Bridport Hat Festival caps great season for gig club

FOR Bridport Hat Festival, members of Bridport Gig Rowing Club took their gig Bucky Doo out in West Bay, wearing hats.

Flat caps for those rowing, a huge stove pipe hat for cox Steve Spear.

Bridport Gig Rowing Club in West Bay Harbour, with cox Steve Spear in the stove pipe hat.

Force 4 seas meant that the gig couldn’t leave the outer harbour, but spectators had a great view of the boat as it weaved its way in and out of the harbour, testing the rowers’ manouvering skills!

Rowers were serenaded by sea shanties played on the ukulele.

Bridport Gig Rowing Club regaled by ukelele in West Bay Harbour. The Jack Russell is doing the kind of thing that Jack Russells always do in boats (and carts).

The event on Sunday also marked the end of the Cornish pilot gig rowing season, which traditionally runs from May through to September.

It was in May this year that Bridport Gig Rowing Club launched its first gig Bucky Doo, since when the club has enjoyed a successful and busy first season.

Members have had the opportunity to row out of West Bay most weekends throughout the summer. They have attended regattas in Weymouth and Lyme Regis, and the club has become a familiar presence at local community events.

New clubs have sprung up in nearby Sidmouth and Portland and BGRC have attended the launches of their gigs in support.

Jurassic Coast Gig Rowing League an exciting prospect

With established clubs also in Swanage, Weymouth and Lyme Regis the scene is set for an exciting Jurassic Coast Gig Rowing League, which will all add to the region’s legacy for the 2012 Olympics.

BGRC has a large membership and a huge following of supporters, but with only one boat on the water the race is on to get funds together for a boat shed in which to keep the club’s second gig, which will be launched in the New Year.

The club is also building up its own cohort of suitably trained coxes. Once the club has enough local coxes, it will be able to offer members a regular rowing programme that extends to mid-week as well as weekend rowing.

Through out the winter season, club members will continue to row and train in preparation for the 2011 season… so hats off to BGRC!!!

For further information visit www.bridportgigrowingclub.org.uk

Sally Vaughan is a member of Bridport Gig Rowing Club