Sunday 23 December 2012

A St Ayles Skiff for Norfolk

At Norwich for the Carrow Cup last weekend we met Dr Victoria Holliday, the driving force behind the adoption of the St Ayles Skiff as the coastal rowing boat for Norfolk.
She has inveigled Blakeney Sailing Club to set up a rowing section called CraBlakeney and together with 'dinghy sailor and would-be rower' Ian Duffill has sponsored the purchase of a kit from Alec Jordan.
Construction has started in Ian's workshop, though the recent cold snap has forced them to transfer frame building into his kitchen (obviously). Here is Dr Adrian Hodge of Norfolk Skiff Club giving a hand. Adrian tells me that Blakeney is a great place to row, with lots of sheltered water.
It's great to see coastal rowing in fixed seat boats spreading round the coast - all good luck to them. I'm looking forward to beating them by a country mile meeting them in friendly competition in the Carrow Cup next year.
There are loads of pictures of the 2012 Carrow Cup race on the Langstone Cutters website, but my favourite is this one, showing us all leaning back in a way not usually still feasible for a bunch of 60-year olds and giving it some welly. We were more than half a minute faster than last year, and if we had managed to shave a couple more seconds off we would have come second instead of third.

1 comment:

Patrick Hay said...

Those guys in Norfolk don't have the necessary grey beards. Obviously you'll slaughter them.