The Ladies Race, which had occasioned so much mild and exhilarating excitement among the members of the club, was a decided success and as Treasurer Nesmith-  the donor of the prize for the lady – said while presenting the prizes, that he hoped it would be the forerunner of many more such races.  The course was just a shade long for the fair ones, but they all pulled to the finish gamely, although several were within an ace of the last gasp:  With a little more practice and with a recognised club of their own –  which is being talked about for next season –  they would become quite expert at the art.

Mr James Orr started the races  and had the boats off to a fine start.  The race in the first heat was decidedly close,  Miss McInnes and J. Orr jun, just finishing half-a-length ahead of Miss Leitch and S. Smyth.

The second heat was if anything a harder race.  Right from the start Miss Miller and J.W. Leitch led till about two hundred yards from home , where the other crews sprinted, and Miss Myles and G.L Lyle and Miss L. Taylor and A.B. Moir gradually gained,  and the gun was fired with the boats in the order mentioned.

Half-an-hour’s respite was granted, during which time the ladies entered the clubhouse, and the first thing sought was a looking glass to see if their curls were in order! The rain up to this point had kept off, but just as the crews were getting ready to start again the clouds let loose and vapourised the Clyde.

Excitement now ran high, and as the crews neared the clubhouse, it was seen that the first two boats-  Miss McInnes and J.Orr, and Miss Myles and G.L. Lyle-  were rowing hard for first place.  Miss McInnes, however, with a long powerful stroke gradually got the lead, which she maintained and eventually won a very hard race by a length.  Through the generosity of a former member of the club a second prize was presented, and this was won by Miss Myles with G.L. Lyle as her partner.

Miss Horsburgh, with curls in order. An Eathar.

This and many other cuttings of historic interest, can be found in a great book called Old Clyde Pullers.  Send the link to whoever is in charge of your Christmas Present list.  Treasure Nesmith might be surprised to find now that just over half of us coastal rowers are female, that these women don’t need to have a bloke in the boat, and that they enjoy the same races as the men, curls or no.  Some things have not changed though.  The rain still vapourises the Clyde

The SCRA committee announced at the recent AGM that the joint winners of this year’s cruising log trophy would be Dunbar and Queensferry rowing clubs.

Read all about their adventures and hopefully get some inspiration to get your own Club out for some adventures around our lovely coastal waters in the coming year!

2018 Queensferry cruising log

2018 Queensferry Appendix 1

Dunbar Cruising log Forth Islands(1)

Well done to both Clubs!

Seamanship and Navigation are important skills for Coastal Rowers to develop.  Although inland rowers can get by with an understanding of good rowing technique, for safe and fulfilling enjoyment of our sport skiffies will do well to develop an understanding of the sea.  This is particularly so as we start to range further in training, racing and recreation.  We also need more rowers, coxes and umpires to be licensed VHF operators, with excellent radio etiquette.

You & Sea also offer classroom courses, both at their base in Helensburgh and at venues throughout Scotland convenient for clubs.  They will offer a discount for these classroom options too.  Contact You & See directly if you would like to discuss attending a classroom course or bringing the classroom to your club.

We are privileged to row in some of Scotland most beautiful locations, from the remote to the urban, in rumbling seas to placid lochs. Over the years, our clubs have been at the forefront of reducing waste and caring for the coastal environments that we call ‘home’. Many do this simply as a matter of routine. In recognition of those efforts and to inspire others to do the same, the SCRA developed the prestigious, Green Flag Awards. A total of 6 of these were awarded at this year’s AGM, to great applause. The first 2 green flags were awarded retrospectively to 2 trailblazing clubs: Isle of Seil and St Ayles, Anstruther

Isle of Seil have been using their skiff, Selkie, to remove litter from the remote beaches and islands around the Firth of Lorn for several years now. Interestingly, they tell us that the vast majority is commercial debris from fish and mussel farms.  This year’s efforts include removing 100m of fish farm pipe from Eilean Gamnha which proved to be just the right gauge for the cox’s railway boat launching system! Recycling at its best.

