Port Seton Regatta 6th May 2023
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Seven teams headed along to the first regatta of the season at Port Seton this weekend. It was overcast and misty much of the day with rain showers and even a bit of thunder to add some drama to the racing!
There were some worried faces on arrival at the lack of water in the harbour but within a couple of hours, and just about on schedule, the tide came in and there was enough water for racing to kick off.
The races were short and fast with boats navigating around two buoys at opposite ends of the harbours. The fastest two crews in each category qualified for the final.
Well done to all the crews who competed, it was a day of fast and furious racing! The Mixed Open A crew started the medal tally for North Berwick with a silver in their incredibly close final against Port Seton’s Boatie Blest crew. The Mixed Open B and the Women's Over 40 crews brought home gold, both battling against Eastern in their finals and the Men's Open crew also triumphed to win gold against Boatie Blest. The Women's Open crew got silver in their close fought final against Boatie Blest and 2 bronze medals for the Women's 50+ and Mixed 50+. The best results though were three of our novice rowers winning Gold, meaning they are no longer novices! Fantastic, well done Jess Ivy, Jen Wilson and Robert Eckhart.
It was a great start to the regatta season with Port Seton putting on a brilliant spread of food, cake and refreshments, keeping us all going throughout the day. The medals were lovely, made from the old keel of their boat and some local coal. Thanks to all the members who towed, packed, set up, put away, filmed and photographed the day! Check out the photos of the regatta on Flickr and videos on YouTube.
Blackadder Back on the Water
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The Boat Maintenance Team at NB Rowing Club have been busy over the spring repainting and varnishing Blackadder ready for the 2023 rowing season. After sanding and painting the hull, the fixtures and fittings were given a bit of TLC and the new cushions strapped in.
Blackadder was the third boat to be built in North Berwick and was launched in May 2014. She was named after John Blackadder, a 17th century outspoken preacher who was imprisoned on the Bass Rock. His gravestone is in Old St Andrews Kirk graveyard in Kirkports.
The small children in this photo have all grown up and learnt to row as part of the rowing family.
North Berwick Rowing Club is extremely grateful to North Berwick Trust for their grant which supported the purchase of the cushions and a set of new oars. This will help us continue support the recreational and competitive rowing that is enjoyed by our wide demographic of rowers (ages 14 - 80)!
Trades Cup 2023
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On Sunday 16 April nine new crews took part in the Trades Cup. This event, organised by North Berwick Rowing Club, gives people who have never rowed before the opportunity to practise under the supervision of an experienced cox before competing against each other. Ages in the teams ranged from 15 to 82 years old showing that rowing is a popular activity for all ages. The races took place at North Berwick’s Elcho Green where participants, club members and spectators enjoyed surprisingly balmy weather, refreshments and fierce competition on the water.
Club Captain, Millie Lowe, presented the Trades Cup trophy to the winning team East Rock Strokers who were the overall winners on the day. Since the event five new members have joined the club. North Berwick Rowing Club has a busy weekly programme of rowing options that members are free to sign up. Non members are very welcome to Try Rowing or can make contact with the club via the website.
More photos can be viewed here.
North Berwick Youth Project Go Rowing
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Throughout March 2023, North Berwick Rowing Club have been introducing rowing to young people from the North Berwick Youth Project. The collaboration between local clubs was supported by volunteers from NBRC who firstly introduced the boat and some safety points before heading out to learn to row. Some much appreciated funding from North Berwick Trust helped to supply gloves and wet boots for the youngsters to use when taking part.
Click for album |
Click for album |
The first challenge was getting the boat launched in what was still a pretty cold North Sea then everyone got on to learning the basics of the rowing stroke. The NBRC coxes were amazed at how quickly each crew started to learn the new skill and how soon they realised the importance of team work. Rowing together in time makes the boat go faster! There was rapid progress made by all. The sea conditions were so good on one outing that a crew headed out to the Craig to do some seal spotting.
After all the excitement it was back to base for hot chocolate and dry shoes. All the volunteers from NBRC agreed that it had been a great experience to get some new young people introduced to rowing and Claire Simpson, the clubs Junior Coordinator, hopes that some of them will continue their rowing adventures with the regular junior session on a Sunday. Any enquiries can be directed to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. More photos can be viewed here.
Lochdown 2023 - Loch Earn Sunday March 26th
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8am Sunday 26th March 2023 and five club members and St Baldred were tightly packed in/behind Robbie Wightman’s car as we headed north via Callendar and a bacon roll stop at Loch Lubnaig, turning right at Lochearnhead onto the A85.
Two miles further on the north side of Loch Earn we arrived at Drummond Trout Farm where Robbie had found a slipway to launch the boat. Stuart our contact there was very helpful in showing us how best to launch St Baldred off the slipway. We paid our £12 slipway fees (for boats less than 10hp) and off we went onto Loch Earn.
Conditions were a chilly 4 degrees centigrade with a light wind from the north blustering occasionally in spots and the chance of some snow flurries in the forecast. We decided to circumnavigate the loch turning to starboard and going through our warm-up exercises with our first cox of the day, ‘Medium’.
Making good progress we came across our first crannog and noticed what looked like evidence of beaver activity (see photo) which was confirmed by Stewart on the slipway when we got back.
We then turned east and followed the south side of the loch landing on the shore to change cox and sample some rather nice fruit cake (thanks to the Wightman household) with our flasks of tea. Snow on the top of Ben Vorlich and other munros in the area against blue sky set the backdrop to fantastic scenery and we were soon down at St Fillans at the eastern end.
Here we had intended to lunch at the Four Seasons Hotel (older members may be interested to know The Beatles once stayed here). However, it belied its name by not offering food until April. We sat on the shore and remarked on how well balanced the new oars were and how the smooth conditions on the loch aided swift progress.
Wondering whether we had spotted an osprey earlier, we were soon back at Drummond Trout Farm and packed ready to return to NB. Our slipway man told us the loch would soon be very busy for the season, so our timing was good to sample the loch minus hordes of jet skis etc.
(L to R: Robbie, Ann, Dave, Duncan & Medium)
‘Why Loch Earn?’ we hear you ask. Well, Robbie had put a crew together to take part in the SCRA’s Lochdown 2023 challenge - devised to encourage clubs to go out and row as many lochs in Scotland during 2023.
More details here:
https://scottishcoastalrowing.org/lochdown-2023/
https://www.drummondtroutfarm.co.uk
Thanks to Robbie for organising and towing St Baldred & crew.
Where will you do your Lochdown?
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