Sailing Clubs with rowing sections

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Old Rhodie

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We are a small sailing club on the Bristol channel and I am anxious to get in touch with sailing clubs who have built up "rowing sections" or have affiliated Rowing Clubs. Do you know of such a club ?
We have an opportunity to expand and some members are interested in following this path.
I have researched ( and visited ) "rowing clubs" on the Welsh and English West coasts and am not looking for advice on this topic.
Thanks,
Ken
 
The Royal Welsh Yacht Club was slowly fading away as the members with local boats lived 100's of miles away & then someone decided to apply for a grant for a couple of Celtic Gigs. The result is a completely rejuvenated club, a very active local membership, involved in the many Gig races (including one from Ireland to Wales) and a growing number of boats & rowers.

If what happened to us is anything to go by I can only recommend it. And it's good to see the club boats out practising on the straits, they move at a fair old pace & really surge forward & up on the power stroke when everyone pulls together - sort of a simile for the whole club concept really. As a young Sea Scout I was involved in Whaler Training at HMS Eaglet in Salthouse Dock & even in a heavy old whaler rowed by 14 yo kids, you can feel the power of several blades in the water pulling together.

Contact Sarah & Brian Roberts at the RWYC, I think they were the prime movers originally.
 
Thanks, Searush. Just what I wanted.
Did you have enough facilities ( eg. showers ) already and did you find the rowers used the Cluhouse, bar etc.
Ken
 
There are showers & changing facilities at the club & the rowers have re-energised us, taking on many of the committee functions & jobs that people like me (living over 100 miles away) simply can't help with. Many of the races are based at other locations although we have introduced a rowing race in our regatta plus a couple of open "league" races. I think the boats are kept at Plas Menai (Welsh National Sailing Centre) as their launch & support facilities are better than at our club which has no storage area or easy access slipways for launch & recovery.

Have a look at the RWYC facebook site & you will see that many of the posts are from the rowers and their events.
 
Hi
I set a Sea Rowing Section in Barry Yacht Club. It is very successful bring in new members they row in CELTIC LONG BOATS. Rowing for fun and in
league events.
If you PM me I will let you have my phone number,then I can give you more information. You can also find some information Facebook. Barry Sea Rowing and Barry Yacht Club Web site.
Roger
 
JumbleDuck said:
I believe that quite a few sailing clubs are involved in the Scottish Coastal Rowing project. It might be worth contacting the SCRA (http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/) and ask to be put in touch with a couple.
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Quite a few of the St Ayles skiff boat builds were nurtured at least by sailing clubs, keen to do their bit for the local community. The sections are sometimes kept sort of separate, not least because the community rowers might well pay rather less for their membership. However each club is different! The SCRA clubs which are also sailing clubs or spinned out of sailing clubs that I can think of are: Blyth (Northumberland), Portobello, St Andrews, Royal Tay YC, Wormit, Isle of Mull, Findochty, Channonry, Loch Broom Sailing Club, Royal West of Scotland Boat Club. Contact details for all of these here: http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/club-finder/
 
Old Rhodie said:
Thanks, Searush. Just what I wanted.
Did you have enough facilities ( eg. showers ) already and did you find the rowers used the Cluhouse, bar etc.
Ken
Click to expand...

Being a member of both the local sailing club and the local rowing club, an interesting difference is that all the rowers live locally, whereas a fairly high proportion of the sailors live up in Edinburgh, or places between. The effect is that the rowers are more sociable, and also are on the water every day, whereas the sailors tend to meet up twice a week only for racing. The rowers however are less likely to use the showers, because they go home to wash (and can wander through the town in their rowing kit much more easily than someone would in a wetsuit). So yes, good drinkers, and miserly shower users..... whats not to like.
 
