The Portobello Regatta 2010

Flat calm seas, warm, hardly a breeze, intermittent cloud cover to prevent glare and burning (with some looming black clouds for dramatic effect) it was very nearly perfect rowing weather on Saturday.

The beach looked splendid, with clusters of bright monocolour where crews, teams and supporters gathered at tents and markers. Dozens of children were swimming, paddling, digging holes and playing with the most dogs I've ever seen in one place. The skiffs sat along the shore and assorted other craft with varied sails bobbed about at sea. There were some very expensive pieces of camera and film equipment being dangled over the water as photographers paddled out for the best shot... The rescue boat (never needed) out at the marker buoys had the best vantage point of all.

Races started at noon and we soon realised that we could have used info boards all along the beach as the umpires' one was attracting enquiring crowds. High tide was mid-afternoon and came pretty high, so even I, parked half way up the beach with the starting horn, got to have a paddle. In fact, I (reluctantly) moved back three times yet still my wooden platform seemed to be promising that I would enter the next race as a raft. I was ready for it.

The spectators might not all have known of the work that went into this regatta - not least a long winter of organising, boat building then training - or known which race was which or whose team was in the winning skiff but they all looked to be just enjoying the general excitement, background bagpipes, intermittent blasts of the air horn, and frequent cheers. Several Row Porty green t shirted Towerbank primary school children helped out on the prom and beach all day doing everything from dog-minding to book selling to tea and cake carrying. They were great wee ambassadors.

If you have photos of the races you'd like to label here are the colours to check for:

bright blue 'Coigach Lass' all the way from Achiltibuie

cream hull, burgundy strake 'Boatie Rows' from Port Seton, crews wearing burgundy

royal blue hull, Oxford blue strake 'St Baldred' from New Berwick, crews wearing red

bright yellow hull, black strake 'Unity' from Eyemouth

Portobello's Icebreaker - white hull, pale mint green strake, crews wearing green

Tollcross's currach (non-competing) 'Mac Mhara Dhu', crews wearing flat caps

The skiff with the white hull and dark blue strake is the Jordan Boats prototype from Anstruther, crews wearing Breton blue and white stripes. If you can't see stripes then its the Newhaven crew you're looking at, as Anstruther kindly lent them their skiff so they could race too - and they won!

I didn't get any photos of the amazing cake-laden tables in the boat yard because, to be honest, I was just trying not to start eating them all. Tea and cake fuelled the teams all afternoon until the BBQ took over at teatime. Prizes then all-night celebrations followed, so not much sleep before heading back out onto the water on Sunday morning for even more racing.

I'd like to congratulate - and thank - the rest of Row Porty for this weekend's amazing achievements, and to all the visitors for travelling to Porty to take part. It was a wonderful experience. And the spectators too - I met folk on the beach who I haven't seen in ages, not to mention some new faces with very familiar names - its a small world!

The skiff rowers aren't even having a rest after all that work you know, they'll be straight back out on the water tomorrow night training as normal. Please come down to the sands if you'd like to know more or even get involved. I'd also like to thank the team for carrying me across the sand at top speed, which isn't something I thought was possible :-)

http://rowporty.org.uk/
featuring a write-up in the blog http://scotland4thesenses.blogspot.com/2010/07/return-of-portobellos-rowing-regatta.html

A great wee clip of one of the races on the North Berwick website: http://www.nbrowingclub.com/

And now, the race results:

	A	B	C	D	E
1	Results of Portobello Rowing Regatta - July 24-25, 2010
2
3	HEATS
4	Time	Category	Teams	Race No.	Winner
5
6	12:00	W – open	Achiltibuie	Race 1	North Berwick
7			Newhaven
8			North Berwick
9
10	12:15	M – Open	North Berwick	Race 2	Achiltibuie
11			Achiltibuie
12			Portobello
13
14	12:30	Mx – 40 +	Anstruther	Race 3	Anstruther
15			Port seton
16
17
18	12:45	Mx – 40 +	Achiltibuie	Race 4	Portobello
19			North Berwick
20			Portobello
21
22	13:00	M – Open	Port Seton	Race 5	Port Seton
23
24			Anstruther
25
26	13:15	W – open	Port Seton	Race 6	Port Seton
27
28			Portobello
29
30	13:30	M – 40+	North Berwick	Race 7	Newhaven
31			Newhaven
32
33
34	13:45	W – 40+	North Berwick	Race 8	Photo finish Port Seton and Achiltibuie
35			Port Seton
36			Achiltibuie
37
38	14:00	Mx – open	Newhaven	Race 9	Portobello
39			Portobello
40
41
42	14:15	Mx – open	Achiltibuie	Race 10	Achiltibuie
43			North Berwick
44			Port Seton
45
46	14:30	W – 40 +		Race 11	Anstruther
47			Anstruther
48			Portobello
49
50	13:45	M – 40+	Achiltibuie	Race 12	Port Seton
51			Port Seton
52			Portobello
53
54	15 mins break before the finals
55	FINALS
56
57	15:15	Mx Open	Race 9: Portobello	Race 13	Portobello
58			Race 10: Achiltibuie
59
60	15:30	Over 60's	Port Seton	Race 14	Newhaven
61			Newhaven mixed ages
62
63	15:45	M – Open	Race 2: Achiltibuie	Race 15	Achiltibuie
64			Race 5: Port Seton
65
66	16:00	W – open	Race 1: North Berwick	Race 16	Port Seton
67			Race 6: Port Seton
68
69	16:15	M – 40 +	Race 12: Port Seton	Race 17	Port Seton
70			Race 7: Newhaven
71
72	16:30	W – 40 +	Race 8: Port Seton	Race 18	Photo finish Port Seton
73			Race 11: Anstruther
74
75	16:45	Under 18's	Port Seton	Race 19	Port Seton
76			Mixed crew
77
78	17:00	Mixed 40 +	Race 3: Anstruther	Race 20	Anstruther
79			Race 4: Portobello
80
81	SUNDAY RACING
82	Longer races
83	11:30	Men	North Berwick	Race 21	Port Seton
84			Port Seton
85			Portobello
86
87	12:15	Women	Port Seton	Race 22	Port Seton
88			Portobello
89
90
91	13:00	Mixed	North Berwick/Port Seton	Race 23	Portobello/Port Seton
92			Port Seton
93			Portobello/Port Seton
94