Looking forward to our Annual Coigach Coastal Rowing Regatta in May but not before the whole community and all visiting punters have been invited to this year’s Rowers’ Sunday Brunch on February 26th.

Mmm…remember last year’s event and the  langoustine and black pudding surf-n-turf muffin??

Or the sumptuous deliciousness of the locally-laid Eggs Benedict with hand-dived hollandaise sauce??

The freshly roasted coffee… the lightsome pancakes… the fruity muffins and waiting staff… the lounging in armchairs with the Sunday Papers and a glass of champers somewhat spoiled by orange juice??   Bliss!

Eat your heart out TV chefs who would give their little finger to prepare brunch with freshest Achiltibuie seafood, eggs and dry-cure Scottish bacon!!

A snappy, happy Bruncher!

Check out the Coming Events tab above for details… and lang may all yer lums reek … as absolutely no-one ever says in the West Highlands but do where I come from on the East Coast…

May 2012 bring peace, contentment, happiness and … oar-breaking rivalry! Bring it on!

Read Alison Hitching’s London Story below!

The ‘Lass’ In London

Easy Jet from Inverness to Luton was the mode of transport for the lucky ‘Coigach Lass’ crew last weekend to take part in the Thames ‘Great River Race.  Milwall slipway at Docklands provided the launch pad for the start and 21 miles and 10 bridges later, Ham provided the welcome finish line.  With 310 entries and over 2,400 competitors it is the biggest and most prestigious event of its kind in Europe.

The airborne crew (Ish and Alan Pendred, Sarah Last and myself, Alison Hitchings) were chaperoned on the flight by cheerleaders Sam Walton and Julia Campbell.  Adopted ‘Lass’ rower and all round good guy, Tony Rawlings, had kindly towed the boat down the long road to London and he and his wife Pip had offered to pick up the crew at Luton.  Traffic caused a delay in the pick up which allowed the finely tuned athletes just enough time to take on some fluids at the salubrious Luton Airport bar.

Pip, Sam, Alison, Ish, Sarah, Julia, Alan and Tony ‘hydrating.’

Such is the age we live in, Sam was able to take a picture of this and email it to terrify race manager Mark Irvine who had arrived early to do a recce.  He was immediately on the phone in alarm that we might peak too early.  Not so.

To emerge fully rehydrated from the terminal at Luton and see the ‘Lass’ on her trailer in the short stay car park with a backdrop of airplanes and control towers was a picture to bring a tear to a glass eye.  Next stop was the Isle of Dogs and the Milwall slipway.  Tony took the driver’s seat and Sam the navigator’s while the rest of the crew sat in the back practicing their cockney rhyming slang.  Would you Adam and Eve it that an hour or so later, and with only one U turn, the ‘Lass’ had arrived at her destination and was carefully placed on the slipway ready for the race the next day.

The crew’s resting place for the night was an hour across London at the Thames Young Mariners Club in Ham which was also the finish point of the race.  Tony negotiated the rush hour traffic with relative ease (even though he could now no longer see the boat-less trailer in his mirror) and if he was irritated by the cockney slang and gasps from us Hicks from the Sticks at the London landmarks, he didn’t show it.  The crew were reunited with race manager Mark at Ham and were delighted that he had kindly erected all the tents for the team, registered the Lass and gathered all the meal tokens.

Hog roast, several pints of London Pride ale and a bop in the marquee set the crew up nicely for the next day’s rowing marathon.

After a breakfast of complex carbohydrates it was onto the bus and off to the Milwall slipway.  It was an incredible sight to see all the classes of boat arriving and such is the tight organisation of the River Race Committee all 310 boats launched with relative ease through the smelly sludge and onto the Thames.  The commentator at the slipway (who we felt could have done with a few lessons from David Green) asked if anyone present would consider being the required passenger on a Dutch boat.  Forward stepped Sam resplendent in the kilt to whoops of delight from the Dutch ladies and we were suddenly a cheerleader down.

The race operates on a handicap system and the ‘Lass’ was given a start position of 106 which the crew felt was very lucky given that this is the number of Steve Husband’s croft in Achiltibuie.  The first and second tranche of boats went off to the sound of canon fire and with jangling nerves it was the turn of the ‘Lass’ crew to jockey for position at the start line At 14:09 she was off!  Tony did a magnificent job of coxing the ‘Lass’ through the 150 boats that were charging up the Thames and in no time she was powering along in relatively clear water after passing most of the early starters.  Running the race upstream meant that the crew had the benefit of the prevailing flood tide – but the Thames was jabbly and the lashing rain soon soaked us through.  Tower Bridge was negotiated and the cheers of ‘Lass’ supporters at Westminster Bridge got the glycogen converted back to glucose.  As the crew passed the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben struck 3pm.  A quick check at the soggy race instructions indicated that the Coigach Crew were seven miles into the race with 14 still to go -but the mood on the boat was determined.

There’s the ‘Lass’ – with the big Saltire… subtly lettered with Achiltibuie!

Onwards the ‘Coigach Lass’ charged under Lambeth, Battersea, Wandsworth, Putney, Hammersmith, Chiswick, Kew and Richmond bridges.  At varying points along the course cheers of encouragement could be heard from ‘Lass’ supporters who were tracking her progress closely.  Occasionally, between sips of tea and mouthfuls of cake, Julia and Pip could also be heard shouting encouragement from their Thames ferry.  With only two miles to go the faster dragon boats started to catch the ‘Lass’ up but such was the determination of the crew (and their fear of disappointing Mark, given he had the beer tokens) that the Lass powered past the finish line in a time of 2 hours and 55 minutes and finished a spectacular 44^th.

