Three more community built St Ayles skiffs have been launched recently in Scotland.

Tiree Maritime Trust have launched their skiff Gille-Brìghde.  She takes number 175 on the register.  Picture from before the launch from the Tiree Maritime Trust Facebook Page.

Strathpeffer’s “Grebe” was built in the village, which is some way inland.  She was launched and is going to be rowing from the Storehouse on the Cromarty Firth.  Picture from the Strathpeffer and District Community Rowing Club Facebook Page. 

Nairn Launched Dulsie.  Skiffs from Findochty, Lossiemouth, Burghead , Findhorn and Ardersier were present to formally welcome Dulsie to the water.   Photos from Nairn Coastal Rowing Club Facebook Page.  Read the club’s own report on their website.

Neighbouring Skiffies welcome Dulsie to the water

The SCRA Freshwater Sprints (sponsored by Teal Engineering) will take place at Loch Tummel on Saturday 27 October 2018.    It is run in conjunction with our AGM, so we really want at least a couple of representatives from every SCRA member club to come along.  And it is a fun sociable event too!  Racing is held in regional teams, so when you race you will be rowing with members of other clubs.  If you would like to sign up to race, please contact your regional Captain as set out in the Freshwater Sprints 2018 Notice of Race.

Glasgow Coastal Rowing Club’s recent River Clean on the Clyde. Photo: Keep Scotland Beautiful

In an initiative launched in 2017, the SCRA is now awarding clubs with Green Flags to recognise initiatives that reduce the impact of our events on the marine environment.

The first two of these prestigious awards were presented to St Ayles Rowing Club of Anstruther and to Isle of Seil Coastal Rowing Club for innovations at their 2017 events.

Anstruther have always taken care to minimise their impact, and have been asking visitors to bring their own mugs with them to share in the Anster cake and tea splendour at their annual regatta.  They went further in 2017 by specifically putting one of their members in charge of recycling any waste that was generated at their event. Rather than buying in any plastic, they went to their local charity shop to purchase mugs, plates, cutlery really cheaply on the promise that they would donate it back after the event!

Isle of Seil Coastal Rowing Club’s 2017 event was all about improving the local environment.  Rather than organising a regatta, for the last three years the club and visitors have mustered on local islands to clean them up.  The club are assisted in this endeavour by a grant from a local trust, to whom the club sends in before and after pictures with coordinates, number of bags filled and number people involved.

Seil’s Island Clean Up

To get your hands on an SCRA Green Flag Award is simple. Get out there and do something positive for your local marine environment and make sure to send us a short report with some photos. The SCRA Committee will then award green flags at their discretion.

The next round of awards will be presented at the SCRA AGM at Loch Tummel on Saturday 27th October. To be included in this round of awards, submit your reports to secretary@scottishcoastalrowing.org by Sunday 21st October.

The main focus for the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association is and will remain the St Ayles Skiff, a class of rowing boat for four rowers and a cox  which has brought a great deal of pleasure to many who have built or rowed one.   However the recent Caslte to Crane race is a reminder that other boats are in the Scottish Coastal Rowing fleet and for the interest of skiffies and skiffbuilders  we will once again arrange races for  the SCRA “Picnic Class” of one rower skiff at the Freshwater Sprints.

The Picnic Class is a development class and a wide variety of craft will qualify under the class rules.  Essentially the constraints are that the boats should be “fixed seat” and no more than 5 meters long.  The rowlocks should be at the gunnel (no “outriggers”).   The beam should not be too narrow, both because a really narrow beam will mean that only peedie oars can be used, and also because insufficient beam will compromise stability, all entertainingly tested on the day by the “Stability test”.    More details can be found in the Picnic Class measurement rules .   Some boats that already exist will be deemed to meet the class rules even if they are outwith the exact measurements.  These include the  Royal West of Scotland Boat Club’s historic “Sixteens”, and RowPorty’s Drakes.

There will be a race for Men and a race for Women in the Picnic Class at the 2018 Freshwater Sprints.  Picnic class races will be over a straight “drag race” type course of around 300 meters.  Competitors need to be members of an SCRA club  and all boats will require to have third party insurance in place for the event.  If entries permit there will be heats, and A and B finals.

Closing date for entries for the picnic class races  is 19 October.  The Freshwaters are on 27 October.  We really hope that we get a number and variety of these one rower boats turning up, so get your entry in early.

See the Freshwater Sprints Notice of Race (published shortly) for more details.

See previous years’ report from the picnic class races.

All photos by Jon Gerrard.

Congratulations to everyone who completed Castle to Crane Race 2018.  The full results can be found by clicking on:

Castle to Crane 2018 Results

The individual winners were as follows:

Bonniest Boat:  St Maur, Fingal Rowing Club

Youth Trophy:  Atlantic Challenge in Ralph Bird

St Ayles, Mixed 50+ :  WSV Woudrichem,  Grut & Groot 3

St Ayles, Men 50+ :  Orkney Gold

St Ayles, Women 50+ :  St Ayles, Chris O’Kinnaird

St Ayles, Mixed Open :  St Ayles (Anstruther), “St Ayles”

St Ayles, Men Open: Eastern, Sprite

St Ayles, Women Open:  Boatie Blest

Double Scull / Randan*:  North Berwick, Flossie (Teifi Skiff)

Shetland Yole*:  Orkney, Frideray

4+ Oars General*:  Royal West of Scotland ABC, Najad (Jolly Boat)

Pilot Gig*:  Ralph Bird, Atlantic Challenge-Wales

*times adjusted for age and gender before awarding the prize

The premier prize at Castle to Crane is the Median Trophy, which is awarded to a crew that represents the whole fleet.  The winners of the Median Trophy finish in the middle of the fleet.  We are delighted to announce that the winners of the Median Trophy in 2018 are:

Collieston Offshore Rowing Club in Admiral Redsocks

We look forward to welcoming back clubs, and saying hello to new clubs at Castle to Crane in 2019.  The provisional date for the Clydebuilt Festival in 2018 is…….

21 and 22 September 2019