SCRA Cruising Log competition – Ewan wins!

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From the Scottish Coastal Rowing website:

30 Miles Round Argyll’s Slate Islands under Oar

Congratulations to Ewan Kennedy of the Isle of Seil Rowing Club for winning the 2013 Cruising Log Competition! The competition is open to all members of Scottish Coastal Rowing Association clubs.

Ewan’s log, published on his Scottish Boating Blog, describes a four day expedition in the Seil Skiff, Selkie. The adventure starts and finishes from Selkie’s base on the Isle of Seil, taking in visits to the Islands of Seil, Luing, Shuna and Insh. Sailing was experimented with, but most of the 30 miles of so of travel was conducted under oar, in company with a three other boats of diverse type. As well as a passage under the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’, and through the exciting tidal waters of the Cuan Sound, the crew fit in a poignant visit to a beautiful bay in Seil Sound which is about to become part of an industrial scale fishfarm development.

The log will inspire others to plan carefully and look at ways in which the St Ayles Skiffs be used to explore our coastline.

Thank you to all the rowers and clubs who submitted entries. If you are planning an expedition for 2014 remember to record it for the benefit of others, and as a reminder for yourself of good times, and of course to submit as an entry to the 2014 Cruising Log Competition!

Argyll Coastal Rowing

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With the meteoric rise in the number of skiffs throughout Scotland, there is now more emphasis on regional matters in Scottish Coastal Rowing. Sue Fenton from Seil has been co-opted onto the SCRA committee as the Argyll representative.

The following is adapted from the SCRA website (thanks, Robbie!)

“The beautiful coastline of Argyll and the Inner Hebrides will be suitably enhanced next year by the presence of more St Ayles skiffs. Many will be familiar with Selkie (from the Isle of Seil) and Islay’s Lily Bheag who were both present at the Skiffie Worlds. Islay have launched their second skiff, Bluebell, and there is the possibility of further builds on the Island.

Isle of Mull are well ahead with the building of their first skiff at Tobermory, starting to apply paint only four weeks after picking up the kit, and are planning to start a second build. Oban Coastal Rowing Club has been formed with the intention of building a skiff in the biggest town in Argyll. Port Appin, a small village close to the north end of Lismore, between Oban and Fort William, will hopefully be building a skiff in the near future, and there have been expressions of interest from Campbeltown and Luing. Argyll has hundreds of miles of coastline perfect for community rowers.

Weather permitting, there will be a gathering of some of the Argyll skiffs at Otter Ferry this Sunday (17 November 2013). Otter Ferry, as the road signs notably declare, has no ferry so the skiffs from Mid-Argyll, Kilmelford and Seil will be rowing across Loch Fyne to the muster point. They will be be joined there by skiff Archie Smith from Kyles CRC and possibly one of the Royal West boats. The scenery is stunning and the company will be great!”

Seil is still looking for one or two more rowers/cox for the great adventure …

Thoughts on the AGM

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Four of us attended the meeting in Callander, not the best thing for the legs after our energetic day on the water. Full minutes will appear in due course on the SCRA website, so this is just a brief report with comments on matters that affect us on Seil.

The main thing that struck us in the Chairman’s report was the huge expansion in skiffing with there now being 24 clubs affiliated to SCRA, nearly 60 skiffs in Scotland and another 40 or so planned or building. Of interest to us are Tobermory with one or maybe two and Oban with maybe one, (although we haven’t heard anything from them for a while). Outside the meeting we heard that Luing are building, apparently following the successful charity row round the island.

Next year there could be a mid-Argyll regatta with eight or nine local skiffs plus visitors.

The Treasurer reported that SCRA is solvent, so the subscription stays at £60 per club.

The Committee will be co-opting a couple of new members including one from Argyll – details to follow.

The main business was consideration of the measurement rules. New rules will prevent imaginative builders producing an unfair advantage, perhaps at the expense of safety. I won’t record all the detail here, but happily Selkie is well within all the new tolerances, so we don’t need to alter her in any way.

Sensible amendments include allowing polypropylene for the keel rubbing strip, which we already have, also plastic or similar strips to reduce friction between oars and pins, which we should consider adding. They also clarify that our seat positions are legal, as is our rudder, although it’s not to the shape in the plans.

It was agreed that the expansion of the class means these must be more rigorously enforced and we were reminded that spoon and asymmetric oars are not allowed.

Metal oarlocks, footrests etc remain banned, showing that Scottish skiffing is building its own ethos that some may consider mildly eccentric.

I’ll write a further post with my views about what we should be doing this winter to improve our competitiveness, mainly addressing the oars and footrests.

Most important is to recruit some younger members, as half us rowing at Loch Venachar had bus passes. Here are some further images to let people know what they’re missing.

