St. Ayles Skiff crews from Portobello, North Berwick, Anstruther, Ullapool and Port Seton match skills in Portsoy, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, home of the Scottish Traditional Boat Festival.
Thank you so much, Chris Perkins and friends! There is nowhere on Earth I would rather be
right now than pulling on the oar of a St. Ayles Skiff!...
Ullapool Coastal Rowing
Catterline Coastal Rowing Project
Berwickshire Coastal Rowing
North Berwick Rowing Club
Newhaven Coastal Rowing
Coigach Lass
Rowporty
Chris O'Kanaird
Alec Jordan Boats
Iain Oughtred on Classic Marine
4 comments:
When I watched the video on Rowing for Pleasure I thought, "This could be Depoe Bay." It's amazing how they did the whole thing in a year.
Alec's kits make the whole thing much easier. The Oregon coast seems like a perfect venue for coastal rowing (on the right days) but the Scots have a rowing culture, which we do not. I've tried for years to promote rowing events here and have yet to find any takers. You see in these photos and videos how enthusiastic the communities are about their teams. Try to imagine that in Depot Bay, Lincoln City or Newport!?! The long planned rowing event from Depot Bay to Newport will happen later this summer, even if I am to do it solo. When the Coast Guard in Depot Bay was informed of our intention (by Jack Brown) they were far less than enthusiastic.
Count me in on the Depoe to Newport row. That's something I want to do in any case. If the wind is fair can I use a sail, or would that be cheating? It's "fair means," as our friend Giacomo would say.
As you know our weather in the summer runs in fairly predictable cycles. I figure to time the run for a fairly calm day at the beginning of a cycle of wind, since the more waves the harder the row, regardless of how seaworthy the boat. The most favorable day will be one with a slight breeze from the northwest, so the current and wind push us downhill, planning to hit the jetty at Newport on an incoming tide (probably an eight hour trip, whew!). If it's a good morning for getting out of Depoe Bay, it's probably a good day all around, by my reckoning. Unfortunately it's hard to predict the right conditions more than two or three days in advance and nearly impossible to schedule on a weekend a month in advance for those who have to travel and/or work.
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