Getting stuck into the mulled wine.

We had a nice wee Christmas Party on Saturday down at the  Coigach Lass ‘boatshed’ – all lit up with festive lights (Alison brought down lots as she has enough to do the Christmas lights for Birmingham) and candles and smelling of mulled wine spices and a delish – nay exotic- selection of goodies.

What a picture of seasonal thingy from the boatshed party!

Topher Dawson had very kindly driven out from Ullapool with the lengths of Douglas Fir for the oars and was showing the buildy folk how the Ullapool 1 squad has laminated their stem and stern and shaped them using the jig (which they are generously going to pass on to us for a donation to their whisky fund.)  Nae bother!

Steve and Jock sample the grub.

We have solved the problem of having an unheated space to build in over the winter– just get into one of the two rowing machines and give it 100 when you feel a bit parky!

Thanks to James Muir and Sue Hopkins for  generously donating the excellent rowing machines which, of course, are not for training on to gain any rowing advantage over any of the other teams….nooooooooo……merely to take off those few extra pounds that attach themselves so stubbornly to hips and stomach over the festive season. Heh, heh……     Thanks to Chris F B for lovely photos.

Scroll down for previous items-photos uploaded for Curry night now.

A message from Thomas who lives in Phoenix:

Nice to see the buie ites participating in the rowing initiative. I’m Thomas Armstrong and I spent the summer of ‘76 on Coigach, living at Rieff, in a caravan on Iba’s croft. I now have a weblog, 70.8% (http://70point8percent.blogspot.com/ ) I recently posted on the Scottish Rowing Project. I wonder if anyone involved remembers me. I was friends with several folks there, Kenny MacLennan for one, had a fight with Ian Roll, worked for Ian Campbell, wife Annie,  was sweet on Una MacLeod, and have many fond memories of all night ceilidhs at Annie and Boisie, the Store. I’d love to do an article on Achiltibuie’s participation in the project so would someone please contact me at zekeur@netzero.net? Ta! and slainthe to the crowd at Am Fuaran. Chris Perkins knows me as a blogger, but I don’t think he was there when I was. Garam Masala and Karaoke were not things I experienced in 1976!

Lizzie + Richard- Sonny + Cher

Stop Press : Update Wednesday 9th December….Final round up of dosh reveals that both the Coigach Lass Project and  The Parents’ Association made £500 each, the prize Draw (click on Fundraising/events Tab above) sold £110 of tickets on the night and the Hall bar did very well. A result all round! The donated Curries were delicious and the helpers were generous with their time and unstoppable!-thanks to all concerned- Theresa Ross, Alison Hitchings, Di Wilding, Hamish Sinclair, me, Liz Salvin,  Chris Firth-Bernard, Andrew Macneilage, Nicola Macneilage, Maureen Fraser, Emma Campbell, Pauline Gillies, Tricia Sinclair, David Heaney, Nick Clooney, Iain Muir,  Ann Ali Beag, Andy Holbrow,  youngsters Joseph, Kelly, Seamus and Alice. Mortified to think I might have left anyone out. Someone please let me know if I have. Thanks to Kate down in Reiff who sent a cheque for £30 because she was too busy having Swine Flu to make it! Thanks Kate and hope you are feeling better!

About the night …..Well, as Di Wilding remarked, all that was missing was the flock wallpaper!  It’s half past one a.m. and I thought I’d better write a quick note before turning in.

A crowd of nearly 60 ‘flocked’ to the glitteringly bedecked Hall for our joint fundraiser with the Parents Association…..and requests for ‘curry-outs’  had been put in from various folk who were not able to come.

Once again the community dug deep and the Hall was the scene of lashings of pukka grub,  followed – once the Cava kicked in – by a cornucopia of aural delights on the new Hall karaoke machine.

OOh Darlin, Stand by me !

First up on stage was Duncan. Straight up on stage -no messing.  Slightly flummoxed at first by the excessive re-verb on the mic,  when he caught the tune the dude showed that he could keep it true. The man’s clearly a singer. But why the hell didn’t he bring his reading glasses for the words??      A huge round of applause and much whooping of approval followed him from the stage.

