Archives 2026

The highlight of the summer for many of us was the Moidart Produce Show at Kinlochmoidart. The Moidart Coastal Rowing Club were again able to have a stand on the showground, and although it would have been perfect to have our own St.Ayles skiff Speireag on show for all to see, unfortunately she is still mid-build. With the gunwales not yet attached, she may not have had the robust stability to be lifted and wheeled out from the build shed.

But anyone who was at the Show could not have missed the beautiful skiff that was standing next to our stall… This was Each Dubh (or Dark Horse), very generously loaned to us for the day by our friends at the Lochaber Rowing Club, based at Corpach. Her varnished wood and blues were really eye-catching as the sun tried to come out; she attracted lots of people intrigued as to whether this was our finished boat – alas, no! But with a number of visitors on the day keen to learn more about skiff boats and what we’re trying to do with our Club, we hope that we’ll have signed up a few more people able to help with our build. We have to say a huge thank you not only to Chris and John from Lochaber for devoting their time and energies getting Each Dubh to us for the day, but also to the Lochaber crews who had to forfeit their Saturday rowing as we had their boat!

The generous support from the team at Lochaber just shows what a ‘family’ we can look forward to playing with once our Speireag is launched. Indeed, a few folk from the Montrose Rowing Club have just been visiting our waters, bringing their skiff, Goose, for some community rowing in Loch Shiel and Lochaline – more on that next time. The Skiff community around Scotland (and beyond) is really active and vibrant – although we’re all volunteers, many clubs are eager to share knowledge and skills. We look forward to tapping more into that network and sharing our own experiences with future Skiff build projects.

We’re always keen to hear from others who would be interested in lending a hand, especially to help create and finish parts that are best done in a well-equipped workshop. In the last few months, we’ve welcomed several new members. Admittedly, some of us have taken time off over the summer so there have been less Sat morning build sessions, but we hope as Autumn temperatures and storms return, then more of us will be available (and not out on the water or hiking up the hills ourselves!). We’ll aim to meet up most Sat mornings at Kinlochmoidart. For more details, please get in touch with Eilish MacLellan or Lou Johnson via build@moidartcoastalrowing.org, or search for Moidart Skiffies on Facebook.

Thanks!

Louise Johnson, Club Co-Chair

Eilish Maclellan and myself attended the practical session of our coxing course down in Dunstaffnage Marina. For anyone who’s rowed with other people in a boat, you’ll appreciate the importance of everyone rowing at the same time, that the boat makes some sort of progress in the right direction, and with someone ultimately being in charge… That’s the cox’s job – who knew!

Using two St Ayles wooden rowing skiffs loaned from Lorn and Appin skiff clubs, the practical session had a crew of four rowers in each boat, with a trainee cox in the stern and a trainer sitting opposite them in the bow shouting instructions, encouragement and warnings in equal measure. All the rowers there that day were to take turns in the ‘learner’ cox seat, to get trained up in the effective use of commands, good manoeuvring techniques, and other tips n’ tricks. To be honest, each of us there that day admitted to being a bit anxious about what miracles we’d be asked to make the boat do. Both Eilish and myself were attempting coxing for the first time… We were in different boats, and slightly out of earshot of each other, which was possibly a good thing. If you know either of us, you’ll know that we don’t necessarily have an issue telling people what to do, but it does help if we first have an inkling of what we’re meant to do!

Each of the crews were all ears, listening carefully to the trainers’ instructions, observing how each trainee cox managed their role of being ‘in control’. The coxs were told how to instruct their rowers to weave the boats in and out of the yachts moored in the bay, putting the coxs through figure-of-eight exercises and backing onto mooring buoys (all the while us rowers had quite the healthy workout, performing these stop-start drills until the trainers were happy). As everyone finished their session in the cox seat, they swapped places with a rower who was then put through the same coxing hurdles.

Eventually the inevitable happened and it was my turn. OK, this was it. Be calm, be loud & clear, be calm, be decisive, be calm… did I mention we were all a bit anxious?! In the end, no-one drowned and nothing was broken, it was fine and actually a lot of fun. Once I’d got the hang of the strange dual pull-strings on the boat’s rudder (very different from a wheel or a tiller), I realised just how manoeuvrable these 22ft boats actually are. And being cox, at least you’re facing forwards (not like the poor rowers who’re facing backwards, so any natural instinct you might have for port and starboard is up the spout). You wouldn’t believe how small the turning circles of these skiffs can be, especially if the rowers on port and starboard each row in different directions – that sound like it wouldn’t work but believe me it does when it’s coordinated. A turning circle smaller than that of a Lidl’s trolley IF it has four working wheels!

In the end, no injuries, no tears and no expensive yachts bashed: all in all we thought we’d had a fantastic day relatively ‘in control’ on the water. The trick now is to not forget the commands and techniques before we get back into a rowing boat… Big thanks to Liz at Lorn for arranging the course.

