BRIDPORT’S first gig Bucky-Doo has been launched at West Bay.

The weather was drizzly, and the sky was overcast, but the chairman of Bridport Gig Rowing Club Mike Carter was thrilled – even if he didn’t get to go out on the water himself.

“It’s been a fantastic event,” he said, “a year’s achievement has been delivered today, it’s just great to see.”

Mr Carter had to stay on the slipway and pontoon because he hasn’t actually been rowing in a gig before.

“I’m looking forward to pulling my weight in future,” he said.

His novice-status is a sign of how new the Bridport club is – and as a Philip Colfox comments on another story on this site –

It is truly incredible that with only one season’s hard work Bridport Gig Rowing Club has come from zero to lots of members and a boat on the water. Next target is a wooden boat and a boatshed. Then we must set our sights after an all-singing, all-dancing clubhouse with a good view of the water.

The club is indeed now planning for the future.

Five club members are being trained as coxes and gig rowing lessons are scheduled to start in June.

Six new members have joined in the last week, but more are still being sought, and there’s a meeting at The Ropemakers in Bridport this Thursday at 7pm.

Membership secretary Jim Binning was hopeful that the launch at West Bay would inspire more people to join, so taking the number up past 50.

The launch

The launch began in classic Bridport fashion with lots of milling about, and lots of photographs of inanimate objects being taken.

Here’s one of the oars, which only came on Thursday:

Then the Rev Peter Edwards arrived from St Swithun’s in Bridport, with holy water in a cleaned-out plastic milk container, and sidekick Duncan Wilson, a Deacon, who previously served in the Army for 24 years.

Bucky-Doo was moved to the top of the slipway, Mr Carter made a speech, and the Deacon read from the Bible in a stirring voice that suggested he knew how to make it carry across parade grounds. 

The Vicar spoke of Our Lord Jesus Christ being Master of the Sea, and he sprinkled Bucky-Doo with holy water, now transferred into a more religious-looking vessel.

Next it was the turn of Bridport’s Mayor Martin Ray to open a bottle of Cava and wet the nose of the gig.

This took longer than expected…

But the deed was done, to a pop of applause, and Bucky-Doo was carefully manoeuvred down the slipway.

First sitting in the boat with an oar was Lawrence Shillingford, soon joined by other Bridport rowers, with two from Weymouth who’d come to help out and a cox who’d come down specially from Bristol.

And out they went to row off the Jurassic Coast, accompanied by other Bridport members – and some rowers from Lyme Regis – in one of Lyme’s gigs called Revenge.

It’s hoped soon to start a Jurassic League, when Bridport has raised enough money for a wooden gig that enables the club to race against Lyme Regis and Weymouth. There are strict rules governing gig racing and Bucky-Doo is only fibre-glass.

Bridport Gig Rowing Club is being sponsored by Palmers Brewery to the tune of £7,000 and £10,000 will be given by Sport England, if £10,000 of match-funding can be found by August. Planned events include an auction of pledges at The Bull Hotel in Bridport in July.

But for now – after a year – Bridport Gig Rowing Club is a club that has a gig that’s been rowed through the sea. And that is indeed an achievement.