I row a VanDusen single, which turns out to be a blessing and a curse. A blessing because I like rowing the boat and because I think it's the fastest boat for me out there. A curse because there aren't too many of them in Europe. And by aren't too many, I think there are three. Total. 

Luckily, I happen to know the owners of these boats, and Anne Marden Grainger has been kind enough to lend me her boat for the summer. (The Van Dusen community is relatively small, and, as far as I can tell, it consists mostly of New England masters rowers.) The only minor detail is that her boat has an aluminum wing rigger, and I row with a carbon fiber wing, which means I fly trans-Atlantic with my rigger in the checked luggage. I wish it fit in the overhead bins so I could keep an eye on it. 

On my most recent overseas trip (this past June/July to Henley and World Cup 3), I had carefully wrapped my rigger in layers and layers of bubble wrap as I had on my previous adventures, but security was suspicious and on both trans-Atlantic flights, they cut through the bubble wrap thus exposing the delicate carbon fiber of my rigger. I have two slight cracks to prove the trauma my wing has been through. Fortunately, they are not in load bearing areas. 

This trip, I knew I needed a new solution. Something that would protect my wing while allowing security to see what was inside the bag. My first thought was a guitar case-like object--hard, durable, form fitting with soft felt on the inside. Surprisingly, no one makes hard wing cases! I guess most people don't travel in airplanes with their riggers. I went to Plan B: design and build my own wing protection that would fit inside my current bag. 

I began with two dense foam sleeping mats made for camping, one three-inch foam egg crate for hospital beds, scissors, a big needle, string, and a lot of packing tape. I cut the pieces, and, while attaching them, I had to switch from packing tape to duct tape. Packing tape doesn't curve well and couldn't take the corners while sticking to the foam. Duct tape made my life a lot easier. Then, I sewed the dense foam outer layer to the thick, squishy inner layer. A few hours later (scattered over a few days), I have a wing-rigger shaped foam nest that fits snuggly inside my rigger bag. Importantly (and what my parents were worried about seeing the layers and layers of foam), the rigger fits inside the foam inside the bag.  

The final touches are some big, bright yellow, home-drawn "FRAGILE" tags that I sewed to the outside of the bag. I even included some stick figure images of a rowing shell and what a rigger is just in case my "Sports Equipment: Rowing" memo doesn't clear things up.

Now, all I can do is hope security doesn't find my duck-taped creation suspicious and cross my fingers that my rigger gets to Bled in one uncracked piece. I fly out Sunday night.