Loch Broom has a third St Ayles Skiff

The launch of Loki, the St Ayles Skiff built by members of the Loch Broom Sailing Club, means Ulla and Coigach Lass now have some local competition, which they clearly relish.
Loki is immediately recognisable by the dramatic and rather lovely bird  figurehead, although it is unclear what it has to do with Loki, the Norse shape-shifting god who is recorded as assuming the appearance of a fly, a salmon, a seal and a mare - versatile, but not birds.
Thanks to Chris Perkins for the pictures.

St Ayles Skiffs go on Forth and multiply

St Ayles Skiffs seem to be arriving on the water in droves. Last weekend another two were launched, Queensferry's Ferry Lass and Portobello's Jenny Skylark (right, being carefully manhandled out of the workshop).
The prototype skiff Chris O'Kanaird was returned to the water with the storm damage repaired.
There is a nice video of the Portobello launch on STV.

Ulla returns

The Ullapool St Ayles Skiff Ulla is back on the water, looking better than ever thanks to innovative repairs by Topher Dawson and lots of sanding and painting by Chris Perkins. What a great sight.

Storm hits Scottish Coastal Rowing boats

The storm that hit Scotland earlier this week took a terrible toll on the new coastal rowing boats. The exceptionally high tide dragged the Ullapool boat onto the rocks - the painful results are clear to see.
The prototype, Chris O'Kanaird, was blown off her trailer and holed, and the North Berwick boat was damaged as well.
Chris Perkins at Ullapool is remarkably sanguine about the position, describing it as "a chance to explore clinker ply repair techniques." Well said that man, and here's hoping all three boats are back on the water in full racing fettle by the spring.
Continuing the positive tone, another St Ayles Skiff will be launched on Sunday, at Newhaven, near Leith. She will be named by local man George Hackland who was present the last time a new boat was launched there, in 1928!

Ulla wins!

Ulla, the Ullapool St Ayles Skiff, has started winning. The first triumph was at the Dorna Sail and Oar on the Clyde at the weekend, when Ulla beat rivals Port Seton. The secret seems to be a combination of practice, physical fitness and replacing the steering oar with a more conventional rudder moved by a yoke and lines.
The picture, by Chris Perkins, shows the new arrangement plus the now-unused 'wart' for the steerboard.
Congratulations, Ulla, and keep up the training!

St Ayles skiff rows the Thames

 One more note on the St Ayles skiff. Here is a pic of the boat on the stand at Beale Park, with builder and kit supplier Alec Jordan (r) and builder and photographer Chris Perkins.

The Scottish Coastal Rowing project was on Scottish telly last Friday and by the magic of iPlayer us sassanachs can catch it too by clicking BBC2 Landward - the segment is 10 minutes into the programme.

The cameras visited the Eyemouth skiff at the critical moment when the boat was turned over for the first time, and interviewed former fisherman and harbourmaster Johnny Johnstone MBE who memorably summed up the project:

"This is a brilliant exercise, this is a brilliant sport, not costing you in a fitness suite hauling a dumb rowing machine, this is getting fresh air on the open sea."

St Ayles skiff rows the Thames

The prototype Scottish Coastal Rowing boat Chris O'Kanaird was a star performer at the Beale Park Thames Boat show yesterday, appearing on the Water Craft stand with the new Cornish pilot gig Black Ven.
The UK Home Built Boat Rally was also at the show in force, so it made sense to put together a crew. Alec Jordan, founder of the UK-HBBR and devisor of the Scottish Coastal Rowing project, coxed and a fellow Scot whose name I am ashamed to say I have forgotten went stroke. Richard Rooth and Tim O'Connor were 3 and 2 respectively, and that's me in the bow.
It is a tribute to the kindly qualities of the boat that we managed to get a good beat up right from the start. The close spacing of the thwarts (lengthened in production boats) imposes a short, choppy rowing style but we soon got the hang of it and the hull slips quickly along. In fact, we got filled with enough hubris to line up against Black Ven and her experienced Lyme Regis crew.
This was absurd on all fronts, of course. They were twice as long and half as old as us, and many of them had visible waists. But the light boat meant we had a slight advantage of power-to-weight ratio and we started well. It took Black Ven all of 10 or 15 seconds to overhaul us and disappear downriver.
Anyway it was huge fun and that is what rowing a St Ayles skiff is all about. She is at the show again today and apparently many people have travelled to Pangbourne specifically to see her.
Thanks to Chris Perkins for the picture - more from him here.