Special thanks must go to our old china plates Tony, Pip and Mark for their attention to detail in organising the boat, accommodation and transport.

On the flight home the crew decided that the weekend was up there in a lifetime top 10.  The ‘Lass’ is safely tucked up in Rutland and she returns to the ‘Buie in a fortnight- if she doesn’t meet a dodgy geezer in the meantime.

Alison Hitchings – ‘Coigach Lass’ crew, Achiltibuie.

Achiltibuie crew members fraternise with North Berwick.

Coastal rowing offspring from various of the attending communities get together on the wee pier at Old Dornie, Achiltibuie while their parents do battle against the wind on the rather less sheltered outer harbour. Did the wet weather put them or their parents off? Not a bit! Enough venison burgers, spiney lobster curry, cakes and ale to keep the blood sugar and spirits up!

Here’s a flavour of the racing from Chris Perkins:

The Porty boys and girls almost swept the boards with their lovely, honed, long-and-slow oarsmanship, winning all three long races, Mens, Women and Mixed, plus all the shorter ‘sprints’ except the ones that ‘Coigach Lass’ took, the Men’s open, Men’s over 40 and the Mixed over 55.

‘Fraid we didn’t think to record seconds and thirds (that’s an ommission we will put right next year, sorry!) but you other crews all know what you did and  must be rightly proud of  a fantastic effort in challenging conditions! And just look at your lovely boats in a row! (pic from SCRA site)

Sorry, too,  about all the broken tents…and I know it’s no consolation to assure you that we had two weeks of near Caribbean weather not long ago but Lah-Di-Dah, this is Britain and there’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong trousers.

Thanks to one and all who made the long journey North. It was a real pleasure to meet and race, eat and drink and dance with you! See you all next year!

                                                            Eating cake in the rain! Spectators fuel up.

For many more great pics from Peter Haring go to

Hats off to you all, men, women and kids who did battle – first with tents in strong wind and lashing rain, then with a last- minute change of venue for the regatta .. still in wet and windy weather.

And we all had a great time!  Details and pics coming up soon…..

This is how close it can get, fighting to the finish!  ‘Coigach Lass’ v ‘Ulla’ last summer.

Racing Schedule -  Coigach Coastal Rowing Regatta Sat 21st May

Och, be there or be square!   Cross your fingers that the wonderful weather holds for us!

St Ayles Skiffs and crews attending are, Anstruther, Port Seton, Portobello, Newhaven, North berwick, Stornoway, Ullapool (with three boats!) and of course our local Achiltibuie boat  ‘Coigach Lass’ and keen crews.

Can’t wait!

I think a few of us would be up for giving the ‘Lass’ a change of water..!

Take a deco … look out for wooden thole pins and an astonishing variety of boats.

All the very best, in fact.

And though my two typing fingers have not been busy at this blog, the oarsome (in Alphabetical order) Alan, Dan, Mark I, Steve and Ron D have been buzzin’ like bees round a honeypot down at the ‘Lass’ in her dry dock at the Hydro boatshed!

Lovely new, stout kabes – taller out of the gunnels than the old ones, narrower, but more robust – from the hands of the redoubtable Ron D.  ‘Form and Function’: nailed! (Metaphorically of course!!)

The late Jim Muir’s old coble oars from the 50′s had broken and been repaired a couple of times over the racing season… a miracle that they lasted as long as they did. Full of  old nails they were; our main pair of oars in the centre of the boat!  However those lucky old oars will be repaired and see service for the ‘Lass’ again!  But we HAD to get making more, new and dependable, for the coming season, so Alan and Dan have made a replacement pair. Great work!

And they do look bonny.

(The oars do too.) Steve has been jetting between Shetland and South  Africa with work, so he hasn’t started on the pair he intends to make yet…. and he’s interested to see how our new ones go before starting his.

We all loved our weird and very ‘Achiltibuie ‘ odd oar combo of two shorter and two longer oars. No great, technical, well researched plan;  just the only bloomin’ oars we had, so we reckon to stick with roughly that  pattern again this year.

Thanks to all who supported, danced, sang, piped, played and helped in any way to make the Ceilidh (see below) such a success. It has more than paid for the wood for the new oars . . . but money can’t pay for the enthusiasm, skill and determination over many hours of the guys who have taken time to make the ‘Lass’ her new oars and kabes.

In fact that bloated, under-exercised, over-mince-pied feeling will be creeping in with all that sitting around and playing endless games of Monopoly with Auntie Mabel who constantly whinges on about people leaving doors open and there’s a right old draught on the back of her neck and all that rich food is bunging her up and why doesn’t someone go out into the rain and give the dog a walk…… ( sorry to all the Auntie Mabels out there who are treasures and a pleasure to have staying at Christmas)… but you know what I mean.

Where was I… YES. The Ceilidh Dance.

Come down to the hall at 8pm on the Tuesday following Christmas and blow those festive cobwebs away. Bar. Stovies!

Coigach Community Rowing is running the annual Christmas Ceilidh this year: a traditional mix of fine local turns – including the youngsters of Mini Box club, the young guitarists, the rough diamond Pogues tribute band, the Rogues, songs from Will Irvine, and a grand selection of fiddlers, box players, singers and pipers interspersed with some hard-core Scottish dancing; Heuch!

And just when you feel your blood sugar crashing with all the Stripping of the Willow and Dashing of Sergeants,  Stovies and oatcakes will be served.

Adults: £2.50  Secondary pupils: £1   Primary pupils: free.  Admission includes Home-made Stovies!

Make sure you don’t miss the last Coigach Dance of 2010!

All welcome, from far and near…