I’ve just about finished the very very final draft of Storm Singing, and in my final round of research, I had to find a boat expert willing to talk to me about the practicalities of getting a centaur across to an island.
My experience in boats consists of being in charge of a yacht twice at school – my physics teacher thought that as I was a whizz at vectors on paper, I’d be able to steer a yacht in Findhorn Bay. In fact I need a diagram to work out my left and right, and as a teenager could crash a bike into a wall even if there wasn’t a wall there. So the first time I was in charge of the wee boat it crashed into someone else’s boat (not even someone I knew), and the second time I sank it. So I’ve never been put in charge of a boat since. Until now. When I had to get Helen and the other fabled beasts round the north coast of Scotland.
Left to myself I’d probably have drowned them all long before they even got to meet the rest of the characters, because until I spoke to Alec Jordan, a boat builder and boat expert in Fife, I was putting Yann right at the front of the tiny wee boat because I thought he would look good as a figurehead. But I did, at the last minute, think, “oh, I wonder if that will make the boat unstable, seeing as he weighs the same as a HORSE.” So I did what I usually do, and I found an expert, and asked them lots of daft questions. But this time, unlike calling people about selkies’ breathing patterns, and mermaids’ tails, and giving the impression that I was writing about seals and fish, I couldn’t really get away with saying, “so I’m planning to put this horse in a rowing boat…” Because NOONE puts horses in rowing boats. So I had to say, “this might be the daftest question you’ve ever been asked, but how can I get a centaur – yes a centaur, half man, half horse – how can I get a centaur in a rowing boat safely?” And to his credit, Alec made himself a cup of tea, and chatted me through it. We didn’t need ballast (which was a shame, cos I was quite proud of knowing the word ballast) all we needed was to put Yann in the middle of the boat, so that he didn’t tip it forward or back, and have Helen row from the front. And, Alec suggested, the horse would need to be quite sensible and not rock the boat too much. Do you think we can ask Yann to be sensible…?
Anyway, thanks very much to Alec Jordan, who I can thoroughly recommend for any queries about Greek mythological beasts in small vessels, or indeed the Scottish Coastal Rowing project, which looks great fun: jordanboats.co.uk
Recent Comments