News - Page 4 of 7 - Black Rocks Rowing Club

Post published:22/11/2022

Freshwater Sprints

Not having attended rowing events previously we decided to visit the Freshwater Sprints, held at Loch Tummel, in late October to see what was involved.

It was a clear autumn day with little wind – ideal.

We arrived mid-morning with a number of boats already on the water. There would be, possibly, around 100 people there. Fife was well represented from 8 different clubs. The event was based at the sailing club which offered all the refreshments we could possibly need. It was well organised with races timetabled every 20 minutes or so.

I am a novice rower so didn’t know quite what to expect. Unbeknown to me, I was firstly entered into the “Intermediate” race. I declared to my fellow rowers that I had very little rowing experience but nevertheless was allocated the stroke position.

For those who don’t know, that is the position facing the cox and the primary role is to set the pace and keep it steady. Well, not wanting to show myself up as unfit, I thought I’d head off strongly. Big mistake! After 100 metres or so, i could feel myself slowing up big time. We finished, I think, 3rd out of 5 boats. Pretty good considering. However the lesson learned was go off at a pace you can sustain – and perhaps a bit of practice beforehand!

I got myself involved in another two races that day but I’m afraid I did little to help my crewmates, coming last and 2nd last as I recall – but it’s the taking part they tell me.

It was a great day out and we met many new people. All were eager to help with advice. It’s clear there is a lot of interest in inter-club events. Maybe not every club member will want to take part in these events but for me, it was enjoyable and nice to meet other people.

So, here’s hoping that by next summer Black Rocks Rowing Club will be attending these events with our own boat.

Article written by Martin Birrell

Post published:28/08/2022

1st plank … and a BBQ!

One could be forgiven for thinking that things have been a bit quiet over the past few months, but the long-awaited end to Covid restrictions earlier this year have allowed us to accelerate the boat build which has been progressing steadily through the summer. We’ve now celebrated a significant milestone: the fitting of the first plank to the hull. As can be seen from the accompanying pictures, we had to use just about every clamp that was going spare (plus a few that weren’t!) – 55 in total!

A great deal of fairly tricky work was required to get us to this stage, with the hog and apron timbers needing some careful shaping to accept the inside surface of the first planks. We had a couple of false starts on this front, but the great thing about working with timber and epoxy is that just about any mistake can be repaired. This is a learning experience for us all!

Now we’re over this hump we’re anticipating that progress should be both quicker and more visible going forwards. The hull of a St Ayles Skiff is made up of 12 planks – 6 on each side – which have already been made up (as described in the previous article). Now that we’re ready to begin installing them, we should see the hull start coming together quite rapidly over the next few months. It’s a very exciting part of the build, because we’re finally at the stage of assembling something that will begin to look vaguely watertight!

To mark this milestone, the club met up for a celebratory summer barbecue on the afternoon of Saturday 13th August. The weather was extraordinarily kind to us on a day that bathed most of the Firth of Forth in a thick haar, and it was a fantastic opportunity to show our wider membership (along with friends and supporters) the state if our build.

Special thanks are due to Irene who, not being content with lending us a building space for the boat, also allowed us to invade her garden for the afternoon. It only seemed right that she should be the one to remove the symbolic first clamp.

By the time this article has been published, the second plank will already have been fitted; hopefully this gives some reassurance of the fact that the build really is ramping up. Plank gluing is an activity where extra hands really do come in handy, so if you’re interested in helping out then now’s a great time to get involved. This invitation is open to everyone – members, prospective members, friends, family, and the innately curious! Build sessions are usually on Tuesday and Thursday evenings but this does vary week-to-week; by far the easiest way to keep abreast of our plans is to ask Elisa, our Membership Secretary, to add you to the builders’ WhatsApp group. If that arrangement doesn’t suit you, feel free to tie in with any of our regular builders.

We hope to see you soon!

Article written by Finlay Robertson

Post published:06/02/2022

Build update

The start of 2022 has seen some remarkable progress in our boat build and a couple of major milestones have been reached over the past fortnight or so; consequently it seems like a good time for an update.

The twelve planks (or ‘strakes’) which will make up the sides of the hull each came in three pieces, and required joining using so-called ‘scarph’ joints. Completing 24 of these joints has been a time-consuming affair.

The final joint – and thus the final plank – has now been completed. In these somewhat staged pictures, we see David posing next to the stack of planks and with the random orbital sander that was used to tidy up the joints once the glue had hardened. (Rest assured that appropriate PPE was being worn prior to the photo shoot!)

With the planks complete, attention was turned to the build frame and the skiff’s ‘backbone’, upon which the planks will be mounted. The hog (inner keel) has now been glued to the aprons (inner stems), completing the internal skeleton of the boat. In coming weeks this will be honed in preparation for mounting the first planks.

As always, I’ll conclude this article with a plea to any interested members (or potential members!) to get in touch – you don’t need to be a boatbuilder or DIY enthisiast to get involved, and it’s a remarkably rewarding experience. Stay tuned for further updates, which will hopefully be coming thick and fast in the coming weeks!

Article written by Finlay Robertson

Post published:03/12/2021

2021 Annual General Meeting

We started 2021 with high hopes that COVID would soon be a distant memory – how wrong we were! Nonetheless, it’s been a productive year for the club given the difficult circumstances and we’ve even managed to welcome a number of new members. Fundraising efforts have continued. Thanks to the efforts of students at the primary school we’ve now rolled out our club logo. We got involved in the local ‘Changing Life through Waterbased Activities’ think-tank, and participated – albeit from the shore – in the SCRA’s RowAround Scotland event. David Roy represented our club at the SCRA AGM, and we seem to have moved a step closer towards some formal youth involvement on account of the fact that we have a qualified coach within the skiffing family.

Perhaps the biggest news of the year is the fact that within the past few months we’ve finally managed to get our boatbuild up-and-running, and things have been moving along quite nicely – a number of planks have already been made up, and we can hopefully expect to begin planking the hull early in the new year. I’d like to reiterate that everyone is invited to get involved in this. Even if you have no experience whatsoever in DIY – let alone building a boat – there are jobs at all levels, lots of opportunities to learn, and future bragging rights in view of your early contribution to our fledgling club!

Our initial hope for 2022 was to have our boat ready for the Skiffie Worlds in the Netherlands, but this is no longer going to be possible. However, Kinghorn Coastal Rowing Club (with whom we’re loosely affiliated) will be attending the event and have invited our members to join their delegation as a sort of ‘Fife syndicate’. Anyone who’s interested should contact Chris Mitchell as soon as possible.

Our new committee was elected at our AGM on 25^th November. I am standing down as Chair and am delighted to say that Martin Birrell has agreed to take on the role next year. Brian Morley is continuing as secretary, and Martin Blankenstein has been re-elected as treasurer. The full list of committee members is as follows:

Adam Arnott
Martin Birrell (Chair)
Martin Blankenstein (Treasurer)
Joel Houck
Chris Mitchell
Brian Morley (Secretary)
Elisa Robertson
Finlay Robertson
David Roy

As always, any member who’d like to get involved in committee affairs is most welcome to express interest at any time. Fundraising and social events will soon be on the cards again, and we can look ahead to 2022 with high hopes that our boatbuild will quickly progress. I’m hopeful that we’ll be on the water by this time next year!

Article written by Elisa Robertson, outgoing Chair