Many thanks to Broughty Ferry Boating for the following report: We welcomed twelve clubs to Grassy Beach Avoch, Crail, Cromarty, Collieston, Eastern, Elie, Eskmuthe, North Berwick, Portsoy, Queensferry, Wormit plus our own two boats Arthur Nicoll and Brochty for Tay Sail.  It was great to see five clubs who hadn’t visited us before Avoch, Cromarty, Elie, Eskmuthe and Portsoy. Between rowers and their supporters we had over 300 people on the beach which created a brilliant atmosphere.

Unfortunately after a sunny week the weather had given up and we had a day of light rain and showers.  However, it made for great rowing conditions and as we all know a bit of rain won’t dampen Skiffie’s enthusiasm for a good race.

A flooding, strong Spring tide and a different course this year made for interesting, if not challenging, competition at times.

There were eleven races with results as follows:

60+ Mixed:  1^st North Berwick 2^nd Broughty Ferry   3^rd Wormit

50+ Mixed:  1^st Crail    2^nd Eastern   3^rd North Berwick

40+ Women: 1^st North Berwick 2^nd Broughty Ferry 3^rd Avoch

50+ Men: 1^st Eastern  2^nd North Berwick 3^rd Wormit

50+ Women:  1^st North Berwick  2^nd Eastern 3^rd Crail

60+ Men:   1^st Queensferry  2^nd North Berwick 3^rd Broughty Ferry

Open Mixed:  1^st Tay Sail   2^nd Broughty Ferry 3^rd Eastern

40+ Mixed: 1^st North Berwick   2^nd Broughty Ferry 3^rd Eastern

60+ Women:  1^st Broughty Ferry   2^nd Queensferry 3^rd Tay Sail

Open Women:  1^st Broughty Ferry  2^nd North Berwick 3^rd  Cromarty

Open Men:  1^st North Berwick    2^nd Broughty Ferry 3^rd Eastern

Overall Winners were North Berwick with Broughty Ferry second and Eastern third.

Congratulations to all the rowers and supporters and thanks for making the event such a success.

We are delighted that HRH The Princess Royal is going to attend the opening day of the St Ayles Skiff World Championships on 8 July 2019. She kindly opened our first World Championships at Ullapool in 2013, so we will be welcoming her back to our world wide skiff community when she arrives in Stranraer. It will also be a welcome back from the hosts of Skiffieworlds 2019, Stranraer St Ayles Skiff Project, since she unveiled a plaque in May 2017 to mark the start of work on their boathouse.

We hope that The Princess Royal will be pleased to see the growth in our sport in Stranraer and worldwide. We have a record entry for Skiffieworlds, with over 700 crews due to take part. The championships have more than doubled in size since she last attended.

Chair of the organising committee Wendi Cuffe explains:

“We are thrilled to have such a high entry for the SkiffieWorlds and we’re very much looking forward to welcoming The Princess Royal to Stranraer….  Loch Ryan is the perfect stage for coastal rowing, and watersports in general, and we were delighted to be asked to host this major international event.  We can’t wait to introduce the world of St Ayles skiff rowers to Stranraer and our beautiful loch.”

Congratulations to Alnmouth Community Rowing, on the launch of their second skiff, Enflaeda. She sports a green hull, and a red sheer strake with yellow trim.

As sister for Pride of Aln. Good luck to all her rowers, and see you at Stranraer in the summer.

From a chance meeting with the Commodore of Royal Tay Yacht Club (formed 1874), who mentioned that his parents met though rowing on the Tay. His father was a member of Broughty Ferry Boating Club and his mother was a member of Dundee Corinthians Rowing Club. Regattas of the time also featured Wormit Boating Club.

