14 July 2026

By Göran R Buckhorn

Yesterday, HTBS ran a piece about a Donoratico owned by Steven Hromadka in Cincinnati. Steven wanted to get some more information about his eight and if it had ever been used at the Olympic Games in 1976. A rumour said that the Brits won a silver medal in the boat. HTBS turned to Hugh Matheson, who rowed ‘4’ in the silver crew, to ask him. Hugh came back saying that the crew had not brought a Donoratico to Montreal, but an Empacher, named Leisure Sport, and the Carbon Tiger.

Later Hugh followed up with another email, now about their Carbon Tiger.

Hugh writes:

Coach Bob Janousek brought the Carbon Tiger, a prototype carbon fibre boat built by London Rowing Club’s oarsman John Vigurs, to Montreal to use only if we were so far off the pace that a much lighter boat might make a difference.

Bob indulged himself in a bit of showmanship by making us get it off the rack and rig it while the East Germans were hanging around. They watched fascinated. Werner Klatt, one of the few willing to open his mouth in the presence of Westerners, growled “Ach, ein ersatz boot”. We had used it very few times in practice and it had come apart in various places under pressure, so it was risky.

We did have standard wooden oars on which the loom had been shaved down to a thin stick. The loom was then laminated with lengths of slender carbon fibre rail, more on the fore aft section to stiffen the draw and fewer up and down to give a bit of damper on the blade entry. They were made by a traditional oar maker, Jerry Sutton in Staines. I think the carbon fibre had come from the Harwell Atomic Research station near Wallingford where Vigurs was working. 

The Carbon Tiger technology was bought by Tony Howarth, who we knew as the landlord of The George Hotel in Wallingford. He started a boat building company, Carbocraft, and shortly after hired Janousek to run it. When Tony had had enough, Bob bought him out and changed it to Janousek Racing Boats, which in due course bought Stämpfli Racing Boats from Melchior Bürgin. The original Carbon Tiger boat is in the collection of the River and Rowing Museum, which has closed its doors for the public.

None of this is any help to Steven Hromadka in Cincinnati with his Donoratico. It was not our boat in ’76, but there were lots of Donoraticos in British rowing, at all levels, because they ran well in rough water. His boat may well have begun life with a GB team.