Coigach Lass launched, wins first St Ayles Skiff race

Barely was Ullapool's Ulla in the water when Coigach Lass from nearby Achiltibuie was launched with much ceremony. Ulla was rowed down Loch Broom for the occasion, and of course the very first St Ayles skiff race developed. It was entirely in the spirit of the Scottish Coastal Rowing project that each crew had members of both communities, and that Coigach Lass won.

Coigach Lass looks stunning, with vivid blue hull. She has a silver coin embedded in the bow and will have a rather delightful figurehead, which will be cast in metal or resin. She is intended to sit on the stemhead so it can be removed to avoid damage when on the trailer. There is, of course, no suggestion that rival St Ayles skiff crews might regard her as a desirable 'trophy'.
The first St Ayles skiff regatta will take place at Anstruther next Saturday, May 29, when six skiffs are expected to turn out. Should be a great occasion. The Scottish Fisheries Museum will be free to enter for the day as well.

Another St Ayles skiff goes over

Coigach Lass, the community rowing skiff of Coigach in Scotland's north west, was turned over last weekend and extremely spiffy she looks.
Interestingly, the admiring comments on the Coigach blog post come mainly from other builders of the St Ayles Skiff. The magic of the internet is that excitement and competitive spirit is building up online, something that would have take years to achieve in the days of newsletters and the local papers.
No fewer than 17 skiffs have now been ordered, according to kit builder Alec Jordan, and others are being planned. The first rowing season should be very exciting.

St Ayles Skiff Thames outing cancelled

Faced with the prospect of towing a 22ft boat 450 miles through snow and rain, Alec Jordan has been forced to cancel Saturday's Thames demo of the St Ayles Skiff. Especially understandable as the boat has no cover - I towed Nessy back from the Broads through torrential rain a couple of years back and ended up with a mobile swimming pool behind the car - awkward at best and potentially very dangerous.

Notice to Rowers

The St Ayles Skiff is visiting London next weekend and will be available for test rowing at Richmond Bridge (Surrey side) from 11am on Saturday 27 February. Alec Jordan, who makes the kits, will be on hand to answer questions and take cheques. I will be there to take pictures. Come along and give the boat some welly!
Chris O'Kinnaird was launched on the Clyde last weekend so a crew from Royal West Amateur BC in Greenock could try her out. Alec tells me rowers from Lough Foyle also turned up and he had to go out with them. "They go out once a week and I was completely knackered," he says.
Here is a great video of the Irish getting an impressive speed up. Note the almost complete absence of wake.

Boats pour out of Ullapool

 It's all go at Ullapool on the shores of Loch Broom in Scotland. It is a hive of boatbuilding activity, reports that artist in clinker ply, Chris Perkins. These are his pictures of the unofficial 'let's just check she doesn't leak or capsize' pre-launch of the latest creation of traditional 'real wood' boatbuilder Adrian Morgan.
The 15ft sailing sjekte rides a bit high because the rig and in particular the water ballast has not been fitted. When complete and down to her marks the oar handles will lie much lower and she will be easier to row, I suspect.

Here is Adrian finding out how tender the boat is, and below Charlotte (the illustrator of Adrian's column in Classic Boat) rows and Dan steers. The boat looks absolutely lovely.

No fewer than three St Ayles Skiffs are under construction in Ullapool, a tremendous thing that should inspire intense competition this summer. Here is Ulla under construction by Mike Connors (in green) and Topher Dawson (in blue).

Chris writes:

"Too darned cold up here for much boatbuilding - although we are finding that West Poxy is going off in unbelievably low temperatures - we should be gluing the sheerstrake on Friday and turning over sometime next week. Topher Dawson is doing the bulk of the work, learning a very great deal from him, watching him in action is pure magic. His bearding line gauge idea is brilliant and will transform my stem accuracy. All three Ullapool Skiffs are beginning to shape up nicely. Has really taken off well up here."

