Rowing unites people at Cambridge like no other sport, and it is thought that nearly half of the University population will try it during their time here. But while the competitions, training and social aspects are well known, few people are aware of...
In the early mornings, during term time, the River Cam experiences its very own rush hour. Scores of rowers in dozens of eights from the more than 30 college boat clubs descend on the narrow ribbon of water that winds its way from Jesus Green to Bait’s Bite Lock.
But behind the armada of boats is a small band of college boatmen who make Cambridge’s most famous sport possible.
“If you go down to the river in the morning at sunrise, all the college crews push off at the same time,” says Paul Knights, one of the longest-serving boatmen on the Cam.
“Because the river’s so narrow it’s hard to overtake, so each boat becomes part of a giant flotilla making its way downstream.”
Paul has worked for Queens’ College since 1984, and has lived above the current boathouse since it was built in 1987. Looking out across the Cam to Midsummer Common, it is, he admits, an enviable place to live. But living above his office means that students think he’s always on call.
“Although I can just walk down the staircase to work, occasionally there are times when you get students knocking on the door because they’ve left their keys somewhere,” he says.
Like many employees of the University, Paul has a close relationship with its students. And although coaching isn’t part of his job description, it is something he often does in his spare time. “I like doing it if I get something out of it – when you get results it’s wonderful,” he says.
“Last Lent term I coached the first women’s crew two mornings a week, leaving here at 6.30am, while a friend of mine, Bill Sadler, coached them at weekends,” explains Paul.
When their boat excelled in the Lent bumps, he was delighted. “They did very well. They went up four places and won their oars. In the May term they decided to bring in some younger blood to coach them – a nice guy, but they only went up two places in the Mays!”
Getting on with the students, as well as looking after college boats and blades, is all part of what makes a good boatman, he says. “You have to be willing to do anything and everything. A good boatman should not just be concerned with coaching or repairs – he or she has to get on with the students and advise them on their technique.”
As much as it demands physical fitness, rowing is a supremely technical sport and Paul’s success as a club and England rower means he has bags of experience to pass on.
Before arriving at Queens’ he lived in the London area and rowed for Walton-on-Thames Rowing Club, racing at many events and winning most of them, including a gold medal in Belgium. “At Henley Royal Regatta we lost to the crew from Lea Rowing Club who went on to win the Britannia Cup that year,” says Paul.
After racing at the National Championships in Nottingham his crew was asked to represent England at the Home Counties at Strathclyde Park Loch. “We raced against the Irish police, An Garda Síochána, but they beat us quite convincingly.”
Still rowing on the Cam and racing locally, Paul competed in the British Indoor Rowing Championships in 1997/98, where he held the British 40-plus lightweight record for two years, and went on to the World Indoor Rowing Championships in Boston, taking bronze in his age category.
He has won so many pots – which line his bookshelves – that he’s started giving some away, and his medals hang around the frame of a very special drinks cabinet made from the bow of an old clinker-built cedar wood eight.
“On the water the boat was called Wet & Willing, and when I arrived at Queens’ in 1984 it was broken. It had hit the bank and smashed so it couldn’t be used – it was my first repair,” he remembers. “They raced it in the Lents and trashed it again, this time so badly that it wasn’t worth repairing, so I decided to keep it as a cabinet. The boat was built in 1957, the year I was born, so it’s got a bit of history to it and sentimental value.”
Cambridge born and bred, Paul began rowing when he left school for an apprenticeship at Rattee & Kett. “I bought my first sculling boat from B&H Racing Crafts. When it needed varnishing and canvassing, Roger Silk, the boatman at the Lady Margaret Boat Club, carried out the work.”
At the end of his apprenticeship, work took him to London. “As a carpenter and joiner I was doing shop-fitting,” he explains. “The hours were awkward – you start work when the shops shut at 5pm and finish at 8am – and I didn't fancy doing that all my life.”
So when the previous Queens’ boatman Reg Pettit retired, Roger Silk suggested that Paul applied. His wood skills and rowing achievements secured him the job and Roger taught him the boat-building skills he needed.
It is the design of boats and blades that has changed most over the 26 years since Paul first started working as a boatman: “When I first came here all the boats were wooden except for one plastic four. Now we have just two wooden eights and everything else is plastic. It’s been a big change.”
They may look lovely, but Paul does not miss wooden boats. “They were forever leaking. In clinker boats, the boards would shrink and expand,” he explains. “When I first started here you would have to put a boat in the water the day before you wanted to use it for it to swell.”
Student rowers have changed too, observes Paul. “If they’ve rowed before they are fitter and stronger. And they’re definitely taller. Most of the men are over 6 feet now, whereas that used to be considered tall.”
So tall are some of the men, that boat builders need to tweak the design of new boats to accommodate them. “We have some rowers who are 6 feet 6 or 6 feet 8. They are so long that they can only fit in one place in the middle of an eight,” Paul explains.
His day-to-day work, bar mountains of email, remains much the same today as in 1984: repairing boats and blades, cleaning the showers and changing rooms and, most importantly, making sure the boat house and its equipment is safe and healthy to use.
“I have to check the boats for anything that might cause injury – from missing heel restraints and bow balls to sharp edges,” says Paul. “And once a month I check the life jackets and survival kit bags, which all the coaches now have to wear in the cold months.”
The move follows an accident last winter when a rower was ejected from the boat and into the near-freezing river after catching a crab. “Since then we’ve introduced a system whereby all coaches carry a bag with first aid kit, a thermal blanket and warm, dry clothes.”
Also on Paul’s advice, when British media reported the death of double Olympic gold medal winning rower Andy Holmes from Weil’s Disease in 2010, Queens’ installed dispensers around the boathouse so rowers can disinfect their hands after an outing.
So next time you spot boats out on the Cam, or watch the bumps from the towpath, remember it’s not just the rowers, but the small band of boatmen working hard to make it all possible.