Portobello Regatta 2011 30th/ 31st July

[wangi]

Portobello Regatta 2011

On Saturday 3oth and Sunday 31st July 2011, Portobello Sailing and Kayaking Club will host Rowporty's second Portobello Rowing Regatta, on Portobello beach, Edinburgh's seaside.

The regatta races will be held on Saturday, when the skiffs will gather on the sands at the foot of Bath Street from 10am, racing straight out to sea then round a triangular racecourse with one of the turns offshore from The Dalriada, then back towards the finishing line, which is just offshore from the Beach House and The Espy! This will give onlookers on the beach plenty of racing action to watch close-up.



There will be music, cake stalls, raffles, entertainment and food outlets along the prom, plus circuit training on the sands with the Swimming Pool staff, and there will be safe areas to paddle or swim away from the boat race lanes. Bring a picnic, bring your camera, bring a brolly, bring a bucket and spade, bring sunblock, bring your friends!

Help us cheer the competitors to victory – especially Portobello’s very own skiffs Icebreaker and Jenny Skylark. Prizegiving will be around 5pm on the Saturday.

Sunday 31st July is a chance for the competitors to relax, with fun rowing and sailing for all sorts of boats out on the water, including the sailing club dinghies, currach, visiting yachts, herds of kayaks and the century-old jolly boats.

The competing skiffs are all clinker-built five-person rowing boats of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project's new St Ayles design, built in the past two years by local communities as part of a recent resurgence of recreational rowing and racing in regattas around Scotland. The first of Portobello’s racing skiffs was built last year by members of Rowporty, a project of PS&KC. She was named Icebreaker by the children of Towerbank Primary School, and launched in Spring 2010. Work began on Jenny Skylark in autumn 2010, and she was named and launched in April 2011 just in time for this year’s regatta season.

Last year’s Portobello Regatta was the first held in the area for over thirty years. Since then many more Scottish communities have completed their own skiff build, and several competing here last year have built a second skiff.
Teams from all over Scotland will be coming to Portobello to race, including many successful competitors from last year such as Achiltibuie, North Berwick, Newhaven, Anstruther, Port Seton and Cockenzie, but there will also be new skiffs more recently completed by their community groups.

At Portobello Regatta 2011, races are for skiff teams of under 25, open, over 40 and over 55, with men’s women’s and mixed categories. Rowporty are currently top of this season’s Scottish regatta race results, but can they stay there..? Come to the beach on Saturday 30th July to find out!

For more information about the Portobello Regatta, as well as photos and footage from previous regattas round the country, visit http://www.rowporty.org.uk or http://www.sailporty.org.uk - and keep an eye on http://www.talkporty.org too!

[wangi]

[magbagpuss]

Went down just before 12 and stayed til 2 . Bob Jefferson was doing a grand job on the mike . It was great to watch. Never saw any entertainers, raffle or music though ?? did have a lovely bit of cake at the Rowporty stall. Was going to offer myself up for adoption to whoever had baked it !! Teehee

[SoupDragon]

We went down and had crepes for breakfast as the first race got underway.
Very Continental sitting out in the sun and fresh air eating

Then we got our chair and sat on the beach. Clanger 1 and Mr Soupy had burgers from the Rowporty barbie for lunch/mid afternoon snack.
The wind was bracing shall we say
We were waving at Rapunzell as she floated by on the Porty skiff

Later on we wandered onto the Prom and bumped into Bearcub and .
Ach not a bad day out, better than the alternative posh do that was going on up the Canongate

I've got to admire the stamina of the rowers and those helping push the skiffs out into the waves



to all concerned

[wangi]

From the EdinburghSketcher:



And see photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/versevend (Max Blinkhorn)