From the Web

It's been raining again and there's bugger all not a lot worth watching on the telly so here's some rowing from the Wonderful World Wide Web. Goran Buckhorn at the eclectic Hear the Boat Sing links to a great new resource, an archive of vintage pictures from Life magazine. Just enter 'rowing' as the search term and you get a load of pictures of rowing of yesteryear, mainly, it has to be said, the Boat Race. My favourite is this, which shows the great Canadian oarsman Ned Hanlan racing for the World Championship at Putney. Note how the race officials have to be carried in the front of eights to keep up with the scullers in those days before small marine engines.

But if you enter 'rowboat' you get a whole lot more, including this delightful picture of American teenagers going boating in 1945.

It reminds me of the poet Timothy Shy:

"Hip Hip Hooray,
The First of May!
Outdoor sex
Begins today!"

Next stop on the web is Chris Perkins' site where he reveals that construction of the first Ullapool St Ayles Skiff has begun, using Balcotan instead of epoxy because the vicious Scottish winter is closing in. Sooner you than me, Chris - it is cold enough down here in the soft South.
Finally, YouTube. This clip from Sesame Street should be in every rowing coach's training material:

St Ayles Skiff is officially launched

The St Ayles Skiff has been officially launched at Anstruther, where the harbour was sunny and still yesterday, as it was down here in the South. Methil Sea Cadets took her out again (above), with builder Alec Jordan in the bow.
Chris Perkins came over from Scotland's left coast to take the pictures (he is a rather good snapper) and the designer, Iain Oughtred, put hand to oar (at number 3, below) and was, says Alec, very pleased with how it came out.

Several groups who have ordered or are interested in kits for the St Ayles Skiff also came along, including one of the groups from Portobello, in Edinburgh, pictured below. Two international orders, from Germany and the Netherlands, are already in the pipeline, showing how fast the idea has spread.

The only substantial modification being considered is a wider spacing between the thwarts to reduce the amount of oar-handle-banging-person-in-front-syndrome (I'm sure the Germans have a word for this). Alec says the length of the boat will not be increased because at least two strakes would need to have three scarfs instead of two as a result, which would violate the 'keep it simple' principle. Still, speaking as a larger than average rower, more leg room is always better, I feel.

St Ayles skiff trial

The prototype St Ayles Skiff hit the water for the first time on Saturday, at Methil No3 Dock in Fife. She was lowered in by crane, but builder Alec Jordan (who sent the pics) says he can lift the end of the boat by himself without a problem so it should not be difficult for a crew to carry the boat to the water.

Rowers from Methil Sea Cadets and from various interested parties took her round the dock.
"She rowed like a bloody dream," Alec said. She looks a dream too - another classic from Iain Oughtred.
The official launch is next Saturday at the Scottish Fisheries Museum at Anstruther - there may be a chance to try her out for yourself at the event. Email Alec for details.

Committee boat: (from bow) Topher Dawson of the Ullapool syndicate that has already ordered a Skiff, Tam Christie from E Wemyss who has helped build the boat, Alec Jordan (and his flat cap), and Robbie Wightman, Steering Group Secretary; David Aitken of Methil SCC coxing.

St Ayles Skiff prototype almost ready for launch

Alec Jordan has sent some pics of St Ayles Skiff, fitted out and nearing readiness for an unofficial launch next Saturday to make sure everything works as expected, and its official launch at Anstruther the following weekend. She looks spiffing. I particularly like the offset tiller, though the cox's seat looks a bit cramped for those of us with average size lower ends. Probably a detail designed to ensure that only tiny coxes that won't slow the boat down too much are able to get on board.

St Ayles skiff prototype nears completion

Chris Perkins reports on his final week at Alec Jordan's shop in Fife, working on the prototype St Ayles Skiff:

"My last week on the project was spent cleaning up the inwales, building a temporary cox perch and generally helping fit the furniture and titivating. Each time this stage is reached in a build I am amazed at how much time is absorbed removing material. Work that will never be appreciated by anyone who has not got that particular T shirt but is immediately apparent if it is neglected. The route to a respectable finish always lies in the preparation - a truism that can never be said often enough in my view. The snaps include a couple of high level shots showing the almost structurally completed boat, just the breasthooks to fit at that stage (now done), obtained by some precarious ladder work by Alec in the upper reaches of his workshop. The cox's seat is a temporary affair until the positioning of feet and seats are proven on the water after which the buoyancy compartments will be retrofitted - space is pretty tight and it would be easy to get positioning wrong in a static environment, we really need to see the dynamics of the interaction of the various bodies to establish best position. The week passed all too quickly and my time on the build was over - altogether a fascinating few weeks which has transformed my view of kit boats - I am extremely grateful for Alec's invitation to join in the build which I hugely enjoyed. So much so that I have put my name down for the Ullapool group aiming to build the first West Coast St Ayles Skiff, not sure I have the spine to be an oarsman though. Alec has now started applying the finish, varnished gunnels and thwarts with the rest of the hull painted so it shouldn't be too long before I head down to the other end of Scotland to see how she looks on the water."

