" When you approach towns and villages through rivers, you see them totally differently. You wouldn’t think they’re the same place. Rowing a river, you’re starting high up and working your way down every day; there’s always a different vista, always something different. It’s the loveliest way to see the countryside and nature. I’ve lost track of the birds, waterfowl, dragonflies and damselflies we’ve seen, everywhere.”Jacqui Price is speaking on the banks of the River Dart in Devon, England, where she and her husband, Chris, keep their 13′ 6″ rowboat, BETTY. Since Chris built the boat in 2010, they have rowed her down three of England’s major rivers—the Thames, the Severn, and the Great Ouse—and have traversed dozens of estuaries, lakes, and even some open coast; in the process, they have clocked up about 700 miles. To their surprise, rowing their “little boat” has developed into as much of a passion as sailing their “big boat”—a 28′ sloop tugging at a mooring on the other side of the river.It all started when Chris retired from their business, making point-of-sale displays, at the relatively young age of 60. He was looking for a project to keep him busy and stumbled across the idea of building a boat. The couple met while working as volunteers at the Exeter Maritime Museum back in the 1970s, and have owned several boats together over the years, starting with a dinghy, progressing to an 18′ wooden Hillyard sloop, a 27′ wooden East Anglian sloop, and finally SOLENT BREEZE, a fiberglass Great Dane 28 (their current “big boat”). Along the way, Chris acquired the necessary woodworking skills to maintain their boats himself—not least replacing the frames on the Hillyard—but he had never built a boat from scratch. It was time to fulfill a long-cherished dream.

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