Build it. Row it. Love it.

We head west for the mini world’s aka Ullapool regatta on the weekend of the 8th and 9th of July .  We had our youth teams and our senior teams rowing on Saturday.  This produced an 8th for the 60 mixed, 7th for the 60 men and a 6th for the 60 women.  Our youth team came home with a 3rd in the U 17 girls and a  2nd in the U19 mixed . Well done to all the teams on the day great racing everyone .

Sunday saw our open,40s and mixed teams take to water.  The open womens A and B teams both came in 5th .  The open A men got a 8th and our open mixed team got  an 8th.  The 40s women came in 7th and the 40 men came in 11th.  We had a great time as usual at Ullapool and look forward to next years regatta.

Portsoy did not disappoint with the weather this year( haha).  Racing started with the 2km races for both men’s open and women’s open conditions for both these races were favourable with a 4th for the men and a 5th for the women.  After the 2km racing the sprints took over with our mixed 60s getting a 6th and out mixed Novices getting 3rd.  Next it was the turn of the mixed 40s, with the weather getting worse the 40 mixed took to the water but after a chat between clubs and the umpires it was decided to cancel the rest of the days racing as the wind was getting to strong . This gave everyone staying a chance to enjoy the boat festival .  Sundays racing was also cancelled due to weather conditions .  Avoch finished in second place overall after Saturdays racing.

We made the trip west to Aultbea  on Saturday 20th May to take part in our first Regatta .  We were welcomed with misty and wet conditions but what a turnout .  The racing  was great with lots of boats/clubs making the trip.  We had some great results our youth team again coming home with a 2nd in the mixed U19 and a win in the women’s U19.  Our 60s team picked up medals in the mixed 60’s 3rd , men’s 60 3rd and the women’s 60s a 1st . Our novice team came home with a win and our men’s 40 just missed out on 3rd place by half a second. Overall the club came 3rd with North Berwick and Ullapool sharing first place and  Eastern taking second place . Another great day to start the season and the weather did not dampen our spirits.

Our first regatta of the 2017 season saw our Youth team take to the water at Portsoy for the first regatta in the youth series and the weather was beautiful.  We welcomed Libby to the team for the first time and Neve also got the chance to go out on the Umpire boat. A great day  was had by everyone that attended and we came home with some medals.

We will be holding our AGM on 26th October in the Pavilion starting at 7pm .

Avoch Regatta

Avoch community Rowing club hosted their second Regatta on the 1^st of October.

14 boats attended and competed in 11 race’s over a 1.5km course which included a port turn. 5 of theses race’s were split into two waves consisting of 6/7 boat’s per wave, with the top 3 time’s taking 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd .

Junior race’s competed on the 1.2km course also with a port turn, while the 60+men/women took part in 600m sprint’s.

The day began with the cox’s briefing in the boat shed given by Sally MacAdie were the days racing was outlined. With Chief umpire Drew Mann in Mike Anavi rib and Alec Mann/ Richard Franklin manning Steve Groat’s rib the racing was ready to start.

The women’s 50+ was the first race of the day , which saw Boatie taking 1^st followed by Helmsdale 2^nd and then Avoch 3^rd. After an unfortunate incident at the turn Broughty Ferry found themselves disqualified during the race.

It was then the turn of the 50+ men and with everyone this time getting round the turn successfully Helmsdale took 1^st , Portsoy 2^nd and Avoch 3^rd.

The women’s 40+ saw only 1 second between 1^st and 2^nd place with Portsoy just managing to out row Avoch to take 1^st place , Avoch 2^nd with Broughty ferry 3^rd.

The women’s Open race saw both Avoch boats taking part. Broughty Ferry took 1^st , Avoch 2^nd and Helmsdale 3^rd . Avoch’s second boat recorded the 3^rd fastest time but with the cup to fight for got moved to 4^th and no points were awarded.

The men were up next with Broughty Ferry 1^st, Ullapool 2^nd and Avoch 3^rd Broughty clearly on the charge after their earlier disqualification .

The junior race’s saw 4 boats compete in the U19 mixed and 3 in the U17 mixed. Both race’s won by Avoch with Deveron taking 2^nd and Boatie 3^rd in the U19 and Portsoy 2^nd and Deveron 3^rd the U17.

The mixed Open was won by Broughty Ferry, Avoch 2^nd and Helmsdale 3^rd . The 60+ sprint’s ran side by side as only 2 women’s team’s had entered. Women’s 60+ Avoch 1^st and Collieston 2^nd with Ullapool taking 1^st in the men’s followed by Avoch 2^nd and Portsoy 3^rd.

The day’s racing ran like clockwork with racing finishing ahead of schedule and without a hitch. A huge credit has to go to Drew Mann who organised the event and was chief umpire on the day and all a week before his 18^th birthday.

