Newhaven Coastal Rowing

After a busy day at Ocean Terminal mannning the stand on the top floor and the skiff at the entrance to Ocean Terminal,  we were informed that we were one of the winners of the £eith Decides competition. It looks like we are in the top third of the leaderboard and successful in our bid to secure £1000 worth of grant funding.

Skiff outside Ocean Terminal

Thank you all for voting for us, it was great to chat to so many people that came to our stand (gave donations, expressed interest in having a go) and offcourse gave us the 5 points that has made this such a great success.

A special thanks goes to the team manning the stands, and the children who patiently hung around for 3 hours helping ouwhere they could.

The grant funding will go towards purchasing a wee’er skiff kit sothat children can have as much fun as the adults are having.

After a year of rowing “The Wee Michael” was well in need of a wash and, courtesy of Forthside Autovalets, she got a good scrub and hot water hose down. Special thanks go to Archie (age 6) for helping so well and getting stuck in.  Best fun he has ever had! 

The cleaning of the skiff now shows up the dents and scratches very well, but these will be fixed very soon when the skiff goes in for it’s annual service and MOT.

But before that, “The Wee Michael” was spruced up as it is going to be on display at £eith Decides, a competition to be held at Ocean Terminal on the Saturday 25th February 2012 1-3pm.  The public will vote which Leith community groups deserve grant funding to take their project forward.

What is our project?  We intend to build an “Even Wee’er Michael” so that children can enjoy a row in a more suitable skiff and have as much fun as we adults are having.

Please come and vote for us.

£eith Decides – Local Money for Local Projects by Local People.

Come and Vote for Newhaven Coastal Rowers:

date: 25th February

time: 1pm to 3pm

place : top floor – Ocean Terminal

Newhaven Coastal Rowing Club is fundraising for an exciting new project to build a smaller rowing skiff to give children and young people a chance to take part in the coastal rowing project.

The project has been short-listed to receive a grant and Club members will be at the Leith Decides Decision Making Event on 25th February  from 1pm till 3pm to explain our project and drum up support. The event will be on the top floor of Ocean Terminal where we will have a display and a stand. We also plan to show off the Wee Michael outside the shopping centre. Please come and talk to us – and vote for us!

Sunday 20 November for Newhaven Coastal Rowers witnessed some lovely autumn sunshine and 9 new recruits who arrived bright and early for their first row in Granton Harbour.  We are pleased to report that all the new recruits survived and we look forward to seeing them again both at Wednesday evening fitness training (6.30pm every Wednesday by the statue in Victoria Park) and future Sunday rows.  Having enjoyed letting some new people man the oars the Wee Michael then let some ‘old hands’ on board for a leisurely trip to Cramond.  The outgoing crew enjoyed beautifully calm conditions which made swapping positions in the boat easier meaning almost everybody go to to have a go at coxing and the stroke position which sets the pace.  It should be noted that ‘stroke’ is really hard work and serves as a reminder of why we need to do Wednesday night training to get fit for the 2012 Regatta Season.  
 
Not wanting to be too late for the next crew an attempt was made to beat the tide and nip through the gap in the causweway rather than rowing round the whole of Cramond island – this strategy was not entirely succesful and the Wee Michael did get a bit stuck for a few seconds.  An attempt was then made for the beach rather than the pier but some rogue sandbars meant that the crew had to disembark into the chilly November water and walk the Wee Michael in to swap crews.  Legend has it that the last crew had to wade for about half an hour to get enough water under the keel for the journey back to Granton but eye witness reports are conflicting on this issue.  Wading aside I am sure all the teams agree that messing about on the water in the autumn sunshine is a great way to spend your Sunday afternoon and that we look forward to seeing a similarly strong turnout on the next training row.