Chris Perkins Macgregor canoe on BBC TV

Scotch Mist in Argyll

Remember Chris Perkin’s award-winning Macgregor canoe built to Iain Oughtred’s design? Well, it has turned up on a BBC series following largely forgotten steamer routes taken by Victorian holiday-makers, and pioneer canoeist Macgregor himself. (I’m sure they’re not forgotten among boating enthusiasts!)

It’s a wonderfully scenic part of the world and it’s great to see Chris’s immaculate little boat being paddled by the presenter, and I think the series will be well worth watching. Broadcast transmissions have been restricted, but it is available to many of us via the BBC iPlayer.

More photos of the boat can be found on Chris’s Flickr photostream.

The next BBA student launch day is on the 7th December – and you’re all invited!

Boat Building Academy student launch December 2011 invitation

Intheboatshed.net readers (and everyone else, to be honest!) are warmly invited to the Boat Building Academy’s class of March 2011 student launch at 2pm on the 7th December.

The boats include:

  • 13ft cold-moulded motor launch designed by Andrew Wolstenholme
  • 17ft clinker-built pilchard larker
  • 10ft foam-sandwich composite dinghy
  • 19ft epoxy-ply Caledonian Yawl (designed by Iain Oughtred)
  • 15ft West Greenland kayak
  • 14ft strip planked ‘Cassy’ canoe yawl (designed by George Holmes)
  • 14ft 1in strip-planked catboat
  • 14ft stitch and glue-built speedboat (designed by BBA instructor Mike Broome)
For building photos of these boats, click here.

See more photos from last year’s December launch:

BBC TV programme about the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project is on the iPlayer now – catch it if you can

BBC Alba TV programme Scottish Coastal Rowing

The BBC Alba TV channel has made a programme about the amazing Scottish Coastal Rowing, in which communities build St Ayles skiffs designed by Iain Oughtred to kits supplied by Alec Jordan, and race them in a series of regattas and events across Scotland and beyond.

My thanks to Osbert Lancaster for the tip – see his weblog Forthsailor.

The growth of the new style of rowing over the past two years has been a phenomenon, with more than 40 of the boats built.

The programme’s available on the BBC iPlayer for the next few days. Catch it if you can!

For many more intheboatshed.net posts about Scottish Coastal Rowing, click here.