Clwb Rhwyfo Porthmadog Rowing Club

An RYA one-day course was given in the Yacht Club.  We were shown how to resuscitate someone who had stopped breathing, how to put someone in the recovery position, how to deal with various types of injury and had discussions on the seamanship required.  The acronym DR ABC (Danger, response, airway, breathing, circulation) was a way to remember to deal with emergencies in a logical way.   We were rowers, kayakers and sailors and generously part of the course was funded by the Outdoor Partnership Initiative.

Bill practising the kiss of life

Heather starting to move Sue into the recovery position

Practising the recovery position

Because of awful weather on New Years Day this event was postponed until the 2nd January.  Nineteen of us turned up, 9 novices and the rest experienced rowers.  5 crews were assembled, one of which had the youngest rower at 9 and another the oldest rower at 80.  The wind once out of the trots was strong and it was touch and go whether some of the boats would make it far enough to round the buoy, one boat being blown quite a way off course.  The winning boat contained Katie, the 9-year old and was the final boat out.  By then wily Simon, coxing, had realised that hugging the coast was the best option.

Two crews getting ready to race

The boats on the pontoon

The winning crew set off

The 2012 Frosty Fish winning crew

A few hardy rowers, most in fancy dress, braved the appalling weather conditions before enjoying the indoor Christmas spirit.  They made it all the way to land at Borth y Gest.

6 Santas in a longboat?

Happy oarsmen

Geoff radios for another reindeer

Max and Natasha

Wet or what?

November 5th at Portmerion

Geoff and Sa

Glamorous rowers

Early birds

Natasha and Dave

Bob and Kate

Wise old men?

Almost sensible table

Pete and Sarah

Godfrey, Pippa and Huw

What's next?

Sue and Bill

Edw and Sue show a hand

Si and Elaine

See she's only light!

Fancy Dress Theme: What you wore when the ship went down

Place: Yacht Club Porthmadog

Winner, most improved female rower: Natasha
Winner, most improved male rower: Bob
Winner, fancy dress: Steph as a Tiller girl
Winner, most contribution to the club: Elaine – treasurer
Winner, most memorable comment: Maxine
(Good choice but we need more democracy)

Meal, courtesy of Sa and her team
Stilton and caulli soup
Chilli and rice
Choice of cheesecakes

Excellent

Music, courtesy of DJ Dave, our newly appointed Director of Music

September the 24th marked the day of the annual Outdoor Partnership festival at the Plas y Brenin centre in Capel Curig. The Outdoor Partnership was set up in 2003 to improve opportunities for more local people in North West Wales to achieve their potential through outdoor activities.
The festival itself is organised with the intention of allowing clubs and coaches the chance to meet and talk whilst giving club members the chance the have a go at a new sport. On the day we saw 150 local people take part in a range of outdoor activities and skills development workshops. Guest Speakers also attended the festival including Junior Skiing Champion Zac Pierce from Llanfairfechan, Extreme Kayaker Elia Wilkinson from Anglesey and Adventurous Climber Ioan Doyle from Bethesda, all of which gave up their time to talk and inspire everyone.
Our day started early with the ‘interesting’ drive up the Nant Gwynant Pass towing a 27 foot trailer, not recommended unless you can guarantee one way traffic !
Arriving at the centre we made our way through the forest to the far side of the lake to launch our boat down a rough track on what was a very grey and wet morning.
Not to be disheartened we took the short cut over the foot bridge and up to the main building to register for the days activities. Simon took the first coaching session and introduced some fellow Partnership members to the wonderful world of Celtic Longboat rowing whilst Sarah, Gareth, Holly and myself had a go at bouldering and climbing on the indoor wall under the watchfull eye of some fellow instructors. Following lunch we sat down to listen to the adventures of young Zac Pierce the hopeful Olympic skier and coming away quite inspired myself, I took over from Simon for the afternoon coaching session. It’s always a pleasure to introduce complete newcomers to the sport of rowing, especially those who already enjoy the outdoors, as they have no pre-conceptions and are “all ears”. During the afternoon the cloud lifted and we enjoyed some fine views of the Snowdon Massif form the boat as we cruised gently up and down the lake without a care for wind, tide or raging river water !
After recovering the boat and listening to another great talk about sea kayaking we all tucked into a very tasty barbecue washed down with a pint. Sorted. Looking forward to next year already. For more information on the outdoor partnership see their website: http://www.partneriaeth-awyr-agored.co.uk/english/index.php
Pete Hughes
 

The yacht club was transformed by Heather and her many helpers with DJ Dave

DJ Dave

and his equipment at one end. Most people made an effort to dress up.