Check Jill up there next;  livin’ it!  What a mover!

Then there was Eva giving it laldy followed by Louise in chorus. Then Emma ! Wooh!

When the going gets tough then the tough get going. Once everybody had finally sussed out just how the new machine worked there was no stopping them.

Dan and Richard Tanera Mor bigged it up for a range of tunes then Lizzie got hold of a mic!    Heavens to Betsy, there’s a vocation there!             She even helped dad Bill Wilder with his tune and darned good they were.

Then it was Dan and Gretha in concert.

Is this from South Africa?

All too soon, as they say, it was midnight and to everyone’s surprise we realised that 5 hours had passed!

Iain decked in his best Indian Kurta had a helluva job rounding up the Uppies to deliver them all home in the Community minibus which unfortunately had had the plush seating somewhat sullied by the rapidly exit-ing lunch of one of our local school football team youngsters on the long  and winding road home from their match earlier in the day.

So our revellers’ churning, curry-filled stomachs must have been sorely tried on the journey home in a bus redolent with the slight whiff of puke.

Anyway the last Doonies left the Hall at half midnight or so -safe in the knowledge that darn few of them were going to be there at 11 on Sunday morning to clean up!

And so, as Tiny Tim said -sort of-  “Good night and God bless us one and all……”

Photos coming sooooooooooon! As soon as Gretha emails them to me, in fact.

(Friday 11th) Greta says they are on their way…….THANK YOU GRETHA

Alec Jordan of Jordan Boats reckons all 3 Skiff Kits (2 for Ullapool and one for us) will be delivered to Adrian Morgan’s boatshed at Leckmelm farm on Friday 11th.  Anyone able to trailer our one back to the ‘Buie ?

The clean, ie not knotty, Douglas Fir for our six oars has been ordered together with the Ullapool 1 group’s wood and we will save carriage costs by sharing with them. Thanks for that.

All this co-operation between Skiff groups in the early stages is is a lesson for World Peace…whether or not it continues once the build is finished and the rowing teams start to train is another ballgame……

So! All go, shortly….. Ullapool 1 group has offered to pass on to us their jig for forming the stem and stern of the boat, which Ali Beag says is a great boon and will save a lot of time and effort …so thanks for that Topher Dawson and Co.

Hope everyone has got their Curry Night tickets for Saturday- see Fundraising/events for details.  The range of curries available-including veggie – at this 3-course Curry Carnival is mouthwateringly fab.  

And if anyone has any strength left we can groove with our garam masala and karaoke the night away…

 

Sea trials of the prototype St Ayles skiff got its Skye-based designer, Iain Oughtered thinking…….. needing more buoyancy at the stern -the weight of an adult cox-(unless Di Wilding sized!) was keeping the stern too low.

So Alec at Jordan Boats has to make changes to his cutting jig …to Iain’s new instructions.

This is all good. Don’t want to have to suddenly find problems AFTER the kit arrives… but the delay is a shame.

Ah now the oars.

Rectangular in cross section down the poles and thin and springy. Clean Douglas Fir is the stuff, says Topher Dawson who recommends building 6 to have 2 spares.

Wise thinking. He has kindly said he will place an order with trusted wood suppliers for good clean lengths for any Skiff crew who wishes.

After consulting round all the Coigach Lass builders I could find, the concorde lay in going with Topher’s offer.

So it looks like we will start with the oars….!

Message from Chris Perkins who liaises with Jordan Boats:

“The Skiff design has had a rework by Iain Oughtered (the kit designer) to improve buoyancy at the stern. Iain was concerned that, even with the revised spacing of the ‘rooms’, that she might still be a bit low at the stern with an adult cox. The rejig means that Alec will have to revisit the cutting files which would delay the kit by about three weeks. We could take the kit as is and get on or wait the few weeks for the final version. The revision sounds as though the tuck in the stern is removed which would make for an easier build. ( ) There will be plenty to be getting on with anyway once we have the plans – oars, building frame, stems etc.”

Food for thought…

Well, it’s true isn’t it.  Many hands really do make light work.

