Scottish Coastal Rowing on telly

The Scottish Coastal Rowing project has been featured in an hour-long documentary on Alba, the Gaelic-language channel of the BBC (with subtitles). It is great stuff - catch it now because it is only available until August 29th.

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.

Three new boats for Scottish Coastal Rowing

It's been a week of feverish activity for Scottish coastal rowers.
The fearless builders at Ullapool have already started repairing Ulla, holed so sadly in the recent storm. The process is being recorded here so we can all learn. It looks as though the repair will be all but invisible.

On the 14th November at Newhaven, near Edinburgh, The Wee Michael was launched in the presence of Icebreaker from Portobello and St Baldred from North Berwick, who saluted the new arrival with tossed oars.
The name was chosen by local schoolchildren who had learned about King James IV's mighty warship, The Great Michael, built in Newhaven in 1504.

And Cockenzie and Port Seton launched their second St Ayles skiff yesterday, naming her Boatie Blest to go with her sister Boatie Rows.

And the third boat? Well, to quote Monty Python and the Holy Grail, "It's only a model", but a particularly lovely one. It was made by Norman Thomson of North Berwick and presented to the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association's Robbie Wightman in recognition of his work for the project.
For anyone wanting something to do in the dark winter nights, Alec Jordan is producing a  kit of a 1/6 scale model skiff. The model is just over a metre long and the right size for Action Man rowers or, as at least half of rowers these days are women, Barbie and Ken rowers (are they still together? Anyway, it would make a change from those flashy sports cars).
The models will be available for delivery by Christmas at a price of £49.99. Contact Jordan Boats if you are interested (and you know you are....).

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!

St Ayles skiffs at Portsoy

At last year's Portsoy Traditional Boat Festival, Scotland's biggest gathering of lovely old boats, the Scottish Coastal Rowing project was just a project. Iain Oughtred hadn't even finished designing the boat.
Last weekend, no fewer than six St Ayles skiffs were raced at Portsoy, with the prizes being dished out by Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond.
The sun shone and everyone had a brilliant time, apparently. I only wish I could have been there, but luckily Chris Perkins was, taking a gazillion great snaps which can be viewed here. Chris reports:

"Portsoy was fantastic - the skiff racing put a real buzz into the event.
I learned a lot about effective oars and steering - the most consistently good were Port Seton with shorter oars and an appreciably higher stroke rate - the Saturday final was between two Port Seton crews, so to even up the odds they were put in borrowed boats, a scratch crew took out the Port Seton boat for a recreational row. Even with a 50 yard handicap and an extended trip round both competing teams marker buoys the Port Seton boat came in shortly after the winners, handsomely beating the team in borrowed 'Ulla' - Port Seton have a seriously fast and efficient set up. Ullapool didn't do well, winning only one heat - the constant reworking of the oars and the steerboard are going to need further thought."

Viv Perkins videoed the races, and here is one of the clips. Note the accompanying sound track, which records the sort of audience participation that wins races.

More on the Port Seton flyer Boatie Rows here. The name, incidentally, comes from a traditional Port Seton ballad:

O weel may the boatie row and better may she speed,
And leesome may the boatie row that wins the bairns' bread.
The boatie rows, the boatie rows, the boatie rows indeed,
And weel may the boatie row that wins my bairns' bread.
O weel may the boatie row and better may she speed,
And leesome may the boatie row that wins my bairns' bread.

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."

Ulla hits Loch Broom

It is truly amazing how fast the Scottish Coastal Rowing project is getting onto the water. Ulla, built by the community of Ullapool on Loch Broom, is in her element and boy does she look lovely.
And she couldn't have fabulouser surroundings as Chris Perkins' dramatic pictures show.
One of the difficulties with double-enders is that the rudder is inevitably miles away from the cox, necessitating either bits of string or long spindly tillers (or, even worse, push-pull arrangements which are a recipe for misunderstandings and disaster).

The Ulla builders, which include such luminaries as Topher Dawson, Adrian Morgan and Chris P, have resurrected the steerboard, adapted from an idea by the Vikings. The rudder is mounted to the side of the cox on the gunwale and a sponson lower down - the Vikings used the rootball of a small tree to provide the natural flexibility and strength. The steerboard was always on the right of the boat, giving rise to our term 'starboard'.
Apparently, the steerboard works well. It will be interesting to see if other crews follow the Ulla way.

For some reason I missed the launch of the Port Seton skiff Boatie Rows, which was launched a couple of weeks back to much piping. A video of the event is here.The rowing is....err...crablike...but it was the first time out. Having demonstrated the will to succeed by building the first boat to hit the water, Port Seton will evidently be a force to reckon with in the upcoming regatta season.