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Around this time last year, Black Rocks Rowing Club took part in the 2020 Virtual RowAround Scotland. Originally concieved as an on-water community baton relay around the coast of Scotland to celebrate ten years of Scottish Coastal Rowing, we had to content ourselves with a virtual event on dry land due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic. You can read our article on the event here: Click here to read last year's article With the restrictions somewhat eased this year, the RowAround Scotland event is being repeated in a manner more akin to the original plan and a baton has been making its way around the coast, being passed club-to-club on its way. Although Black Rocks is still 'sans skiff', a contingent of our members joined the fun at Silver Sands Beach in Aberdour where Kinghorn Coastal Rowing Club handed the baton over to North Queensferry. The weather was not kind, but it certainly made for some atmospheric photographs! You can read more about the RowAround Scotland event, and track the progress of the baton, on the official website at the link below. Also be sure to check out the official Facebook page where clubs are continually posting updates and uploading pictures. "RowAround Scotland is a relay in open rowing boats around the coast of Scotland. It is organised by Scottish Coastal Rowing Association whose 70 member clubs will all take part, joining up their communities and promoting Scotland’s wonderful coastline and waters along the way." Click to visit the RowAround Scotland Website Click to visit the RowAround Scotland Facebook Page

Ending the year in true 2020 fashion, Black Rocks Rowing Club's Annual General Meeting was held on the 3rd December, courtesy of Zoom! It was attended by over half of our (admittedly small) club, so many thanks to everyone that was able to make it. If truth be told, the date rather snuck up on us; it's been a peculiar year for all of us but not a completely unproductive one for the club. The year has, of course, been defined by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. After a great start to our boat build at the end of 2019, we suddenly found our project stalled and it sadly remained that way until fairly recently. Of course, the health and safety of our members and communities have had to take precedence in these challenging times. The silver lining is that our build is in the process of remobilising, albeit with a number of new rules. All club members are welcome to participate (regardless of experience) as long as they're able to do so within the constraints of government and club rules. Our build has, of course, been made possible thanks to a number of fundraising efforts. The club held a successful wine tasting event at the start of year (pre-COVID!); thanks must go to Bill Rollo and the Bowling Club for making this possible. We're also grateful for a number of grants that we've received in the past year from Burntisland & Kinghorn Rotary Club, Fife Council, and the Edinburgh Airport Community Fund. Looking ahead to 2021, we are pleased to welcome our newly elected Committee. Office bearers Martin Blankenstein and Ron Smith have agreed to stay on as Treasurer and Secretary respectively. Elisa Robertson has been voted in as our new Chair, replacing Joel Houck who has decided to step down from this position. Many thanks are owed to Joel for his efforts over the past year, and we are grateful to him for agreeing to continue within the Committee. The full list of Committee members is as follows: Adam Arnott Martin Birrell Martin Blankenstein (Treasurer) Joel Houck Chris Mitchell Denise Richmond Elisa Robertson (Chair) Finlay Robertson David Roy Ron Smith (Secretary) The new committee will convene for the first time on Thursday 7th January, 2021. We can look ahead to the new year in the hope that a steady drumbeat towards normality may be sounding from somewhere just over the horizon. In the meantime, be sure to watch out for news as our boat build gathers some headway. Best wishes of the season to everyone; stay safe, stay healthy, and we look forward to seeing you all again in 2021!

It's been a great weekend on the water for rowers in the now-international Castle to Crane race. It's a highlight of Scottish Coastal Rowing, held over 13 miles on the River Clyde. This year, because of Covid, rowers were invited to compete by rowing five-mile time trials on their home waters. So the competition ranged from entries in Tasmania and Melbourne, to Spain, Holland, across the UK including lots from the West Country as well as Scotland, and Ireland. Black Rocks member, Chris Mitchell, asked if he could represent the club in his Liteboat - a modern coastal rowing single scull, modified for fixed seat rowing. His first attempt on Friday started in Kinghorn Bay, went west to Burntisland Harbour, turned round and headed back to the start circumnavigating the Black Rocks en-route. Conditions became quite choppy but a respectable time of 59 mins was clocked for the five miles. By Sunday, conditions were improved and calm so a second attempt was made in one of the lowest spring tides of the year. This time, a combination of hugging the shore around Pettycur Beach, then joining the main Forth channel for the return (oh and some hard rowing) knocked ten minutes off the first time. 49 mins 49 secs was the 11th fastest of all 119 race entries, the highest placed 50+ solo rower and highest placed "one rower boat less than 5m". "Fair chuffed" was Chris's verdict on the event, especially glad to have started Black Rocks Rowing Club's competitive record with a respectable performance. Now we just need to build our skiff.

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. https://youtu.be/UF8itYW2EJA 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