We now have an excellent ‘boatshed’ -cleared, swept, tidied and looking purposeful -and all that done (apart from a short interruption to sort out a wee skirmish between Trigger and Billy) in less than an hour and a half.   There is even a tea area with a few chairs and a square of carpet. Luxury.   Hmm. Probably the only boatshed in the world with a fully-grown peach tree growing and thriving in it, though.

The basis of a frame on which to start the build was also begun ….with much laser-levelling and copious markings.

SO!    It looks like our kit will be delivered to Adrian Morgan’s boatshed at Leckmelm Farm on or around Monday 23rd.         Not long now!  ……Oh and Nicola Mac has said she will keep the ‘books ‘ on the project for us.           Thanks Nicola!

Well, getting dark now- so as Alison said, looking at her watch when the job was done, ‘ Right. Home to put on the tatties!’

The Hall Committee (Coigach Community Trust) has  kindly voted to make us a grant of £400 PLUS an interest-free loan of £400 to enable our order to go in quickly.  As Ali Beag said, we didn’t want to find ourselves at the end of a long waiting list for a kit !  (Look in ‘Pages-Fundraising events’ -see right- for how we are going to raise the remainder for the kit+delivery and the cost of build consumables.)

Here is an extract from the Community Trust Treasurer’s letter awarding the project a grant and loan:

“Thank you for your letter regarding the Coigach Skiff project.   

The matter was discussed at the Trust’s committee meeting on 2nd November 2009. It was decided that this was a project with good community support and involvement which uses a lot of locally available skills and results in healthy activity. The benefits are ongoing well beyond the boatbuilding phase of the project. As such we would be willing to provide support”

True to form, The Hall treasurer and the committee pulled together and got the cheque into our hands within a few days.

No funding body in my experience has ever moved so fast …and a firm  order was placed with Jordan Boats  on Thursday 5th November with a little help from our friend Boatbuilder Chris Perkins (See Blogroll, right.)

What we hope to build.

The project’s grateful thanks go the the Hall Committee for their generosity in funding this community project.

From cabin boys- and girls-to ancient mariners-first meeting!

When you are lucky enough to live right by the sea in one of the most beautiful places on the planet and you realize it and are glad of it on a daily basis, you look for new ways to work it and own it and, to use a late 60s phrase, groove on it.

So when I read Adrian Morgan’s  invitation in the Ullapool News for volunteers to join him and some boaty, rowy, competitive pals in helping to build a modern, Iain Oughtered take on the mouthwateringly elegant and streamlined Fair Isle Skiff for the purpose of competitive rowing and fun, I thought mmm hmm, I’m up for that.

Procrastination along with raw enthusiasm being my forte tho’,  I missed the boat -they had a syndicate up and running by the time I emailed my interest. Ah well.

But wait a minute.

Achiltibuie rules, as the kids here often say.

And rocks. (The boat.)

We can do this here in Coigach on an all-ages, everyone-welcome, community basis. Yes!

A few posters later -asking for rowers, builders and helpers for a community Skiff to be called perhaps ‘Coigach Lass’ I thought….. and suddenly I had around 30 names, enthusiasts, from ancient mariners to cabin boys  (plenty women too) and from all the airts of Coigach.

As Kevin P said to me at the very first get-together of an enthusiastic core of Coigach Lass volunteers, “This project is going to grow arms and legs.”

And when we had all agreed that despite the cost… and questions over where she would be stored once built… and wouldn’t she be needing a trailer… and all the fundraising ahead, we were all comforted and heartened by the boat-building shed’s proximity to the bar…perfect! Oh yes absolutely perfect we all agreed, imagining ourselves working on the boat through chilly winter evenings then straight up the hill for a warming dram…

So.  The Coigach Lass is on.

(Photo by Chris Firth Bernard. Clockwise from left: Alison Hitchings, Ron Raine, Nick Clooney, Ali (Beag) Macleod, Ron Davidson, Iain Muir, Craig Chipperfield(half hidden), Kevin Peach, 4 local youngsters, Di Wilding (back view),  Lesley Muir.)