Beech Grove man has fallen for the life of the batteau

More than four years ago, Brian Roberts of Beech Grove was bitten by the batteau bug.

What began as a hobby has now turned into an obsession for the 28-year-old college student, who spent his whole spring break this year building his own batteau to join the other 18 vessels that floated down the river for the 2009 James River Batteau Festival last week.

“I recently thought about getting a bumper sticker made that said ‘Batteau is life,’” Roberts said. “During the winter, I don’t do a whole lot with it, but starting spring time, I start getting excited. And you can ask any of my friends or anyone I’ve met in the last two years and all I talk about is batteau.”

Roberts’ affection for the historic, shallow-draft and flat-bottomed water crafts began when his boss invited him to take a ride on his batteau for a day. The one-day excursion turned into a three-day event.

For the next year’s festival, Roberts said he made sure he had enough time off from work to go all week.

In 2007, Roberts’ was given an old boat, the Fluvanna, by a captain who couldn’t keep up with the repairs on the vessel.

“Once I had my own boat that was given to me, I don’t think there was ever going back to having to ride someone else’s,” he said. “There is certainly a sense of accomplishment in navigating a boat down the river, especially in a low-water year and just being able to do my own thing if I wanted to.”

Roberts’ new batteau, the Rockfish Runner, is made from six tons of lumber, is 50 feet and six inches long, seven feet wide and took more than 450 hours to build on a spring break, weekends and spare weeknights. The batteau is towed on three single-wide trailer home frames that are welded together.

The name, the Rockfish Runner, comes from a combination of Roberts’ life. The Rockfish River runs near his home in Nelson County and Roberts’ said he is an avid runner.

Roberts said it also comes from “run down the river” and “run down the rapids,” both batteau river floating terms.

The Runner’s maiden voyage was a week before this year’s batteau festival, when Roberts took members of the Wintergreen Nature Foundation from Howardsville to Scottsville, normally an eight-hour float down the river.

“It took us three and a half hours,” he said. “And the only time I put a pole in the water was to help stop at the end.”

This year’s batteau festival went much the same way on the James River. With heavy rains in previous weeks, the river was running at a higher than normal depth and speed.

The Rockfish Runner made it to Wingina, the festival’s only stop in Nelson County, from Bent Creek in Amherst County five hours ahead of schedule.

“It was great,” Roberts said. “We got in there Monday at 3:30 p.m. and never had to put a pole in the water when normally we get in at 8 or 8:30 p.m. and are not sure we’ll have enough energy to even set up camp. The water made everything a ton easier.”

Roberts said he only found one leak in the boat throughout the trip, but it wasn’t “terrible” and is something he’ll be able to fix before the next trip.

This year, Roberts was also awarded the Dewey Wood pole, an award that is given to one new batteau captain each year and a tradition that began in 2007, when Holt Messerly found an old river pole that possibly belonged to Wood.

Wood, who was an avid batteau man, was shot and killed in May of 2007. Festival participants honored Wood in Wingina on June 22 with a small ceremony.

Messerly found a broken pole in the river a few years ago with a metal tip and the initials “S.C.” welded into it, he said. Wood was on the batteau Sam Cabbell for many years.

“I have no way to prove if Dewey Wood actually had that pole in his hands, but chances are that he did since it had the old boat’s initials on it and if anyone could break a pole it would be Dewey,” Messerly said.

Roberts said he was honored to receive the pole this year.

“Having known him, spent time with him and hung around with him, it’s pretty special,” Roberts said. Roberts didn’t want to lose the pole in the river so he didn’t use it, but said it was somewhere “safe at home.”

And after a week on the river, Roberts is still happy he built his own boat and has more trips down the river planned for the summer.

“This will last till I’m 40 and I’ll probably build another one after that,” he said. “And we’ll see how long that one lasts.”