Category Archives: News

Opening regatta

The forecast for the Opening Regatta on Sunday 23rd was not good, with suggestions of a strong Northerly, with gusts of force 5 increasing to force 6 in the afternoon. The wind on the inch was indeed Northerly, though on the loch itself the steadiest direction was Easterly. A course of C, E, X, A was initially set by the race officer, but after boats were on the water, and conditions observed, the course was reversed to X, E, C, A. This proved to be the correct move.

An excellent 11 boats were on the water. 5 laser radials, 4 fireflies (3 from Aberdeen University), a solo, and a Wanderer. This made the starts exciting, with much jockeying for position and cries of ‘starboard!’ as everyone tried to get the best start.

For the first race that person was Helen Brown (laser radial) followed by David Smith (firefly) and Malcolm Heron (laser radial) who rounded the first mark in that order.  The first unplanned swim, by Jamie Brown (laser radial), happened before the first mark, but he quickly recovered and didn’t trouble the rescue boat (ably manned by Sebastian Kimber). The extremely variable breeze, both in direction and strength, caused much pain to the sailors, eventually being the undoing of David in his firefly. He capsized after rounding E mark and his mast stuck in the mud in the shallow water, resulting in his retiral from the race.  The remainder of the fleet had a very close fought race, with only 20 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Tony Walker and Bill Myles (Wanderer)
4th Jill Reid (firefly AUSC)
5th Becci Oosterhoorn (laser radial)

The wind abated slightly for the second race so was initially less exciting at first. The fleet was joined by Connor Hyndland and his daughter Charlotte, who quickly rigged a club Feva, just in time for the start.  Mark Kimber (laser radial) was first round the first mark, followed by the Wanderer, then Helen. The down wind section to E saw several casualties, all of whom recovered without assistance. At C mark, Helen took the lead, which she later lost to Malcolm. It was another very close race, with 5 seconds, on corrected time, between the first 5 boats.
1st Malcolm
2nd Stuart Dallas (firefly AUSC)
3rd Jamie
4th Mark

As the first two races were very hard work, the third race was shorter – 2 laps of the course instead of 3. Helen made an excellent start, less than a minute after capsizing behind the line. There were more capsizes (mostly ‘dry’) as tired sailors found the conditions demanding for tired bodies, and everyone was very glad to come ashore at the end of the race.
1st Helen
2nd Malcolm
3rd Mark
4th Jamie

End result overall:
1st, and winner of the Inch Cup Helen Brown (laser radial)
2nd Malcolm Heron (Laser Radial)
3= Mark Kimber and Jamie Brown (laser radial)

Work party

A very big thank you to all our spring cleaners and DIYers.

A great turnout from sailor and skiffies and real progress has been made into preparing the club for the coming season. Deep cleans in all areas, showers fixed, boiler started, sign posts placed, mesh on pontoon sorted, litter picked (Nice one Jack), chains relayed, Sailing marks placed and trolleys sorted (no comments about me being off mine, I know it already??).

Thank you everyone that came down today, don’t worry if you couldn’t make it today – there’s still stuff to do.

So, tomorrow, skiffies have a couple of sessions planned and the sailors will be returning the boats from the Tattie shed. The plan for the sailors will be to meet at the shed at 10am. I will be at the club at about 0930 to drop my boat off so I can tow some club boats from the shed.

See you tomorrow

And truly – Thanks again to all.

Website updated

Hi, if you look closer at the options on the web site you might notice that there have been a few updates. We are still working on adding more information specifically about the new skiff. If you would like to see information displayed on the website, please contact us. (if you find that something is not working as expected, drop us an email)

Skiff sessions in the new year

If you haven’t been to the club recently, you might not be aware that the skiff rowing sessions are back after the ice on the loch has disappeared. Here are some photos from a recent session.

If you would like to take part, try it out or want to have a chat with some of the rowers contact the club to find out when the next session is.

Boats away

Last Sunday we took ours and members’ boat away into the shed for winter. The day before we did a bit of rescuing as the water level on the Loch had risen by about 6 Feet. Here are some photos from before and on the day

And the next day there was even more…

Skiff launch

Skiff on foreground with female holding Quach, behind the boat you can see rows of spectators and the roof of the clubhouse

Last Saturday, 5th November saw the cumulation of 12 months of work coordinated by Forfar Rotary of the building and launch of Forfar’s New community St Ayles Skiff.

 If you have been watching Facebook over the past year you will be aware of the progress of refitting the Strathmore cricket clubs storage shed with a vapour barrier, electrics and benches, the building of formwork moulds loaned by Royal Tay’s Broughty rowing section, massive fundraising by Rotary’s Gordon Peterkin, development of epoxy techniques in sub-zero temperatures (well it felt like that), the incredible commitment and enthusiasm for 3 half days a week for at least 10 months, of a small number of amateur boat builders and some very necessary participation and guidance from a couple of retired craftsmen, the final sanding, and 5 coat painting and varnishing by another select group of volunteers.. and an awful lot of other volunteer support.. (Including coffee makers).

And.. eventually, in almost record time an incredible crowd of more than 100.. some say 150 to welcome the launch of our new skiff… the Greg Luckhurst named after a local businessman/plumber who died recently in the prime of his life and whose family contributed the seed corn funding for the project.

This will be the first of two skiffs to be funded by a selection of sources, national and local funds, local businesses, and personal donations which will be owned by the Rotary charity fund but given to FSWC to use and manage as we see fit to grow skiff rowing for the healthy enjoyment of the community.

The build team are having a 3-month break to 1st March until it gets warm enough for the epoxy before we start on the second one.

There are still some teething issues to be sorted out, but we had a great day with Catterline and North Queensferry skiffs saluting us on the launch and Radio sailors boats in attendance.. and a lot of folks had a row!!   Not a row!

3 different skiffs on the water with the oars in vertical position.

Details of follow-up sessions will follow, but the first session is on Saturday 19th at 10 am when we will have our first row by ourselves, 20 max in the session.. and all the places may have gone by now!!

Watch this space.. The committee is discussing organisation on Monday and details will be on our Facebook site. I’m delighted that Sarah Ramage an enthusiastic Rotary member is coordinating it all and did a splendid STV interview earlier this week that’s the publicity we need!

Contact point:- skiff @forfarsailing.org.uk

 Look back at Forfar Community Skiff or Forfar Rotary Facebook pages for some of the historic photos

The new skiff with 5 people rowing in an angle away from the viewer.

 Tony