As our boat is still in-build, we want to hear from people who’ve worked with wood before. You don’t need to be a professional woodworker but help from semi-skilled or talented enthusiasts would be great. We meet up most Sat mornings at Kinlochmoidart. For more details, please get in touch with Eilish MacLellan or Lou Johnson.

Louise Johnson, Club Co-Chair

Building a coastal rowing boat, intended to be constructed by community ‘amateurs’, seemed to be a simple proposition. Progress seemed relatively easy whilst assembling the pre-cut sheets of plywood hull planking in overlapping layers forming the hull. It was a big moment for us all when we turned her over, and we could really see that she was becoming ‘a boat’! Which was when our key boat builder confided in us that we were only halfway towards completion…

So now, suitably sobered by that news, we gear ourselves up for the long slog to fit out her interior and topsides. But the dream is still strong to see her complete, painted and pristine, ready for the water. Now that we can get to the inner plank joints we’ve been able to remove excess glue from the initial laying of planks and fill any ‘lands’ (as the plank overlap joint areas are called). This we do with a touch of epoxy to remove any chance of water ingress. Having gone to this much trouble, we don’t want any ‘dry’ joints that could become water traps and cause rot over time.

During recent Saturday build sessions, our Club Captain Eilish Maclellan has got us organised on a rota so some of us less skilled at woodwork can participate in the build. Colin has led us through handling heat guns and scrapers, removing any excess epoxy glue, leaving the lands looking neat and tidy. The epoxy is great at helping with rigidity but cumulatively does add weight – and keeping boat weight down will be highly important for when/if she’s racing!

We’ve also begun making the composite timber gunwales, that will stiffen and strengthen the deck edge each side and carry the significant loads of the oars when rowing. This has entailed scarphing and gluing three lengths of timber clamped to the deck edge to help shape the gunwale. It’s a satisfying task and it’s great to be able to learn these things together.

Although the boat is being built to a St. Ayles Skiff design, we were surprised to learn the extent of leeway allowed in the construction of some parts of the working interior gear: gunwales, beams, seats/thwarts, footrests, the rudder system and tiller, and rowlocks are all areas of potential variation. Lou Johnson our Club Chair recently ran through numerous photos detailing the differences observed in features of other boats, which prompted much discussion on positives and negatives for inclusion in our own boat – excellent food for thought. We’ve rowed and inspected a few skiffs from other Clubs now and much useful knowledge has been learned, especially from those boats that tend to win races!

We’d love help from people who’ve worked with wood before… You don’t need to be a professional woodworker, but semi-skilled or talented enthusiasts would be great. We meet up most Sat mornings at Kinlochmoidart. For more details, please get in touch with our Eilish MacLellan or Lou Johnson.

Louise Johnson, Club Co-Chair

Originally shared in the May issue of Dè Tha Dol?…

It’s been a long cold winter, but the Moidart skiff-build team haven’t been slacking. Thanks to their dedication and hard work an important milestone was reached last month: work on the outer hull was completed and on Saturday 4th April, 10 club members came together at the Kinlochmoidart shed to carefully turn over our precious skiff. Sharing a significant moment like this helps to keep the team spirit bright and positive and to celebrate this milestone, a wee dram was raised in a toast to Speireag (Sparrowhawk in Gaelic).

So now for the next steps: we’ll soon be working on fitting out the interior and topsides. Hence the call-out for people with woodworking skills to come and help over the coming months. You certainly don’t need to be a professional, but semi-skilled or talented enthusiasts would also be really useful. We need to make up and fit gunwales, the beams, the seats/thwarts, the bottom boards and floor and the footrests. We also need to make lots of dowels, the rudder system and till, the oar connections and maybe even a sculpture of a sparrowhawk to go on the bow-post!

If you’re interested in getting involved with any of this work, then please get in touch. You can contact us via our Facebook page or email: build@moidartcoastalrowing.org

There’s much to do before she’s ready for the water, but with the right skillset and some good team work, we might just be on track for launching Speireag in late summer.

Check out our website for regular blog posts, updates on build progress and training opportunities and info on how to join as a member (only £10).

It gives me great pleasure to confirm that the skiff build team and various other Moidart Skiffies successfully turned Speireag yesterday!

Co-ordinating the available and willing muscle power was always going to be a challenge given the relatively confined working space, however the process was aided by an ingenious pulley system that helped ensure a smooth transition thankfully, as dropping the boat during the challenging manoeuvre would have been a disaster!

The time now comes for fitting out and with that a need for more skilled / semi-skilled woodworkers to complement the skiff build team and accelerate the club towards hopefully launching this season. If you think you can help or you know someone who may want to assist then please get in touch.

To the seas!

Mark

P.S. Thanks to Malcolm Fraser for the photograph!