Earlier this month we were joined by our friends from Collieston, Gourdon and Montrose to row to the Johnshaven Fish Festival. A fleet of 6 boats (2 skiffs from Collieston, 1 each from Montrose and Gourdon, plus our own skiffs Spirit and Little Bustard) set off on the ~9 mile row to Johnshaven, pausing briefly at Gourdon to change out some of the crews, arriving at Johnshaven just in time for the famous raft race.

The tides and the weather aligned perfectly last Sunday, so Spirit and Little Bustard took a leisurely row up the coast to Stonehaven for an ice cream.

Welcome!

Welcome to our first news letter!

With several new rowers joining us recently and a lot of upcoming events, now seems like a good time to let everyone know what's going on. First of all - welcome to all our new rowers;

We've been very quiet on the water over winter, but have been very busy in Rob's shed working on Spirit and Little Bustard to get them ready for another summer of adventures on the open water.

After many evenings in the shed and a 1,000 hours of hard work, the Little Bustard fledged from her shed and was launched on Sunday 1st May at Catterline Pier.

The morning’s haar burnt off and the sun broke through to create perfect conditions.  To celebrate the occasion, we were joined by the rowing clubs of Gourdon and Collieston who brought their boats, Maggie and Cath.  The big sister, Spirit of Catterline was also in attendance.

Saturday 25th June until Saturday 2nd July 2022

Catterline has sent crews with Spirit to the previous Skiffie Worlds (Strangford (2016) and Stranraer (2018)).   We have registered to participate in next year’s event in The Netherlands.

For those not familiar with the previous events, about 60 clubs and 1000 people participated, making it a large festival of rowing.  Experience is not essential, but enthusiasm is.   In 2018, we had rowers, who had only started rowing a few months beforehand.

Rowing Events

Spirit has been entered into a longer distance rowing event, Monster the Loch (Sat 18^th Sept).

This is will be a well-attended event, which involves rowing the length of Loch Ness (with a crew change halfway).

Both legs are a 2-3 hour row at a steady pace.  Being part of a big fleet is a great experience.  You do not have to done a long row before.

Could you please indicate if you would like to row in the Monster the Loch.  It does involve some logistics, including overnight accommodation the night before, so please let us know soon.

We have invited our neighbouring clubs (Collieston, Gourdon and Montrose) to row from Stonehaven to Catterline and back on Sat 4^th Sept.  High tide is at 12:40, so the provisional plan is to leave Stonehaven at 12:00 to take the last of the flood tide down to Catterline.  After a picnic at the beach, and a crew change the boats will return to Stonehaven.  Ice creams and refreshment can then be had at Stonehaven.

We rowed in the Five Miles From Home challenge last weekend, which was our first competitive row of the year. Having only recently returned to rowing after lockdown relaxation, the crews were feeling a little rusty and somewhat below peak fitness levels. However, both the mens' and the womens' crews put in decent times, and the womens' crew managed to beat their time from last year.

The next leg will be rowed between 9-11 July.

We have a new web site! Woo hoo!