News

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

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!