Picturesque – but chilly

Four of the Skiff builders had a reasonable day in the cowshed yesterday (31st Jan). Most of our sessions are in the evening, which at this time of year means very dark so we haven’t had much opportunity to get some illustrations to show the delightful site we are building in. Despite the snow squalls which blew down Loch Broom yesterday I did manage to pop out during a coffee break and grab a few shots for anybody interested.

the view from the Cowshed door, looking towards Ullapool, this is where we will be launching the Skiff one warm spring day in the not so distant future.

General view of the Cowshed.

The Cowshed, through the door.

 We have been amazed that we have been getting overnight cures of epoxy in these conditions, our building space has no heating so most of the time we think temperatures have been around 4 deg C. Indeed on the occasional milder day there has been a perceptible drop in temperature once inside the shed. those stone walls take a while to warm up!

It’s official – we have started

Ullapool 1, the first St Ayles skiff for Loch Broom, has been started 

General view of the working area,

 We gathered in Adrian’s Cowshed, aka Viking Boats production facility, on one of the coldest nights so far to start the build. Clearly there is a masochistic tendency among Ullapool’s putative Skiff builders . 

For the picture log of our building efforts have a look at the build page

St Ayles Skiff Visit 21/22 November – POSTPONED

The proposed visit of the St Ayles Skiff to Lochbroom has been postponed due to the adverse weather forecast. The feared strong South Easterlies look as though they are on the way and it is probable they would seriously inhibit the anticipated try out of the boat. Because the boat has to be trailed up from Fife, a 400 mile round trip, it has been decided to cancel this weekend. Our sincere apologies to anybody who was going to come along.

St Ayles Skiff prototype to visit Loch Broom

The Prototype St Ayles Skiff will be visiting Loch Broom over the Weekend of 21st – 22nd November.

The purpose of the visit is to allow interested people to have a good look at the boat and to try her out on the water (at their own risk). The plan is to launch her by the Wee Pier around 10 a.m. on Saturday 21st and to be available until about 3 ish p.m. We expect a group of potential Skiff builders from Lewis to arrive on the morning Ferry.

On Sunday we plan on having the Skiff available from 11 am until 3 p.m. 

Members of the first Ullapool Skiff Syndicate will be on hand with Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats and the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project to chat about the boat and project. If you are interested please come along and find out more.

All this is of course rather weather dependant, but rest assured a drop of rain won’t stop us – however a howling South Easterly might!

Ullapool Coastal Rowing

Ullapool Coastal Rowing is a small group of individuals inspired by the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project to build and compete in a St Ayles skiff (the SCRP class boat) in Regattas around the coast of Scotland and possibly further afield. The idea behind the Coastal Rowing Project is that communities build and race their home-built boats against others from around the coast of Scotland. Our order for the boat kit has been placed and we are just waiting on delivery in a few weeks to make a start. If you stay in the Loch Broom or Coigach area,  and would like to get involved or just see what we are up to then please get in touch – use the response area below and we will get back to you with more information. Responses are moderated so contact requests won’t be published to the wider world. A Coigach Syndicate is very much on the cards and is actively looking for a few more members.

So what is the St Ayles Skiff - in simple terms a reworking by Iain Oughtred, renowned small boat designer, of the traditional Fair Isle Skiff for Clinker/Lapstrake Ply construction. 22 feet in length and 5ft 6inches in breadth she is big in the shed but soon shrinks when on the water with a crew aboard.

'Aluna Ivy', Fair Isle Skiff traditionally built by Ian Best of Fair Isle

The design was commissioned by the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther and digitized for kit manufacture by Alec Jordan of  Jordan Boats. Using the Jordan Boats kit as the basis of the project means that all the boats should be very close in hull form and dimensions resulting in teamwork being the deciding factor in competition. Use of the kit also means that the cost of a boat is minimised – the maximum build cost should be under £3,000, the build method means that it is well within the ability of an average DIYer. Having a Skiff built professionally in real wood would cost around £10,000. The finished kit looks like this :

The Prototype St Ayles Skiff by Jordan Boats

Initially the Skiff will be a pure rower but the intent is that once experience has been gained under oars a simple rig will be fitted, primarily for downwind sailing. This should make for some interesting racing in the future.

Unlike the traditional skiff, which was for three oarsmen, the St Ayles has been designed for four and a Cox. In competition rowing the oars(wo)men need to be concentrating on their technique so a Cox is necessary to keep them on course. The racing rules will be drawn up by a steering group formed from groups joining the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project. Much more information on the background and future intentions may be found on the Scottish Coastal Rowing Prospectus.