The Crowd before the startThe Crowd againAnster ladiesChippy McNishCox RaySelkie ladies crewSelkie ladies in action

 

Loch Venacher Freshwater Sprints

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The freshwater sprints, the closing fixture in the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association calendar, were held on Loch Venacher in the Trossachs on 26 October. 15 skiffs took part; we weren’t last!

The Seil team of Ray, James, Jean, Mary, Sara, Louise, Ewan & Sue travelled through to take part in the Open Women, Novice Mixed and Open Mixed 500 metre sprints, with a buoy turn, and reached the final of the Novice Mixed. Selkie also took part in the long distance (2 km) race for new clubs, providing a very exciting finish with three clubs rowing neck-and-neck on the return from the turning mark. Watch out on You Tube for the exciting footage! We also provided the boat, and a crew member, for the Argyll composite team in the Inter-Regional sprint.

Many thanks to Ainsley Smith (Accountants) for sponsoring the club’s entry fee into the races, and to Ewan for towing Selkie across.

The races were hosted by the sailing club, and the rain held off until the prizegiving! Seil was not in the medal tables – but we had a good day’s rowing amongst some beautiful scenery. The programme concluded with the AGM, about which Ewan will post later.

Issues for the 2013 AGM at Callander on 26 October

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SCRA are just about to announce the details of the 2013 AGM, which will take place in Callander on 26 October at 1700 just after the Loch Vennacher sprint races finish.

This should be an extremely important meeting, as decisions will be taken that will affect the style of rowing and the type of competition that coastal rowing will be able to offer in the years to come.

In the four years since coastal rowing began a lot of experience has been gained, especially at the Skiffieworlds. The SCRA decided to cash on this and set up a Rules and Measurement Committee, which took soundings from clubs, inspected and in some cases weighed boats and set out some issues for discussion. The result was a set of summaries of the different issues, with questions added for the member clubs to decide. Our club should form a collective view on these, so that we can vote on 26 October.

The full report is on the SCR website here:-

http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/measurement-rules/2013-measurement-group-report/

You will see that various clubs are taking part already in an online discussion via the comments. It is open to both individuals and clubs to do this. We should all read the report and think about how we should respond. What follows is not to provide an excuse not to read it, so I will just summarise the main principles.

The Rules and Measurement Committee first asked itself what rules are for. We identified a number of quite distinct reasons why we need rules for boats in a class, mainly to ensure, safety, longevity of the skiff, fairness and “spirit”.

I’ve put spirit in quotes, because it’s still forming in coastal rowing and very important if often overlooked. There is a tendency in the existing rules to ascribe matters which truly belong to spirit, for example rowing with kabes or thole pins, to other things like saving money. This is patently untrue, as simple galvanised oarlocks are cheaper in the long run than wooden pins.

By spirit I mean the range of emotional factors that surround the St Ayles skiffs and their communities. It’s a mixture of nostalgia reflecting the history of the boat type and shape plus the unique elements that make them attractive and in time will become a tradition.

Traditions all start somewhere, usually for good reasons which get lost as time passes. All sports have them, both good and bad. Good reasons tend to reinforce the sense of belonging to a community, bad ones lead to exclusivity (e.g. certain bowling and golf clubs). In a sport one often does things for no obvious practical reason – that’s not what sports are about.

These factors are also part of the reasons why people take up our type of rowing as opposed to others. Alec Jordan for example records “At Hobart someone made a comment that these boats are a wonderful change from the testosterone fuelled misogyny of the surf boats”.

This leads directly into the main questions that members will want to discuss.

The most important are the issues about metal oarlocks versus clever wooden imitations of carbon fibre racing fittings versus thole pins versus kabes. Should SCRA ban feathering?

Other matters that will be decided are:-

Minimum Weight

Adhering to the drawings

Exotic Materials – e.g. the use of of polyprop for rubbing strips, technically illegal but most of us have done it.

Rudders

Footrests

Of course we will have personal views, but I understand that there will be one vote per club. We have no time to lose in opening a discussion.

 

 

2014 Events

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The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (SCRA) calender for 2014 will include a long distance event up the River Clyde into Glasgow city centre, as part of a bigger flotilla event on 26 July. The SCRA also hopes to host a regatta in Glasgow city centre. There is also the possibility of a touring event on the Great Glen, and a long distance race on the Forth to be organised by some of the SCRA clubs, as well as regattas virtually every weekend.

There will not be a St Ayles World Championships in 2014.

Seil Coastal Rowing plans to keep Selkie on the water for as long as possible over the winter, with some time out for essential maintenance – the last coat of paint was abandoned in the rush to launch before our regatta in June! So we can keep on practicing and keeping fit for all the events coming up.

An AGM will be held in October – watch this space.