Meanwhile, over in Anstruther, St Ayles Coastal Rowing Club led the way in terms of zero waste regattas. Not only did they buy-up their dishes, cutlery etc from charity shops to avoid disposable plastic, when the regatta was finished, they washed it and donated it all back again! That’s clever. St Ayles also championed the ‘bring your own mug’ to regattas, something so easy to do, that it’s become another bit of kit.

Isle of Seil and St Anstruther were joined by a further 4 clubs this year, who became 2018 green flag recipients:

Rowers from Girvan joined forces with their local Rotary club to remove well over the equivalent of 800 bags of litter from 9 separate beaches. Phew!  93% of that lot was deemed to be plastic-based litter. Sadly, they tell us this was up 23% on the year before. Amongst this, they found quite a few spent gun cartridges which they say gave them pause for thought!

Girvan rowers in beachwear

Musselburgh’s Eskmuthe, have been campaigning for better water quality and cleaner beaches for some time now. They have become the ‘eyes of the public, directly reporting any concerns to SEPA. As well as inspiring over 60 community volunteers to mobilise for beach cleans, they have developed a sprint version with their “2 minute beach cleans”. On that note, how many bits of beach litter can your club pick up in 2 minutes? Come on, we know you like a bit of competition.

Over to Arran Coastal Rowing Club next, who dispensed with plastic bottled water, arming themselves instead with 25litre refillable water containers with help yourself taps. They’re a right crafty lot, that – making their medals from hand made soap and hand turning mini-fenders from recycled wood. Who wouldn’t want to win one of those? Arran also tell us that following their regatta, the remains of the draught beer was ‘recycled’ by the committee. I’ll drink to that!

Our final award went to Glasgow Rowing club who joined forces with the Marine Conservation Society UK and Keep Scotland Beautiful for an epic clean up of the slipway and pontoon near the Riverside Museum, in advance of Castle to Crane. A total of 14 volunteers removed 38kg’s of litter including a large duvet (possibly from a water bed?!?).  The most surprising find was collecting nearly 2000 plastic stems from cotton buds along an eight metre stretch of slipway. These have been passed on to an artist, Littoral Art, who will use them to create a sculpture with cotton buds collected from UK beaches.

If you are inspired by these clubs, please organise your own ‘green’ projects and don’t forget to tell us all about them. You too could be the proud owners of a Green Flag Award.

The 2019 Edition of the Measurement Rules for the St Ayles Skiff have now been published.

Following a review process the St Ayles Skiff measurement rules have been revised and approved by the SCRA committee.  They will come into force for all regattas (worldwide)  after 1 January 2019.

The rules should be read in their entirety, but the following points may be of interest.

We have removed the imperial measurements, and expressed all measurements in metric.  While doing this, there will have been some minor changes to dimensions, including that the stems outer face being limited to 25mm rather than inch and a quarter.  Fairing of the planking is discouraged, both on the plank edges and on the return corners.

There must be no plastic or metal on the oarlock fittings…..   expect this to be enforced.  The entire thole pin is to be inside the plane of the outer plank (no outrigger) and there is a new limit on how far inboard the pin can be.

On lifting rudders we are asking for a contrasting paint to show the correct amount which must be under the water, making it easier for umpires to check if a raised rudder is never the less within the rules.  Rudders must be attached to the aft face of the stern post.  The use of “beaks” sticking out from the sternpost for rudder attachments will not be tolerated.

A thwart goes from one side of the boat to the other.   Short seats perched on top of cross members are not acceptable, and never have been.  The weight of the rower should be borne by the frames, not the planking.  Therefore there is a limit to thwart spacing to the extent that the thwart must be fixed to the frame and not be forward or aft of it in its entirety.

In breezy but dry weather, on Saturday 10th November Ullapool CRC hosted a Winter Sprint session at the wee pier. Coigach, Loch Carron and Lochinver joined both UCRC skiffs in 250m dashes out of the harbour towards the wee pier. After a warming lunch of soup, sandwiches and cakes, there were longer sprints out to buoys and back, ending with a Le Mans style beach start for a round the moorings race. This was hotly contested with a very narrow finish between Coigach and Ullapool, the latter narrowly leading.

