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Read more about the article RowAround Scotland 2020

RowAround Scotland 2020

Black Rocks Rowing Club has proudly joined the Virtual RowAround Scotland – a COVID-era landbased relay in which a virtual baton is working its way around the coast of Scotland to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of Scottish Coastal Rowing.

We took over the baton from Kinghorn CRC at Burntisland Sailing Club and transported it to Dalgety Bay, a sea journey of around 5 miles. Joel Mason, club chair, RowAround Scotland Poet-in-Residence and man of many other talents, took the baton aboard the Burntisland Flyer, a vintage Indian electric bike, just one of his many inventions, for its first night in the town

Next day, the leg to Dalgety Bay, set off with another invention, the Rolling Rowing Machine, powered by Joel and coxed by Chris.

It was a great start, even if the first corner was a little challenging. However Brian, Chris and Chris M then took to the Fife Coastal Path on foot, escorted on four feet by Islay.

Last week’s storm had partly washed away the Starleyburn Bridge but hasty repairs by Fife Coast & Countryside Trust had reopened the path. At Aberdour, Elisa joined us and then en route to Dalgety Bay, David from the fledgling Aberdour skiff project joined in together with another four feet.

Aberdour have a small steering group of about seven members doing the spade work of creating a club.

Finlay, and 13 month old Lily, also joined in for the last leg to the Donibristle House Quay at Dalgety Bay, where a warm greeting was waiting from North Queensferry CRC.

Here we concluded with a double handover, from Black Rocks to Aberdour and then Aberdour to North Queensferry.

All very virtual, but little did we now that at that very moment a virtual SCRA committee was putting the finishing touches to an announcement that is to get us all back on the water.

Handover from Black Rocks to Aberdour

Handover from Aberdour to North Queensferry

Next year we’ll be back again for RowAround Scotland for Real in a Black Rocks Skiff – fingers crossed.

Report written by Chris Mitchell

“The Virtual RowAround Scotland (VRAS) began on 25th March 2020 and will continue in real time around the coast until such time as restrictions are eased and we can all leap into our skiffs and complete the cyber circumnavigation for real”

Click here to read Chris's full article on the RowAround Scotland Website
Read more about the article Upcoming event

Upcoming event

COVID-19 may be with us for a while longer, but club business goes on. Some members of our steering group recently met in the now-clichéd ‘Zoom’ format; topics included everything from the first tentative steps in the direction of remobilising our build to the Row Around Scotland event in which Black Rocks will be participating later this month.

Originally conceived as an on-water baton relay around Scotland in celebration of 10 years of Scottish Coastal Rowing, the event has had to reformat as a virtual row … a ‘dry run’, if you will.

Kinghorn Coastal Rowing Club will be handing the baton to us on Wednesday 19th August, and we’ll have until Thursday evening to walk it to Donibristle Bay for the handover to North Queensferry Coastal Rowing Club.

We will need to coordinate carefully, as we’ll need to observe all the relevant advice from the Scottish Government as regards social distancing and the permissible sizes of gatherings. Details will be circulated to members shortly; anyone else who would like to get involved is welcome to get in touch.

Read more about the article A short pause

A short pause

Alas, COVID-19 has forced us to push pause on our build. Nonetheless, it’s as good a time as ever to reflect on the past few months, during which we’ve been making steady progress on the St Ayles Skiff build. After final levelling of the build frame, and ensuring that the moulds were all on straight, our members got to work sanding and gluing up the four ribs. Next, the strips of douglas fir that make up the curved ‘aprons’ or ‘inner stems’ at either end of the boat’s backbone were planed down to the correct size, and laminated together using a mould lent by Kinghorn; in the picture, we see Joel and Bill adjusting some of the 20 or so clamps necessary to hold everything in place while the glue sets.

The next step will be to mount the ribs and aprons to the build frame and glue the hog (the inner part of the keel) along the top, creating a skeleton upon which the planks will then be laid. That, however, will need to wait until we can safely reconvene.

In the meantime, we hope everyone is keeping safe and healthy.

Read more about the article One year on

One year on

Marking the end of an incredible year for our newly formed club, some of our members were pictured sharing mince pies and mulled wine alongside the bare bones of our boat.

We are thankful to our neighbours in Kinghorn Coastal Rowing Club for loaning us their build frame and moulds, which can be seen set up in this picture. These form a sort of ‘template’ around which our new boat will be built, upside down. Our kit – the 243rd sold in the UK – arrived from Jordan Boats in December in the form of three 50-kilogram crates containing all the plywood parts of the boat. In addition, we have also purchased timber for the keel, hog, aprons and stems (which make up the backbone of the hull) and the gunwales from Abbey Timber in Abbey St Bathans.

We look forward to seeing everyone again in the new year and pushing on with our build – bring on 2020!