Lounder double tub
Vessel numberHV000735
Builder
H Lounder
Previous owner
Sale Rowing Club
DimensionsVessel Dimensions: 8.1 m × 7.8 m (26.58 ft × 25.59 ft)
DescriptionThe 8.1 m long hull is clinker planked in Oregon with a mahogany gunwale, with five strakes per side. It is rigged as a pair with coxswain’s seat. There is a cast bronze fitting for rudder in place but no rudder or yoke, and overall it is about 90% original. It is a rare example of a Harold Lounder built craft and only its last known previous owner is recorded, the Sale Rowing Club. A page from Lounders hand written accounts shows he built two tub pairs in 1951-52- they cost 88 pounds and 10 shillings and were built for regional clubs.
Harold Lounder worked from a shed on the Torrens River beside the bridge on King William Rd in the city of Adelaide. From at least 1917 he was apprenticed to or worked for and learnt from JW Greenland. He was a rowing shell builder and had built this shed in 1913. Sometime between 1934 and 1937 Lounder became the sole operator/builder in that shed, as Greenland had moved away and probably retired. Lounder remained building rowing craft and doing repairs at the shed until he died in 1972. He also skippered one of the early versions of the POPEYE boats.
The shed remains extant on the river front, in use for school boat storage. It is known as Lounder’s Shed, and is the subject of a possible heritage listing and adaptation to another use to ensure its longevity.
SignificanceThe Lounder shell is a two man wooden rowing shell built in South Australia. The builder was Harold Lounder, but its exact origins are not recorded. It was last used as a training and race boat at Sale Rowing Club in Gippsland Victoria. Harold Lounder built rowing shells under his own name in Adelaide from the mid-1930s until early 1970s and was one of just a few rowing shell builders in SA. This is a rare example of a Lounder built craft
N & E Towns