According to a set of notes found on a facebook page “Dundee Corinthian Boat Club Memories”, Dundee Boating Club was formed in 1890 with a regatta first held in 1894, Dundee Co-op Rowing Club was formed in 1871, the same year as Broughty Ferry and Monifieth Rowing Club. Dundee Corinthian Boating Club itself is described as being formed in 1923/24 with a committee with the surnames Davie, Glass, Sidden, Duncan, Sutherland, and Henderson (secretary). Broughty Ferry Boating Club is also shown as established in 1923-24.

Some of the boats used were Jolly Boats of the type used by Royal West in the Castle to Crane race. The jolly boats were around 25 feet long with a lower freeboard than a St Ayles Skiff but also rowed by four rowers sitting one at each station, with a cox steering and commanding. One of the boats, previously owned by Wormit Boating Club and now owned by a consortium or rowers down in Richmond-on-Thames is raced from time to time at the Great River Race. A Broughty Ferry Boat was transferred via Portobello to Royal West of Scotland Boat Club at Greenock. Single sculls and pairs also featured in races in the past.

We know there are at least 4 of the original wooden rowing boats stored on the Fife side of the Tay, in Newport and Wormit. One of them (Argo built in 1924 by Salters for Newport Rowing Club) is currently being refurbished in Richmond with the intention of her coming back to the Tay.

With the exception of the Coble Boat Racing at Newburgh (first recorded race in 1880, and hard, hard racing still held at an annual championships), rowing racing died out all together on the Tay in the sixties or seventies. We are of course delighted that it has been brought back through the growth of the St Ayles skiff and the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association. Broughty Ferry Boating is a branch of the Royal Tay Yacht Club, and their luxury boat shed storing two St Ayles Skiffs is built on the site of the old Broughty Ferry Boating Club sheds. Wormit Boating Club had continued on as a sailing club, but reintroduced rowing and now has 2 St Ayles Skiffs. Newburgh Rowing Club also has 2 St Ayles skiffs, and there is going to be a Perth Rowing Club launching a skiff from near the Friarton Bridge.

We would love to be able to publish a longer article about the History of Rowing on the Tay. Please get in touch if you could research and write it. In the meantime anyone interested in history of rowing in Scotland should purchase the Old Clyde Pullers, which is a history of 14 rowing clubs in Inverclyde, a stretch of coast where only one rowing club survives. “Pulling” is where each crew member has one “sweep” oar. “Rowing” was historically used to describe a rower with 2 oars….. what is now referred to in racing as “sculling”.

We are all looking forward to Skiffieworlds, which will be taking place in Stranraer in July. All the racing is held under the SCRA Rules of Racing. All club captains, coxes, coaches and rowers should take some time to familiarise themselves with these rules. We keep them short so that they will be read by all, and the answers to many of the FAQs that we receive are found in them. We are getting quite a few queries with regard to age and gender categories. The following explanations are to help you with understanding the rules.

Remember that age is the age on the first day of the regatta (rule 5.4.1)

Mix 280 + This category is calculated by adding the years of all the rowers (not including the cox) so that the total is 280 or above . This is full years only and cannot be calculated by adding months e.g. 69 years 4 months – this is not allowed, only the 69 years is included.

For other categories all rowers must be in that age category and not an average eg in the Women 50 + category, all rowers must be 50 or over.

Gender: Long before the recent controversy in other sports, we came to the view that as a community sport the gender of a rower is defined by the gender in which they live in their community (rule 5.5). We trust club captains on this, and will be very disappointed if that trust is ever abused.

Mixed Categories: In a mixed race there must be at least 2 female rowers and at least one male rower. The remaining seat may be taken by a rower of any gender or none.

Mens Races: There have, at other regattas, been women rowing in mens’ races to make up crews but we would prefer, this being a World Championships, that all clubs endeavour to have a full crew of men in the mens’ categories. There are generally rowers who are available from other clubs who will be willing to help a crew who may be in need. If the crew are unable to get a full crew then the umpire can make the decision on allowing a woman to row in the crew to ensure that the rest of the crew do not miss out on a race.

Mixed “B” Category: No one who is racing in the Mixed “A” category as a rower can row in the Mixed “B” category.