Author: Malcolm

On Saturday 11 September Icebreaker joined the North Queensferry Tradional Boat Festival.

To get ourselves a little more organised and avoid people turning up for rowing and finding no space in the boat – we’ve set up a calendar and booking system.

The calendar shows all the training sessions – and other events – and you can book a space in the boat. You can even choose to have a reminder emailed to you, or to add it to your own online calendar.

To book your space, you’ll need to log in to the system (called BigTent) – the first time you’ll need to set up an account. While this is an extra layer of technology we feel it’s a small price to pay for keeping track of all the sessions – and ensuring people can row then they planned!

Here’s the place you need to go… and remember to click ‘RSVP to this event’ to book your space!

Port Seton invited us to join them for a social at their harbour. We decided rowing there and back would make the day even better. The outward voyage was successful, if a bit bumpy, with the strong wind behind the boat helping move the boat along. Arrival was soon followed by some races as the Eyemouth and North Berwick skiffs were also present – though they arrived by trailer.

The heavy seas and high winds made the races hard work. And also led us to decide that rowing back was not a realistic option – Arthurs seat was a long way across a stormy sea!

Many thanks to Port Seton for their hospitality: mountains of homemade cakes, tea and coffee – and the loan of their trailer to get Icebreaker back to her home port.

Sounds like one to add to the RowPorty touring calendar!

http://ullcoastrow.wordpress.com/2010/08/18/cumbrae-success-yessss/

And well done to Ullapool for their success against our neighbours.

Andres writes to the Rowporty crew and extended crew:

Dear everyone of you,

I am getting loads of positive feedback for the event we all hosted over the weekend, which was truly kick-ass brilliant, but this only happened because you all pitched in and made it pretty special. Everything we planned we did, and we did it bang on time too! no one got hurt, no one sunk and nothing broke! and at this stage I reckon we probably broke even! 

The delicious treats and cakes on offer, lovingly made by loads of you, were greatly appreciated by everyone. The burgers were a welcomed energy boost, and the T shirts were an instant hit with many being sold to the public (we have probably covered costs now if everyone pays up). 

Barbara and Nik set the tone for the event welcoming all 15 folk from Achiltibuie with 4 dogs in their cat friendly home for the weekend.  Barabara hand made more than 50 glazed pottery medals, which were worn late into the night with much pride, some still had theirs on the next morning! and Nik’s gift of “a piece of our boat” carved in the shape of the skiff added a great personal touch. 

Ali Grant ran an impressive collection of local rowing heritage on Thursday last week, which made a connection with rowing in porty dating back to 1885.  The venue at the library was packed with a wide range of people from the community interested in heritage and mow also in the Ice Breaker. Ali has worked on this project since its conception in October last year and has help with build the Ice Breaker, getting a generator and sourcing stuff, plus securing funding, getting the kids stories printed, and you still managed to help heaps on Sat & Sun!.

A massive respect to all those rowers (20) that took part in 8 fiercely contested races, many rowed in two races and some had three, but every one gave it their all and more, there are blisters and callouses and bruises been nursed tonight, well done everyone!! respect. We have suddenly got so much better, the bungees helped on the day, but we are getting stronger and learning how to take long strong strokes, in time, every time.  Our coxes where also much sharper at getting us quickly round those buoys, even the wrong ones Peter! We had several very close races where we were beaten to the line by inches.  

All credit to the un-bribable umpires Jo, Alex, Mo and Osbert, who had to make some tough decisions on some of those slow motion photo finishes, thank you for making it run so smoothly. I think we only managed 3 false starts but no one noticed, so it went swimmingly. 

John and Steve on the rescue boat did a sterling job. They were able to tweak the course after the first race and they also took camera folk out, so expect to see yourself somewhere in the press.  Many rowers commented on how great it was to row and have a rescue boat out there that does not go careering around causing tidal waves everywhere. The VHF radios worked well too. 

We also had the support of lots of family and friends working behind the scenes  making things like the flag! doing us a favour here and there, knitting the community together. To all of them a big thank you from me and everyone else in the rowporty festival!   

Thank you also to the team from the swimming pool who ran a rowing challenge, Maddy was very happy with her women’s prize in the form of free membership. It complemented what we are trying to do with rowing at sea and there maybe an avenue to develop closer links with staff & resources at the pool.  

Many thanks to our local police, who were in attendance and were treated to an incident free event and lots of boats to watch. 

Yours truly knackered

Andres