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Published: 30 September 2014

Whilst the Tiger Cup was going on in North Berwick with our St Ayles Skiffs, NBRC was also represented at the Nith Navigation Race (Dumfries) by the Wightman family rowing a double sculled skiff. The race is a six mile journey up the River Nith from Glencaple up to White Sands in Dumfries town centre.  Crews enjoyed the delights of the Caerlaverock Tearoom on Glencaple pier as they watched the tidal bore moving up the river.  There was a bit or drizzle as the crews boated, but the water conditions were flat with a decent tidal current helping the crews up the river.

North Berwick’s double scull Speedwell was first off the start, with crews joining in at 30 second intervals for the time trial event. Royal West’s class 2 Jolly Boat "Sprite" was built 120 years ago, and this was her first race for around 15 years.  She is longer and sleeker than the St Ayles skiffs, which perhaps thrive in slightly livelier conditions.  As it was Sprite managed to overhaul all the other boats on the course, apart from the North Queensferry Skiff.  Sprite completed the course in 43 minutes and 15 seconds, a new record for the course, and was recorded as reaching a (tidally assisted) top speed of 9.8 miles per hour.

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Being pushed the whole way helped the North Queenserry Boat to a win in the St Ayles skiff class, and they were presented with a quaich to take home to Fife.  As ever the prizes for the event were fantastic, with a bottle of SCRA whisky for every finishing crew, and a selection of cheeses for the every crew, but special cheeses for the fastest overall crew and for the oldest crew to complete the course (Troon).  As a first, at the prizegiving barbeque, the first SCRA conker knockout championships was held, won by Susan Wilson from the local town of Annan, who have a skiff ready to go on the water, and hosted an excellent harbour festival event in May. 

Results

St Ayles Skiffs

Coxed Double Sculls

Details

Published: 28 September 2014

NBRC finished the race season with an internal competition racing around Craigleith in the Tiger Cup (now more of a concept than an actual trophy since the real one has been mislaid). Crews were balanced, and a handicap system applied to ensure that all ages and genders could compete on an equal footing. 

Six crews of mixed age and experience entered. The race format would be a Time Trial around Craigleith, with times being adjusted by a handicap system to determine the winner.

A stiff Westerly faced the first two crews which really bared it's teeth after the half way point, when the crews came around Craigleith to hit the wall of wind that made progress tortuously low as each stroke moved the boat only inches at a time. The crews battled through this for 2-3 minutes before they broke through the wall and were able to get back into their stride to complete the course.

The wind did drop a bit for the successive two races, meaning that the first crews were unlikely to win the race, unlucky for them!

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Details

Published: 25 September 2014

After the rigours of the Tyne on Saturday, we needed a refreshing row to relax, and were not disappointed as it ticked all the boxes.

Clive, Jo, Phil & Sheena took Zev, and were accompanied by skiffs from Dunbar (x2), Eyemouth (remember SeaBreeze?), and a really enthusiastic team from Amble. The tide was under us all the way up to Paxton, and Zev made rowing easy, outpacing the other Skiffs effortlessly. The only hiccup was the need to walk for a few metres as we neared Paxton; the shallows were in evidence yet again.

The planning was well organised this year, the two rescue boats did all that was required, keeping their distance but always on watch. The start was timed until there was plenty of water under the various bridges.

But the scenery and the wildlife; it was stunning!  Everyone from both sides of the border was welcoming, and yet again friendships were made in the name of community rowing.

Watch out for the team from Amble: they are a great bunch with a well made skiff of which they are very proud. They are keen to learn from others and will be a force to be reckoned with.

Details

Published: 23 September 2014

What is it about this rowing lark?

We get up really early, socialise as late as possible, go through the pain barrier, scars, blisters and bruises to show for it, be really competitive, enjoy coffee and scones, saunter out to the bass in company, drive miles for regattas, camping?  All in the name of FUN

On Saturday 20th September a small number of NBRC set off for Newburn on the Tyne river, ENGLAND.  This all started with a wee chat over refreshments at Portsoy, and the Row Family Robertson Crew +1 was out and rowing again, after our success on the Nith we decided with missing it in name of Tiger cup, we'd go for it.  With a bit of toing and froeing on our arrival to get cars  and trailors to the finishing line at Tynemouth, over a 1 1/2 hour round journey, those of us left enjoyed the bacon rolls and cake to keep the time going.  We had timed the drop off perfectly for briefing in the super wee club house.

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34 crews took part in the 25 km race, 7 of those were skiffs, fancy dress to which we hadn't quite got ourselves sorted for, party boats, Frog on the Tyne, gondoliers, nurses to name but a few.  So with our start time of 1440 fast approaching, we made our way to the slip way to launch Skiff John B, we were in the second wave to start off with a Celtic Gig, and 2 other skiffs, the Wee Michael from Newhaven and St Ayles, Anster.  We set off at a great pace and tusselled with Wee Michael for nearly an hour to keep our lead.  They had obviously been practicing their changeovers, which were seamless, and when Eli and Fin changed we did lose some ground, the dulcet tones of Wee Michael’s cox pulled ahead.  Still we pushed on and quickly came across the nurses in the Byker boat from the first wave.  It seemed no time at all before we started going through all the bridges in the centre of Newcastle, still no sign of our Zev ahead of us.  There were quite a few folks around cheering us on our way downstream,  Phil had a wee bit of a row to warm up, giving the tiller onto Sheena, we then changed Eli and Fin back over again and rammed in more Mars bars to give us extra energy.  So being back to our original seating plan on we pulled, by the time we started getting into the more industrial part of the city, the slidey seats started passing us thick and fast, you know they never look very happy?  Maybe something to do with their seats, we got the very occasional encouragement but not anything like our skiffies.

We then became aware of a lot of boats up ahead and ribs with visi jackets on-board, we were all being stopped by the river police to allow the ferry to leave port, damn... still no sign of Zev.  We all bobbed about and got some chats, quickly getting chilly and stiffening, also blisters starting to burn,  we tried some stretching in the boat to keep us going.  After half an hour we were all set on our way.  How were they going to sort this out for times?  Had anyone taken an order of which boat stopped when?  So back into focus, not easy to get those stiff muscles back working again.  Passing some huge tankers, the skiffs were all slowly left to fight it out at the back, it seemed hours before we passed the finishing hooters at North Sheills, we still had to row round into the bay to keep clear of another large tanker coming in through the harbour wall, then navigate over towards Tynemouth Rowing club where a very organised landing and stowing boats was executed.  The music was loud, burgers cooking and cider flowing, it wouldn't take many of those to get you wobbly,  it was now well after 6, we'd been on the water for 4 hours, probably rowing hard for 3 of those, although I’m not sure what the times will be like.  Prize giving, Our lovely Zev getting fastest fixed seat, Clive’s face just showed so proud,  Anstruther got best fancy dress with Frog on the Tyne and faster male fixed seat too.  And I got the top raffle prize a bottle of Bowmore whiskey, so NBRC did actually do pretty well, flags and bubbly too.

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Packing up the boat zapped the rest of our energy we then had to trail through the city again to retrieve the Robertson car.  Ian was certainly quiet on the way back, he did enjoy his mars bar experience too though.  By the time Louise and I dropped JB at the harbour the town clock was striking midnight, Cinderella needs to get home before her legs and hands fall off. 

A fantastic day, long, but so worth it, just seeing  the look on Clive’s face to win, well worth organising and doing again.