New Website
Stornoway Rowing Club are now using a new website. Please click on the link to visit the new site…
http://www.styrowclub.co.uk
We are looking forward to this year’s rowing challenges on Saturday 14th July, 10:30am. Once again Madadh Ruadh will be the star attraction and lots of different crews will be racing her in timed sprints (unless someone turns up with another St Ayles skiff 😉 ). Everyone is welcome to take part and no experience is necessary… as last year’s winners will tell you 🙂
http://www.sailhebrides.info/pages/programme_2012/sailstyprog2012.html
A huge congratulations goes out from the Stornoway Rowing Club to all the members of the BIG MINCH SWIM. These guys said they would swim across the Minch from Ullapool to Stornoway… and they did! It took them 34 hours and they have made history.
You can find out more about their fantastic achievement on their Facebook group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/320971477956181/ – and please, please consider donating a few pounds to their cause and help them raise funds for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute…
Well, it’s finally and unfortunately official. Stornoway Rowing Club have withdrawn from the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the Thames. Sadly it proved too expensive and just too far a distance for such a new crew to build up the speed and stamina that the 13 mile row would have required in such a short time, and boy, did they try! I can’t describe how impressed I’ve been at the level of dedication and determination that all the crew members have displayed. Thank you to each and everyone of you… Fiona, Aileen, John, Alasdair, Michal, Fraser, Nick, Iain and Tim.
Coastal rowing is a much more physically demanding sport than most people realise but it is also a highly rewarding one and I have no doubts that our team can do well in any future events we take part in… and now that several of them are new club skippers we can get a lot more people out in Madadh Ruadh, a lot more often!
Now we just need to find a more local event to celebrate the Jubilee… I hear there may be a special street party in Ness 🙂
We plan to take Madadh Ruadh to Portsoy for the weekend of 23rd and 24th June to take part in the Scottish coastal rowing races to be held there.
This will be the Stornoway boat’s first taste of the races that she was built for and we would like to invite anyone from anywhere in the Western Isles to come and join in the fun.
We need crews to race and hope to enter into a few of the following categories, with the “Second” crews perfect for those living too far from Stornoway to be able to practice with us to give it a shot.
Women 16-21
Women Open
Women 35+
Women 50+
Men 16-21
Men Open
Men 35+
Men 50+
Mixed 16-21
Mixed Open
Mixed 35+
Mixed 50+
Mens Open “Second” Crews
Women’s Open “Second” Crews
Mixed Open “Second Crews”
Please email stornowayrowingclub@gmx.com if you would like to take part.
It’s all in the name of fun, but there are prizes too 🙂
The current rowing times are…
Tuesday 7.30pm
Thursday 7.30pm
Saturday 12pm or as otherwise arranged on our Facebook page
Please let us know on the Stornoway Rowing Club Facebook page in advance if you would like to take part in any rowing sessions.
If enough people are wanting to row at a session to make two or more crews we can do timed sprints instead of long rows which will give more people a chance to row and also give us a taste of racing and help us build stamina.
Everybody is welcome!
Membership of Stornoway Rowing Club is just £5 per person for the year. If you would like to join please download a form and pop it in the post to the address on the Contact page or take it along to a rowing session.
https://stornowayrowingclub.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/membership-application-form-11.doc
Yup, freshly painted and pretty as a picture, Madadh Ruadh is now sitting at Cuddy Point waiting for four keen rowers to take her out dancing.
Please check out our Facebook page for rowing times…
1st AGM, Stornoway Coastguard Station, 7:30pm, 7th March
Posted: February 29, 2012 in UncategorizedTags: coastal, diamond jubilee, jubilee, rowing, scottish traditional boat festival, stornoway, stornoway rowing club
Stornoway Rowing Club will be holding it’s first AGM on Wednesday 7th March, 7:30pm at the Stornoway Coastguard Station.
All are welcome and I hope we can encourage some new members who will be keen to participate in some of the events we have been invited to this summer. These include:
The Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant – along with 1000 boats of all shapes and sizes on the River Thames, London, with free camping for the crew in the very centrally located Barns Elm, near the Wetlands Centre, for the whole weekend. The Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy and the Dalriada Games in County Antrim…and many others, and all are options that can be considered by any of our members.
Closer to home we have the rowing challenge at the Sail Stornoway Maritime Festival (previously Sail Hebrides) which this year looks to be quite an event with another St Ayles skiff likely to be built in Stornoway in time to hold the races against.
During the AGM we will need to take a few moments to vote for our Chairman, Treasurer, Secretary, Fundraiser and four committee members so please send in your nominations.
I would also like to propose a large reduction in our membership fee as I feel that it is currently too high.
If anyone has any suggestions for any other matters to be discussed at the AGM please send them in.
Hey Folks,
I have some good news for you all. After a last minute decision to apply to take part and represent the Western Isles I have received an email from the organisers of the Queen’s Jubilee Pageant on the Thames on 3rd June…
… and we have been offered a place!
The route will be just over 7 miles long and take 90 minutes in a flotilla of 1000 boats, with 20,000 participants on the water and millions of spectators on the riverbanks and in London’s public spaces. The event will be broadcast live to hundreds of millions of people around the world.
We will need a team of physically fit rowers who have been able to develop the stamina and strength to keep to a staedy pace of 4 knts – this is entirely possible 🙂
Part of the application was that we would be carrying two or three local children who have been recognised for personal or sporting (thanks for the idea, Pete) achievement.
Names of passengers and crew will need to be provided by the end of March.
Inorder to do this we will need to be committed and get down to some serious fundraising and rowing practise but we CAN do it.
This is a once in a lifetime opportunity and will raise the profile of the town, the islands, the club and the sport of coastal rowing greatly as well as give the crew the opportunity of spending three nights camping for free on the Thames in the June sunshine and taking part in the biggest outdoor party in the UK for many, many, many years.
There will be an AGM on Wednesday, 7th March at 7:30pm in the Coastguard Station and all those interested in taking part will have the opportunity to discuss the options and decide how we will select the children who will be our passengers. Please email me with any ideas or suggestions if you can not make the meeting.
Madadh Ruadh is currently in the shed at the old mill on Sandwick Road. Can all those willing to help with maintenance please get in touch – stornowayrowingclub*gmx*com – so we can get working on her ASAP. The sooner the work is done the sooner she can go back in the water and we can all start practicing 🙂
details of some of the other boats taking part can be found here http://www.thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org/factsheets/vessel_factsheet.pdf
I bet you never thought you’d one day be part of a flotilla with the Golden Hinde, OK, so she’s a replica but still…. 😉
Stornoway Rowing Club 