Category: Small boats

The St Ayles skiff hits the water

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The St Ayles skiff meets the water for the first time – as usual click on the images for larger shots

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project’s first St Ayles skiff hit the water for the first time on Sunday, and had her first try-out with a set of borrowed oars.

Builder and key powerhouse behind the project Alec Jordan reports that the Iain Oughtred-designed boat is a joy to row, as she’s stable and fast at the same time. The photos above are courtest of Alec, who must be very proud.

The boat is to be officially launched at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther on Saturday 31 October at 11am. Once the formalities are over there will be a chance to row the boat – if you’d like a go, please contact Alec by email at kits@scottishcoastalrowing.org.

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Traditional steel Dutch dinghy and Forest & Stream skiff compared

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Dutch dinghy and steel-built Forest & Stream skiff

Over in Holland, Hans-Christian Rieck has taken these photos of a traditional steel-built Dutch dinghy of a type often used as tenders to steel-built barges and other craft. They’re strikingly curvaceous little boats, given that they’re made from plates of sheet steel, particularly when compared with the steel-built Forest & Stream skiff seen in the background.

The F&S skiff is being smoothed with filler prior to being painted and having its woodwork fitted. I will be fascinated to hear how this boat works – and I trust it does work well in steel, as it will presumably have a theoretical life time of 80 years or more. I’m pretty sure it will be fine, by the way – it’s clearly greatly scaled up from the 12ft ply dink I drew some ten years ago no, and that will no doubt compensate for the extra weight of the hull. I’d like to take a trip to see it once she’s in the water if that’s ok please Hans-Christian!

Hans-Christian’s workshop trains youngsters in the metalworking skills, and the steel dinghy belongs to the Graf Ship Association – it is destined to be cleaned and refinished.

Here are some earlier images of the F&S skiff, and of a ship, the Jantje ready to be transported to Nordhorn after being sandblasted and sprayed.

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The big day approaches for the St Ayles skiff

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The St Ayles skiff being built in Alec Jordan’s workshop receives a few coats of paint prior to its big day – launch day with the press, various notables in attendance and no doubt a good party.

My thanks to Chris Perkins who sent me the shots, though I gather they were originally taken byAlec. Nice chap that he is, Chris has promised to send me photos of her in the water when they’re available – I gather there may even be video.

Drawn by Iain Oughtred, the boat was designed for the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project, a scheme to encourage rowing racing for the people of Scotland. The boat in the photo is the first to be built, but I gather a boat kit for Ullapool’s rowers has already been ordered!

For more on this project, click here.

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