Looking Back On 2024

Happy New Year from everyone at Eskmuthe. 2024 ended and 2025 has started with wet, windy and wild weather, with many sessions cancelled - but we have so many highlights to look back on in 2024, from early-year social trips to Loch Ore in Fife and Dunure in Ayrshire, through to the Alnmouth Frostbite Regatta in Northumberland. There were loads of highlights along the way, including our own regatta, our first youth team, an epic escapade to Inchkeith Island, and regatta success at Strathpeffer and Ullapool. 

At Ullapool, a highly competitive regatta, we emerged with 5 bronze and 1 silver medal,  having never won a single medal in several previous visits.

We held another fun and well-organised regatta of our own, and two club days on the Back Sands, with another one lost to the weather. These events, organised by Simon, are a great way to give new people a try at rowing and have some fun races - while chatting and eating cakes.

We also hosted our first Race Sunday for Portobello and Eastern, having attended several similar events over at Portobello - all of which have offered great development opportunities for rowers and coxes.

On the beach at Porty, we joined a foggy Surfers Against Sewage protest and rowed over to lend our boats to Eastern to pay a skiffies’ tribute to one of their rowers who had passed away. A few of us tried coastal sculling, which was very difficult.

As well as Ullapool, we enjoyed success at a friendly Strathpeffer regatta with two silver medals, while our novice crew won gold at Boatie Blest, where we also took silver in the 240+ category before the weather gods ended the day.

Those same weather gods were also out to play at North Berwick, where racing took place in increasingly tough conditions before being abandoned. 

A group of Eskmuthe rowers joined our friends from Alnmouth at SkiffieFest in Northern Ireland and we ventured to Northumberland for Alnmouth’s Frostbite Regatta, where our crews rowed well and had great fun thanks to superb hospitality.

Two planned rows to Bass Rock were cancelled due to the weather - along with countless rows from our Fisherrow home, on what has been a very windy year.

Mairi, Amie and Fox joined the coxes’ roster, and a MASSIVE thank you to all coxes, who give up so much of their time, and without who we couldn’t do even half of all this stuff. This is especially welcome as the club membership has grown to the late-80s, including our first youth team, who have competed well and came away with medals at our own regatta and North Berwick.

There have been two major surveys - to assess people’s attitudes to social rowing, carried out by Social Rowing Convener Sean, which will be taken forward this year - and a new approach to regatta selection, by Diane and Simon.

The club also got a new website in 2024 and huge thanks to Cate T for doing this. Please look at the website regularly and give us your feedback: eskmutherowingclub.org.uk 

 We’ve carried on our fundraising efforts for the bostshed, with a slightly crazy quiz night and auction, which raised an amazing £3000. Thanks also to Simon and Josh who ran a half marathon and raised another £1,300 - and to Gaynor and Pauline for getting us over many hurdles to approach the boatshed finish line!  

We’re off to Loch Tay on Friday (the weather looks better!) and in July, it’s Skiffieworlds at Stranraer. Here’s to making many more Skiffie memories in 2025!