The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project

Builders and crews have 85 days and nights of hard work to be ready for the first ever St Ayles Skiff Regatta, to be held at Anstruther on 29 May 2010.  The races will be held under the auspices of the Scottish Fisheries Museum.   Keep an eye on this website for further details.  It is hoped to hold a meeting of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association in the morning before the racing starts.

Due to a mixture of reasons – mainly the very poor weather forecast for the duration of when the boat would have been in transit, the trip to London has been postponed until further notice.

We will re-schedule the trip, and post when this has been set up.

We apologise forthe inconvenience caused.

We are intending paying a visit to London over the weekend of 27/28 February, where the prototype will rowed from Richmond.  There are already a couple of interested groups wanting to try her out with a view to using her for rowing the Great River Race.

If you would like to give her a try while she is in London, please contact Alec Jordan on 01592 560162.  If you cannot make it for that weekend, there will be a St Ayles Skiff at the Beale Park Thames Boatshow on the 4-6 June, where there will also be opportunities to try her out.

The crew from Royal West take the Protoype on her first Clyde outing.

In perfect conditions, and with local modification, Chris o’Kanaird was tried out by several crews from Royal West.  A crew from Lough Foyle also pitched up, and she seems to have made an impact.

Video of the Irish crew.

Well it’s not far and it was a beautiful day.  The boys from East Wemyss came for a row, a couple came from Kinghorn for a look, and the folk of West Wemyss were able to see her rowing past their windows.

There was a bit more sea than we have had before, and she rode the swells very comfortably.  Next step is to get the stretchers fitted and a proper set of oars.

One day I will work out how to embed video in here, in the meantime, click on the link to see her in action.
Winter Sunshine at West Wemyss

The Ullapool Skiff Syndicate have glued their Garboards in place, Plank 2 and the rest of the plank scarfing are scheduled for a full day in the cowshed on Sunday. Amazingly epoxy is curing overnight in temperatures that were thought to be impossible. Apart from the hot air generated by the debate on Ply versus ‘Real wood’ the cowshed has no heating so the Ullapool Skiffies are mightily impressed.

Topher and Richard working on the Garboards of Ullapool 1

Ullapool 1 Garboarded

Visit the Ullapool Skiff Website for more detail on planking progress including a rather natty plank bearding gauge

We are pleased to welcome Ian Clark onto the Steering Group.

Ian is a long time member of Royal West of Scotland Amateur Boat Club and is bringing his expertise on the organisation of coastal rowing events, and will be helping draw up the rules of racing.  He will also be a contact point for interested parties & groups on the Clyde.

Contact details will be published in a few days.

Please note that the dates of the North Berwick Regatta have changed (an error in posting here) and the Great River Race in on the Thames (The date has been changed to the 25th Sep 2010).