Wingina
Nelson County, Virginia
Make that 25 times that members of the James River Batteau Festival have navigated the river as part of a heritage remembrance along the James. According to the association’s website, “Around 24 batteaux and one gondola expected to make this years trip down the mighty James. The first year the batteaux raced each other and were equipped with oars and crews to row as fast as they could.”
This year our Norm Shafer is along for part of the trip on the James and will be sending in many more up close photos of this year’s 25th trip and celebration.
All previous batteau crews were invited to the silver celebration in Wingina.
Crews will depart Winginia Tuesday morning eventually wrapping up the festival on Saturday June 26th. They leave Cartersville that morning and arrive at Maiden’s Landing around 4PM or later that afternoon.
The Spirit of Amherst won the batteaux race in its inaugural year. I suspect it was the largest batteaux built since 1986. It was not historically accurate but was nevertheless quite a well-built boat with very nice lines and finish details. We pulled a water skier across the finish line at Maiden’s Landing. It appeared on the front page of the Richmond Times Dispatch at the time. The boat was later retrofitted with walk boards for poling and participated another two years, then lived at the Amherst Historical Museum for some time. No idea where it is now. I could be wrong, but I remember batteaux racing for the first three years; some with oars, some with poles. In the end, the desire for historical accuracy and simplicity won out over those who wanted to race, which is unfortunate, because the racing element added a certain amount of excitement to the event.