Archive for August, 2011

On the way back from North Berwick RC regatta this weekend Chippy McNish stopped over at South Queensferry to help resurrect a traditional race between South and North Queensferry.

On Sunday afternoon a crew from Queensferry RC, in Ferry Lass, and a composite crew from Royal West & Queensferry RC, in Chippy McNish, raced from the Hawes Pier, under the rail bridge, on the South side to the old railway pier on the North. The event formed part of a Harbour Day Festival in the North and was being used to promote the formation of a rowing club on the North side.

Conditions were reminiscent of Anstruther’s regatta earlier this year, but still within the capabilities of the boats and crews. The safety cover provided by the South Queensferry RNLI Inshore Lifeboat was welcome as the current and wind against tide was generating very confused wave patterns. These varied from 1-5 feet and at times were coming from the West then the North West . The crossing took about 30-35mins and was won by Ferry Lass.

Burgers, coffee and cake were taken at the Harbour Festival to revive crews and coxes. St Ayles RC were in attendance to cheer on the crews, they had stopped over on their way back from North Berwick.

Lifeboat providing safety cover for the crossing South to North but was called away on business prior to the return crossing. The return was more direct as the boats headed for Port Edgar marina under the road bridge. The conditions had eased slightly due to the tide having turned but the crossing was still exciting.

Once the boats were safely back ashore at Queensferry RC the kettle was put on, the biscuit barrel opened and some of St Ayles RC also appeared with the remnants of the filled rolls from the tea tent at North Queensferry. We had a chat about the whole weekend and about planned non-racing activity for the winter months. It was a fantastic example of the friendliness and community spirit of the SCRA clubs.

Adam Graham, Royal West

I have been asked to compile next year’s Regatta Calender in advance of the Annual General Meeting in October. Can you please forward to me, at the email address below, any dates that you have been considering.

I am primarily drawing up a calender of events where all member clubs of the Association are invited. If there are internal club events, invitation only events, cruises or skiff related social gatherings send these to me also and I will show these in a separate column for publicity purposes.

Ideally could do with the following information by 18th October:

• Date
• Start time if possible (State of the tide may be defining this)
• Location
• Club hosting the event
• Type of racing planned (Straight sprint event, short buoy turning event(500-1000m), long buoy turning event(1000-2000m), long distance race (2000m+))

The last piece of information above is useful for crews to be able to prepare themselves for the appropriate form of racing.

I would emphasis that no club’s events will be included within the finished version of the calender, or publicised on the Association’s website, unless they have paid their subscription to the Association.

Royal West has been asked to look at hosting the SCRA AGM on the weekend of 28th / 29th October. To make the trip all the way to the wilds of Greenock more worthwhile we thought a weekend of other rowing based activities might be of interest. Please read through the draft proposal below and come back to me if you or your club is interested.

Friday night
Meet and greet. We have a music night in the clubhouse on the last Friday of the month where members offer up a song or some form of entertainment

Saturday during the day
Coaching workshops with Royal West coaches and possibly some visiting experts in coxing and coaching. May have Scottish Rowing’s adaptive co-ordinator willing to speak as well as Scottish Rowing Umpires who are RW members.

Saturday evening
Guest speakers to tell some expedition stories from Royal West trips up the West Coast in the ’60, ’70 & ’80 (have a guy lined up that did Greenock to Skye and back, his crew also made an attempt to get to St. Kilda.) Some social interaction

Sunday am
Regatta symposium and/or Protecting Vulnerable Groups course

Sunday pm
Scottish Coastal Rowing Association AGM

We will have more than enough boats if we can get afloat on the Saturday. If we cannot then we have covered demo space downstairs and comfortable lecture space upstairs.

People can do Frid-Sunday, Sunday pm only or anything in between, however much they want. It would make the long trek from Ullapool or Dunbar more worthwhile.

We can look at accommodation, catering, etc.

Please come back to me with feedback, if enough people are interested I will start to arrange speakers, coaches, catering etc.

Adam

Millport, on the beautiful Isle of Cumbrae in the Clyde Estuary, saw the launch of the latest addition to the Scottish St. Ayles Skiff fleet last Friday evening. Cumbrae was launched in front of an excited crowd of boat builders and well wishers. As you can see from the photos below she is resplendent with her White hull and Saltire Blue sheer strake.

The Blue theme continues internally, which makes for a striking appearance.

She was raced in anger for the first time on Saturday afternoon during an impromptu regatta. Chippy McNish from Royal West and Gobhancroit from Galgeal were in attendance. The racing included two long races from Newton Beach out between The Eileans and back to Newton Beach, the first won by Chippy McNish and the second by Cumbrae. After a short break for refreshment there were then a couple of sprint races just off Newton Beach to please the spectators. These were both won by Chippy McNish, with a spirited crew in Cumbrae coming in second.

Chippy McNish was presented with a shield for having won the most races on the day.

Shield presented to Chippy McNish

There are a very small number of people on Cumbrae involved in using the skiff but hopefully with some encouragement from local clubs on the Clyde, and the possibility that a club will be formed at Tignabruaich this week, their numbers will grow. It is a fantastic venue for a regatta with a sandy beach, direct access camping facilities, the town and all the professional safety cover provided by Cumbrae Watersports Centre.

For photos of the launch have a look at the following website http://www.millport.net/ and click on The launch of Cumbrae – our skiff

We are all looking forward to next year’s event already.