Romeo said:
Quite a few of the St Ayles skiff boat builds were nurtured at least by sailing clubs, keen to do their bit for the local community. The sections are sometimes kept sort of separate, not least because the community rowers might well pay rather less for their membership. However each club is different! The SCRA clubs which are also sailing clubs or spinned out of sailing clubs that I can think of are: Blyth (Northumberland), Portobello, St Andrews, Royal Tay YC, Wormit, Isle of Mull, Findochty, Channonry, Loch Broom Sailing Club, Royal West of Scotland Boat Club. Contact details for all of these here: http://scottishcoastalrowing.org/club-finder/
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Thanks. I have been trying to interest Kirkcudbright SC ... it would be nice to get something going there, Solway YC and IoWSC for a bit of healthy local competition.
 
JumbleDuck said:
Thanks. I have been trying to interest Kirkcudbright SC ... it would be nice to get something going there, Solway YC and IoWSC for a bit of healthy local competition.
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There is someone trying to get matters going in Dalbettie. So far the Solway coast only has a boat in Annan, and that does not appear to have been used much. It is the last bit of coast in Scotland to get in on the coastal rowing act. Kirkudbright would be a great place for a skiff. Not every sailing club committee is amenable to the idea to start with. They tend to pick up interest when they see dozens of new local folk showing a keen interest in the sea, possibly needing some help with seamanship, and ready to spend money on being sociable (see OP?). However there are plenty of places where some enthusiasts in the community have started a boat build, formed a new club, got on fine, and subsequently co-existed very happily with a still separate sailing club. Each community finds its own, slightly unique way forward.
 
Romeo said:
There is someone trying to get matters going in Dalbettie. So far the Solway coast only has a boat in Annan, and that does not appear to have been used much. It is the last bit of coast in Scotland to get in on the coastal rowing act. Kirkudbright would be a great place for a skiff. Not every sailing club committee is amenable to the idea to start with. They tend to pick up interest when they see dozens of new local folk showing a keen interest in the sea, possibly needing some help with seamanship, and ready to spend money on being sociable (see OP?). However there are plenty of places where some enthusiasts in the community have started a boat build, formed a new club, got on fine, and subsequently co-existed very happily with a still separate sailing club. Each community finds its own, slightly unique way forward.
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The developments at Annan Harbour generally are good, but seem to happen in fits and starts. I think part of the issue here may be the low population density and a very active rowing club (Nithsdale ARC - http://www.nithsdalearc.com/) in Dumfries ... I know it's not the same thing, but it does mean that such keen rowers as there are around are fairly well served. It would be nice to see something more happening, though ... I'll PM you my details in case you could pass them on to the Dalbeattie chap.
 
Ryde Rowing Club organises a sailing event of great repute, 'The Merrydown'.

The OP could look at the results for Gig Rowing leagues and see what sailing/yacht/whatever clubs are active?

Around the Solent, I know a few people who are members of both a sailing club and a rowing club. I'm not aware of the two activities being mixed in one club?
 
Old Rhodie,

last I heard Langstone SC - which has access to Langstone & Chichester Harbours, being based on the road bridge to Hayling Island - was going to join up with the very active gig rowing club nearby, to promote activities for both; the gigs are based near the Royal Oak pub but don't have a clubhouse, while LSC has good facilities inc showers etc.

The gig crews seem to be out in midweek, every time I look; certainly a keen lot.
 
There's something of a difference between sailing clubs and gig racing: as I understand it, most sailing clubs tend to run a racing calendar where crews compete against one another within the club. Gig racing, with the need for seven person crews and comparatively expensive boats, focuses on racing against other clubs.

A gig race meeting will have a number of races for different classes of crew. Each gig may have four or five crews use it during the meeting, so there's a fair bit of standing round watching the races before it's your turn to race. Once racing has finished, there's a tendency to cut away home unless there's a social event as part of the meeting.

Given the OPs location, I would suggest getting in touch with the Cornish Pilot Gig Association at cpga.org.uk . If a rowing section is to work within a sailing club, it will need competition and there are already Pilot Gig clubs close by who can offer both competition and advice. Funds are available from various public bodies to help fund gigs and it is possible to buy GRP gigs for use as training boats before going to the expense of getting hold of a wooden one for competitive rowing.
 
At the gig club I mentioned ( somewhat confusingly, in Langstone village which is in Chichester Harbour ) there are several gigs which seem to compete with each other, and I'm pretty sure they compete with other guests.
 
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