No doubt many of you know about the annual concrete canoe race in Melbourne, where various colleges race over a number of events for a handicap trophy, and a team trophy, but did you know that elsewhere in the world concrete canoes are in demand for more serious purposes. Although it may be some time before we see the first concrete sea kayak, the following article from England may interest you.

“When a team from the Royal Military College of Science won the concrete canoe race at the Cotswold Water Park last summer I hardly thought their success was worth drawing to the attention of our readers, well merited though it no doubt was. One naturally thinks of ferro-cement as a material better suited to larger structures where its natural thickness provides stiffness in proportion to its weight.

But more recently I have come across the 33 ft pirogues made for West African fishermen by MacAlister Elliott & Partners of 6 Highfield, Lymington, Hants. As you may see from the photograph they adhere closely to the original form of the hollowed out log canoe with the planked topsides that give sufficient freeboard. Four of these boats were made at Haling Island and sent out to Guinea Bissau for working trials.

But why change from timber?
It seems that in Guinea Bissau they have simply run out of trees big enough to make logs of the necessary size. So the local chaps are planning to build in ferro. The idea is that MacAlister Elliott will set up a local yard and show them hot to do it, and it is hoped locally produced ferro pirogues will actually be cheaper than the genuine wooden article.

Of course these pirogues don’t really have much to do with that canoe race, which most people would consider something of a stunt. Yet the race may have a valuable spin off because it was deliberately sponsored by the Concrete Society to encourage people to experiment with small concrete structures. The designers and builders taking part were university and polytechnic students of civil engineering. They were free to use reinforcement of any material (not necessarily ferro-cement, you see) and the judges were looking for bright ideas and good workmanship.’ One day we may see more small sizes concrete boats, following the lead given by the pioneering fishermen of West Africa.”