Chris - you can do it! The only downside to rowing is that it is as addictive as crack cocaine. There is nothing like being part of a crew on song, and you don't even have to be particularly strong or athletic. And there is the joy of getting fit out on the water, without having to endure the prison ship conditions in the average gym or do your knees in running.

Rowing positions for the St Ayles Skiff

Here is boatbuilder Alec Jordan testing the rowing positions for the St Ayles Skiff, the prototype traditional rowing boat for the Kingdom of Fife.
Getting the distance between the thwarts correct is vital if the boat is to be successfully raced by community crews whose heights may range from quite small to average (6ft 5in). Measuring old boats is little help here as heights have significantly increased since the arrival of proper sustaining food in modern times (hamburgers and pizza).
Boatbuilder Chris Perkins writes: "The trial of seating positions by Alec was very useful - the cox is going to have to be a pretty short lightweight - there is not a great deal of room in the stern but we are now comfortable that the spacing of the thwarts is going to work well."
The only modification of Iain Oughtred's design has been to simplify the inwales. "Some deep thinking is going on during the fitting out to help make this part of the build as easy as possible for novice builders," Chris writes. "We have already partly moved away from Iain's glorious sweeping taper of the inwale, planing that down on all three laminations has proved very time consuming, the twisted grain in larch hasn't helped as deep cuts tend to tear out so fine cuts and very keen plane irons are the order of the day. Our modification does recognise tradition as study of a traditionally built Fair Isle Skiff shows - I just wish I had taken far more snaps of 'Aluna Ivy' at Portsoy this year! If only I had known what I would be getting involved with!"
More details and pics at Chris's blog.

St Ayles skiff turned over

The prototype St Ayles Skiff under construction at Jordan Boats has been turned over and looks like a boat. Chris Perkins writes to say that it looked good upside down but has now "achieved a step change in the looks department when seen from a 'proper' perspective for the first time. Iain Oughtred has produced yet another stunning design, I think she is a real beauty."
What really impresses me is the weight - two people are casually holding the 22ft boat in the air. Of course, the thwarts, gunwales, kabes and so on still have to be fitted (Alec has got a pile of larch in) and varnish+paint always seems to add an unexpected amount of weight. Even so, a crew of four plus cox should be able to lift it out of the water with no difficulty at all.
Chris expects next week to be an endless round of sanding and painting (which he secretly enjoys) so anyone who happens to be in the Kirkcaldy area would be welcome to put in a bit of elbow grease. Contact details are here.

Scottish Coastal Rowing

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project aims to promote traditional fixed seat rowing north of the Tweed, where apparently it has rather languished in comparison with the huge popularity of such boats as the Cornish Pilot Gig, the Celtic Longboat and the Thames Waterman Cutters and the like.
So the aim is to produce a standard design of pulling boat that will encourage competition, and can be constructed by groups or communities, at reasonable cost and involving achievable woodworking skills. The design is a corker, a double-ender designed by Iain Oughtred but based on a model of a Fair Isle Skiff in the Scottish Fisheries Museum at Anstruther, one of the backers of the project.
The boat will be called the St Ayles Skiff, after the building in which the museum is housed. It is 23ft long by 5ft 7in beam, which is rather short by Pilot Gig standards but should be very seaworthy. There will be four rowers and a cox.
What makes the project different and interesting is that the boat will be available in kit form from Alec Jordan, and schools, youth clubs, villages, sports clubs and even pubs will be encouraged to build their boats themselves. This should build community spirit like little else. The kit will cost about £1,350 and the total cost including epoxy etc will be about £3,000, a relatively affordable sum.
The first boat will be built at the Fisheries Museum this winter. It is to be hoped that a fleet will come together fairly quickly if the class is to become established.