Girvan Coastal Rowing Club pushed the boat out this November: participating in the annual Carrick Festival of Light, with 2018 featuring a sparkling lantern parade celebrating 350 years of Girvan’s Burgh status.  Under a starry sky, led by a piper, Girvan rowers carried their ¾ size lantern skiff-with-a-difference through the streets to the Prom to marvel at the grand, extravagant finale: blazing fire sculptures on the beach.

The Girvan skiff-lantern was among hundreds of lanterns reflecting Girvan past and present: sharks and fishes; ice cream cones and a Punch & Judy stall, SS Waverley paddle steamer, a flotilla of small boats; lighthouses, a giant Girvan Suffragette the RNLI lifeboat boats and many beautifully designed lanterns. Carrick Rural Arts Group organises funding and professional artists to lead the annual Festivals of Light.

The skiff lantern, constructed of environmentally-friendly paper and willow, was built over a number of weeks by a team of Girvan rowers, led by coxswain Ian McClymont, who spent 40 + hours crafting this craft using alternative boat-building skills! Girvan Coastal Rowing Club hope to put their paper skiff on display at (or perhaps in George Wyllie paper boat style, IN) Girvan Harbour in springtime 2019.  See more photos of the Lantern Parade at Girvan Coastal Rowing Club Facebook page.  Photo credits Shirley Tennant and David Wilson.

At the SCRA AGM  some clubs and individuals who have added something to our sport above and beyond doing their own rowing or running their own clubs were recognised by being awarded quaichs with the SCRA logo embossed.  There are many who deserve such recognition, and we hope they all take pride in the work done by those who did receive their rewards this time round.  Those who  received SCRA Quaichs in 2018 are as follows:

St Andrews Coastal Rowing Club:  For helping to bring adaptive rowing to those who benefit from it, and willingly sharing their knowledge, enthusiasm and experience with other clubs.  A group is being set up to share experiences of other clubs and individuals.  Get in touch with the SCRA secretary if you want to be added to the group.

David Tod, Fisheries Museum and St Ayles Coastal Rowing Club of Anstruther:  David was the Chairman of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project, and as a trustee of the Fisheries Museum worked with Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats to commission Iain Oughtred for a design for a community built Coastal Rowing Boat.  He retained his involvement through the St Ayles Rowing Club and remains hugely enthusiastic about the skiff and the benefits it brings.  As he says…..  “We have caught a tiger by the tail”.

Elsie Johnston and Shona Muirhead, on behalf of SCRA, present a Quaich to David Tod.

Royal West of Scotland Boat Club:  Several clubs help in the organisation of Castle to Crane, providing umpires, safety boats, and general volunteers.  However Royal West deserve to be singled out for a quaich because of the enthusiasm a large group of their members put into the race in the days leading up to race day, on the day and afterwards.  Wherever a volunteer at the start end of things was required, there was a good chance the position would be filled by one of their members.  As well as organising the start and supplying and crewing a safety boat, the club somehow managed to turn out crews to fill two St Ayles skiffs and two coxed four Jolly Boats.

Roisin Steele:  For making coastal rowing in Scotland more inclusive and in particular involving more and more young people.  Roisin’s enthusiasm through Deveron Coastal Rowing Club is central to the SCRA Youth Series.  She is always willing to help other clubs to develop their strategies for involving young people, and ensures that young people are involved in every aspect of her own club.

Loch Tummel Sailing Club:  For three years in a row LTSC have hosted us for our AGM and for the Freshwater sprints.  It really has proven to be the perfect venue for our season closing event.  Their club members cheerfully put in a hard days shift before putting in a hard evening’s shift and shutting down the clubhouse for the winter.  All the rowers appreciate the non-stop stream of hot food, hot drinks and cakes, all provided with a smile.  The Quaich was presented to reflect our gratitude for their hard work and warm welcome.