Pippa and Faf

There was Osama bin Lama’s ghost (Si),

Sylvia

3 brides of Frankenstein (Mandy, Geoff & Dave)

Andy and Mandy

Mr and Mrs Ghoul (Bill & Sue), a dead cat (Heather), lots of witches, 2 Draculas (Andy & John)

Ann

Our Commodore

and many other scary people.

Oisin and Gareth

Natasha and

Sa served up jacket potatoes and chilli, Pete and Sarah ran some games for the children,

Pete and Sarah

including apple bobbing and a boys vs girls wrap the mummies (in WC paper).

The Mummies

Geoff

Elaine and Si

Sue

Bill

Dave managed to keep the dance floor full for most of the evening

Four witches, a dead cat and Holly and Gareth

and even got Richard to remove most of his clothes to ‘The Stripper’ and everyone seemed to have a good time.

The dance floor

Simon giving the finishing touches before the journey down

The last supper before the race

Heather gets the joke!

Carrying the Celtic to the start

Waiting to launch

The men's crew finally on the water at Greenwich

The ladies crew before the start

Boats everywhere at the start

The men's crew at the finish

The finishing gun!

The ladies crew at the finish

Back on land, mud everywhere

Geoff shows us how to ??

Celtic Longboat Women
​     ​   START TIME
Posn​TIME  TAKEN​CLUB​Boat name​Entry​CLASS​   ​Official         ACTUAL
1st​ 05:02:10 02:37:10 ​Aberdyfi Ladies “Clychau Aberdyfi “​198 ​45 Celtic Longboat L 4 E ​02:25:00 ​02:24:35
2nd ​05:06:30 02:41:30 ​Wisemans Bridge Rowing Club “Oarsome” ​181 ​45 Celtic Longboat L 4 E​ 02:25:00 ​02:25:00
3rd ​05:11:42 02:46:42 ​Porthmadog Purple Moose Girls “Madog”​ 177 ​45 Celtic Longboat L 4 E ​  02:25:00 ​02:24:09

FINISHED​ TIME
176 Fleetwing       05:04:48 ​02:39:48
177 Madog            05:11:42 ​02:46:42  (not bad girls, only 7 minutes behind the boys over 159 minutes)

Celtic Longboat Seniors
1st ​ 04:51:22 02:26:22 ​Aberdyfi Men ​“Afon Dyfi “​
2nd​ 04:54:26 02:29:26 ​Dyfi Drifters ​“Calon Dyfi “
3rd​ 05:00:15 02:35:15 ​Aberystwyth Veteran Men​“ Dwynwen”
7th                        02:39:48​Porthmadog​“Fleetwing”
10th​    02:54:57​The Lady and the Tramps​“Cwch Bill”

The first race started at about 1 pm. We fielded two crews, Elaine, Max, Sue and Tina, coxed by Edw and Heather, Nicola, Pippa and Steph, coxed by Steve Pass.

Ladies crew - Nikki, Steph, Heather and Pippa, coxed by Steve

Both crews were too far into the stream and had to row hard against crews further inshore and finished towards the back of the field.
We fielded a mens supavets crew, Bill, Dafyd Tax, Edw, Steve Pass, coxed by Max who were beaten by Caernarfon after a long battle

Mens supervets crew - Bill, Edu, Daffyd and Steve, coxed by Max

and a scratch crew, Dafyd and Noel together with a man and a woman who had never rowed before.

Scratch mens crew with Noel and Daffyd, coxed by Tina

They managed to avoid finishing last. Our two mixed crews were made up of rowers who had already rowed in a race that day and were well beaten.

Mixed crew - Steve, Edw, Natasha and Heather, coxed by Tina

Mixed crew - Nikki, Daffyd, Noel and Tina

A welcome bowl of soup in the Royal Welsh Club finished the day off. And then the rain came down.