All posts by Louise Johnson

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