News

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. https://www.burntislandrowing.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/VID-20220822-WA0002.mp4 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…

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

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 25th 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

It may have been a long time coming, but after a number of false starts over the course of the past year or so we're delighted to confirm that the Black Rocks Rowing Club boat build is finally getting back on track! We've hosted some formal build sessions over the past few weeks, and are hoping to get as many members as possible involved in the rewarding process of building our first boat. Fancy getting involved? No previous experience is required, and even if you'd just like to pop in and see what we're up to you'll be most welcome. Likewise if you're not a member but are intrigued by our build, please don't hesitate to get in touch - it's a great place to meet some of our members and hear about the club we're trying to build! The St Ayles Skiff is a so-called 'clinker-built' boat, which simply means that the hull is made up from a number of overlapping planks. Each plank was supplied in our build kit in three pieces, so one of our current tasks is to join them all together. In the video below, Chris explains how our scarphing jig is used to cut the joints at the correct angle. Don't be put off by the use of machine tools, though - this is just one of a number of jobs needing done! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qQDVGNdtUc In the meantime, work is continuing on the boat's 'skeleton', which is being assembled upside-down on the build frame. Here we see Joel and Martin working on the hog - a piece of timber that sits above the keel and forms part of the skiff's backbone. We're delighted to welcome two new members to the build - Kate and Nils - who, on their first day helping out, managed to get the three sections of the first plank glued together. You can see it clamped down to the worktop in the picture below. Hopefully this will be the first of many updates that will mark the steady progress of our build program. We are currently meeting on Wednesday evenings and Thursday afternoons, along with some additional ad-hoc sessions for those that can't make those days - or are just really keen! If you'd like to know more, please get in touch and we'll be glad to provide further details. Report written by Finlay Robertson