Thank you to all the club’s that attended and made this event so special we hope to see you all again soon. Well done to Sutor Skiffies (cromarty) who took part only 6 day’s after their launch.

11 categories, 3 courses, 15 race’s done.

Avoch Community Rowing club commissioned a trophy to be awarded to the club with the highest points tally at the end of racing. The Angus Mcwilliam memorial cup named after one of our founding member’s who sadly passed away in August this year. Angus is deeply missed by the club, his granddaughter Alex presented the trophy to Avoch the winning club. Although we realise it’s perhaps a little impolite to win our own regatta, somehow it just seemed fitting that the trophy has ended up staying in Avoch this year.

With the day’s racing finished medal’s and trophy presented, a well earned bowl of chilli was offered with music from the Black isle player’s (the music group Angus played with) filling the shed the refreshment’s started to flow. Chat on the day’s racing combined with dancing carried on into the early hour’s of the morning.

Finally a huge thank you to the lovely ladies who kept us fed and watered all day. The race control team , timing team and everyone who gave up their time to help out.

Truly amazing effort thank you.

Until next year. Even bigger next year Drew !!!!!!!!

Points and times for race’s can be found on our website .

Pictures from Allan Robertson Photography.

On the 27th of August Avoch made the trip down to North Berwick to compete in the North Berwick Regatta a first for us.

We enjoyed beautiful weather and some exciting racing on a 3km round Craig Leith .

Avoch came home with a 3rd in the women’s 40+ also gaining a 4th , two 5th, 6th, two 8th and a 9th.

A day of very competitive racing between 16 boat’s. but we also found time to chill out in the sun (jack Macleod)

A week after the world’s and we are of again, this time up to Shieldaig.

A great day again was had even if the weather decided not to play ball.  A very wet and sometimes windy day, saw 5 race’s over a 2km course round an island take place.  Avoch went up with a small squad as a lot of member’s were letting their hair down at Belladrum for the weekend, well deserved after a great week in NI.

We came home with a 1st in the women’s decades, 2nd in the men’s decades, 6th in the mixed open, 1st in the women’s open and a 3rd in the men’s open.  Which mean’s we came 2nd overall ,fantastic result’s again.

We also welcomed the new skiff SILDVIK ( Shieldaig & Loch Torridon) to the community and also the KAY MATHESON (Loch Ewe).

Well we went , we rowed, we came home 5th in the world.  What an amazing week we had at the world championship’s held at Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland.  Our Journey started at 5.30am on the morning of the 24th July with an 11 hour drive/ferry trip ahead.

We arrive safe and well in NI and head to our accommodation to get a good night’s sleep before the racing start’s.

MONDAY 25TH JULY

Our day start’s with a coxes briefing at 9.15am before the start of the day’s racing;

Open B mixed heat’s, women’s 60+heat’s, men’s 40+heat’s then Open B mixed Final and women’s 60+final.

Avoch got through to the Open B mixed final and came 11th

TUESDAY 26TH JULY

Men’s 60+ heat’s, women’s 40+ heat’s, U19 mixed heat’s, Men’s U17 final, U19 mixed final, Women’s 40+ final, Men’s 40+ final, Men’s 60+ final.

Avoch got through to Women’s 40+ final 6th place, U19 mixed final 8th place and U17 men’s final 1st place

WEDNESDAY 27TH JULY

Open B women’s heat’s and final, mixed 60+ heat’s and final , Men’s open B heat’s and final.

Avoch got through to Women’s open B final 4th place and Mixed 60+final 15th place

THURSDAY 28TH JULY

U17 Mixed Final , Mixed open A heat’s and Women’s 50+ heat’s

Our team’s made it through to the Mixed open A final , the women’s 50+final and our U17 came joint 3rd with Eastern in the final.

FRIDAY 29TH JULY

Women’s open A heat’s, Women’s 50+ final, Mixed open A final, Mixed 40+heat’s, Men’s open A heat’s, U17 Women’s final

Our team’s got through all the heat’s and in to the final’s tomorrow and our Mixed open came 7th in their final , women’s 50+finished 11th and our U17 Women’s finished 3rd in their final.

SATURDAY 30TH JULY LAST DAY

Mixed 50+heat’s and final, Mixed 40+ final, U19 men’s final, U19 Women’s final, Men’s open A final and Women’s Open A final

Again our team’s did Avoch proud with both U19 team’s coming 4th , Open A men’s finishing 10th, Mixed 40+ finished 9th and the Women’s open A team finishing 4th .

After a row round to Strangford with all the skiff’s , we then attended the closing ceremony . Which saw Avoch coming 5th overall out of the 41 clubs that attended the championship’s.  What an amazing achievement for a club that has only been running for 2 years.  A massive well done to all the club’s , a fantastic week of rowing .

It is fair to say that we all had a great time, lots of laughs and great rowing.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported us we hope we did you proud.

Please go to our Facebook page for lots of other photo’s and update’s from the world’s.