought to be about 100 years old. She was restored in 1994 by a previous owner under the guidance of Mark Edwards, who then bought her when that owner passed away. After being bought by her current owner, her 2014 restoration included new first planks, addition of the traditional woven wicker coxing seat back, new cushions, and gold detailing inside and out. She has since had various repairs and enhancements made by Mark Neal. Her burden boards were revarnished in 2025 but she could do with revarnishing inside.

The bow seat will lift out for camping.

Length: 24’10”

Blades: 2 pairs of Suttons, adapted from sculling blades

Trailer: Built new in 2014, repainted 2025, unbraked.

Accessories:

• Velvet cushions for coxing seat and bow passenger seat in red velvet (end of the roll that Gloriana’s cushions were made from)
• Wooden paddle boathook
• Flagpole (ensign not included)
• Cover (with mooring fenders) that keeps her totally dry when stored outside
• 2 ball fenders marked with her name plus ‘sausage’ fenders
• Trailer wheel lock
• Bow and stern mooring ropes with mooring pins
• Lace parasol.

Since 2014 she has been a regular feature at Henley Royal Regatta, where she is frequently photographed (particularly when the cox has deployed the lace parasol). She is ideal for tours and trips and has been skiffed from Sunbury to Lechlade and back, to Guildford and most recently across Scotland on the Caledonian Canal.

She has given her current owners (and heir friends) an enormous number of delightful boating experiences and it’s now time for her to provide that joy to new owners.

Happy to deliver within a 100 mile radius of Thames Ditton (or further by arrangement).

Price: £7,000 ono

Contact helena@smalman-smith.net to find out more.

Meandering in the garden

Even though us skiffers can't get out on the water because of coronavirus self-isolation, we can still go on our usual springtime meander. Well, sort of.

The mileage is a lot easier, but there are still friendly (if fake) lock keepers, Jelly Babies, and unfeasibly large cushions.

From Lechlade to Teddington in 76 bridges

Skiffing from Lechlade to Teddington (the navigable, non-tidal bit of the Thames) is known in the jargon as a "Meander". If this conjours up images of gentle paddling through idyllic countryside on a warm summer's day, probably accompanied by a wicker picnic hamper with your cox idly trailing her fingers in the water, you'd be right about the idyllic countryside.

For this, my fourth full Meander, someone somewhere (OK, let's name names, it's all Richard K's fault) decided that instead of the usual, moderately challenging four-day schedule, we'd do it in three days. To compound the reduction in pleasure, we forgot to sacrifice any goats* to the weather gods, and despite it being the early May bank holiday weekend, it was flipping freezing and there was a screaming headwind for the whole of the first day.

I-Spy on a Meander

Let's start with some definitions. "I-Spy" books were much loved by those of us who were kids in the 1970s - and probably by our parents too as they kept us vaguely occupied when on holiday. Each little booklet contained a list of things you might see (with a short, informative explanation), which you ticked off and got "points" for: in I-Spy Birds, for example, you got something like 5 points for a mallard but 50 for an osprey. You get the idea. Some were easier than others: the whole of I-Spy Churches could be completed on a single visit to York Minster, but I digress.

Once you'd amassed 1,500 points you could send off your book to Big Chief I-Spy at Wigwam-on-the-Green (why do I remember this stuff?) and it would come back with a stamp on it. Children were more easily pleased then.

If Disney did rivers: skiffing the Severn and Avon:

If Disney were setting out to create the perfect river, they would surely use the Severn and its dainty sister the Avon, as a model.

On a two-day skiff tour there, we found exquisitely pretty river banks lined with cow parsley and some kind of yellow flower (I’m a rower not a botanist, OK), quintessentially English church towers and fields of unicorns. Frankly, it’s amazing we weren’t surrounded by rainbow bubbles… oh, wait, we were…

English rows or English rose? The Magna Carta 800th Anniversary River Pageant

When it comes to expedition rows, I'm generally drawn towards the more challenging end of the spectrum. But despite involving more time spent picnicking than actually rowing, and the main preparations being  focused on what to wear, this two-day paddle along the Thames from Cookham to Runnymead was a truly splendid extravaganza of rowing in all its forms.

"What sort of boat is that?", was a FAQ along the way (both asked of us and by us); equipment was compared (I experienced boat-hook envy); and we made some lovely new friends too.

Incidentally, where was Magna Carta signed?

Going Just Some of the Wey: A Mini-Expedition Row

Expedition rows can come in all shapes and sizes. And fond as I am of more epic challenges, there are only so many of those you can plan and fit into a year. 

But that still leaves the odd spare Saturday when a short, slightly out-of-the-ordinary row can be fitted in. And so it was that a small party of just six of us, including two who had only been rowing a single-figure numbers of times, set off on a 14 mile round trip up the Wey Navigation Canal in Surrey.

Oh, and did I mention it basically involved going to the pub?

Meander 2014: How the Thames grows up from baby to teenager in four days

Although I'm happy to be accused of stretching an analogy too far, the 124 mile journey of the River Thames from its rural source to the point it becomes tidal, is rather like the development of a child, from wriggling infant to grown young man, ready to head off to sea to seek adventure far from its home shores. 

Along the way it leaves its toys lying around, gets into technology and even acquires some brand-name accessories. Oh, and don't get me started on the state of its bedroom....

Skiffing with the Olympic Torch Relay

Rowing has provided me with many fantastic experiences, and one of the best was taking part in the final stage of the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay. 

Despite the (very) early hour, the riverbanks were lined with people. The brand new Royal barge Gloriana, launched for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee River Pageant, only a few weeks earlier, and crewed on this occasion by former British Olympic rowing medallists, had had a special flame cauldron installed in her bows, ready to take the flame when Sir Matthew Pinsent arrived with the torch. 

But this wasn't a voyage that Gloriana would be making alone...

Meander 2011 (Part 2): Ending with a fizz

Day 2 of our "meander" by skiff from Lechlade to Teddington (you can read the story so far here) saw our little flotilla of six boats taking to the water at 6am. Which was a bit grim, but also extremely beautiful. 

Our first lock of the day was Abingdon, and once out of that we rewarded with the iconic sight of Didcot Power Station's cooling towers looming above the reeds in the distance. 

Meander 2011 (Part 1): From tadpole to opera

Many, many rowers, myself included, row regularly on one of the 45 stretches of the Thames between locks. We often race on another two or three. 

But that leaves an awful lot of Britain's most famous river left to explore, which was one of the best bits of this 135 mile skiffing tour from Lechlade to Teddington over an Easter weekend.

There were also chocolate eggs, history lessons and a Handel aria in an unexpected place.