We’re here to promote and encourage participation in the amateur sport of rowing, based in the communities of Flushing & Mylor (from under 14s to our famous ‘supervets’. All ages, shapes and sizes! – read on…). The pilot gig racing circuit extends from the westernmost Isles of Scilly, all over Cornwall and along the south and west coasts as well as overseas such as at the amazing MPM event in Holland.

Follow us on Twitter @fmpgc

Next committee meeting :

MA Celebrating Their Silver Medal Success in the Veterans Race at the World Pilot Gig Championships last weekend. (L-R) Paddy Blake, Mark Smith, Jeremy Stonehouse, Paul Smith, Neil Rogers, Andy Blake. Cox (hidden!) Tracey

Ladies A finishing in 9th place at the end of their first race.  (L-R) Cox John Pearce, Liz Wragg, Frances Coventry, Kim Dodge, Sally Thompson, Celia Fraser and Lynn Stonehouse.

Mens B AKA Flushing ROW….BOTS celebrating their 1st in the C Heat and, below, their finish line success.  MB were Barry Churcher, Mike Griffin, Justin Dodge, Pete Handford, Justin Searle and Bauke Buurma.

Ladies B Crew Below. (L-R): Natalie Grose, Kerry Youngman, Carolyn Inger, Madeleine Tidbury-Thorne, Fiona Kendall & Caroline Cash

Overall Club Results were as follows:

Men’s Veterans: 2nd and 41st (out of 46)
Men’s Crews in Open: 7th, 25th & 127th (out of 127)
Ladies Crews in Open: 11th & 83rd (out of 125)

Big thank you to Louise for organising & who was joined by Pamela and Jacqueline who provided cakes and an excellent service. The club house was packed and feedback suggested it was the best and most charming service they have had.

Also a big thank you to all the unsung heroes – particularly Madeleine, June, Maureen, Frances and jill for providing additional cakes. Simon provided his hand made cake stands, two of which sold with cakes with a percentage donated to the club and John provided notices and club PR material.

With an Italian theme, they cooked and served a fabulous 3 course menu, whilst also managing to ‘serenade’ their guests with a few Italian, and not-so-Italian, songs. We’re not sure if they actually managed to sit down and eat anything themselves and most of them were up 6 hours later to get out on the water again.  So much appreciation from everyone who just had to turn up and enjoy the evening.

Around £600 was raised for club funds. Well done – particularly to Biffo, Smudger, Jeremy, Mike, Andy, Blako, Paddy and Barry.

Sarah Newton MP, along with the oldest and youngest rowers of the club did the honours whilst the Chairman, Simon Thompson, thanked the many people and organisations who had been involved in the funding and construction of the new building.

These included Sport England for the money which made the project possible; CSA architects who designed the structure; Nicholas Trefusis for permission to build on his land; the local Parish Council for their support; Blake Construction for actually doing the work, British Rowing and Sita Cornwall Trust for help towards further equipment and future boat projects; past and current committee members for their time and effort in handling the necessary application processes.

A boathouse for FMPGC was, for many years, just a pipe-dream and it has taken the past 2-3 years to make the dream a reality. Now, in it’s 9th year of existence, the club can finally house it’s 4 gigs in a safe, dry and welcoming environment and will benefit from attracting more people into the sport.

Following the official opening, Nankersey Male Voice Choir entertained at the champagne reception and food was served on the beach. Unfortunately the sea was too rough to allow any gigracing but, now that the boathouse is operational, the club looks forward to being able to put on an official regatta at some point in the not too distant future.

Photo (by Tim Wood): Sarah Newton is helped by Milly Devery (one of the club’s youngest rowers) and Angus Nicolson (the oldest) to officially open the new boathouse.

If you are coming along to help us celebrate, please note the following plan for the afternoon:

1pm: Welcome

1.15pm: Opening speeches by Simon Thompson (Club Chairman), Sarah Newton MP and Andrew Hanson (Sport England)

1.30pm: Official Opening followed by singing from Nankersey Choir

2pm: Fun gig racing event from Flushing beach

Throughout the afternoon, hot and cold food and beverages will be served on the quay.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday.

MA won the men’s vets race by a long margin. Whilst the supervets were delighted to finish the same race in 9th (out of 11). Men’s B performed really well and came 6th out of 20, just 5 places behind MA who raced again in the main men’s event and came 2nd in a very close finish with Falmouth.

Ladies B did the main Ladies race as well as the vets and finished 11th (out of 14) and then 16th overall. Ladies A led the main women’s race for the first third but were overtaken by Helford and held to the line in 2nd place out of 17 boats.

Photos are on the Helford Facebook link here.

Photo: One of the Men’s heats ready to start.

This year’s 3 Rivers Race organised by Caradon Gig Club saw a record number of entrants and encouraging results for FMPGC crews, going into the start of a new season’s racing.  In cold, but relatively calm conditions (compared to recent years!), the top crews finished the slightly updated course in just under 50 minutes.

LA & MA rowed Vilt in her first ever races and both finished 5th overall out of around 50 boats, putting the club 5th in the combined A crew club rankings. Men’s A result was the best in the club’s history at this event and Ladies A equalled the club’s best ever performance (from last year).

LB and MB rowed a newly refurbished Penarrow and came 21st and 18th respectively. MB particularly enjoyed storming through the fleet and overtaking lots of crews from the heats above them! Everyone had a great day’s rowing and appreciated all the non-rowers who came along to support.

Photos below from Simon, who undertook the 2nd hardest job of the day – to get crews together to have their photos taken (from Top: MB, LA and MA):

The boatbuilder, Peter Williams, travelled down from Fowey to officially name her and club member, David Buurma said a few words to wish her well in what he predicted would be decades of use and appreciation to come. Jeremy Stonehouse, said a few words on behalf of himself and the other new owners (Paul and Mark Smith), praising the incredible workmanship which Peter had put into the boat.

The top crews from FMPGC will be rowing her in events over the coming months including the World Pilot Gig Championships in the Isles of Scilly.

More people of all ages will soon be able to Learn to Row and then join our club or others throughout Cornwall thanks to a new British Rowing / Sport England funded project.

This project has been awarded to Flushing & Mylor Pilot Gig Club (FMPGC), who will be working in partnership with Truro & Penwith College, to fund two new plastic training gig boats. Both partners will be offering Learn to Row courses once the new gigs have been delivered in May of this year by Trevor Deakin in St Austell, who has supplied a number o gig clubs. This has been made possible by a both partners putting in £5000 each which has been match funded by by £9041.50 from British Rowing.

The partners have also been awarded £3980 revenue funding over four years to help support the project and train two new level 2 coaches.

Simon Thompson the clubs chair was delighted with this new investment which comes hot on the heals of a Sport England award for ‘Inspired Facilities’ which has funded the construction of a new club boathouse. ‘FMPGC is a strong local club which gives the opportunity to a growing number of adults and youngsters the opportunity to enjoy gig rowing.

For more information contact Simon Thomson, Chair at chair @fmpgc.org or if you are already certain you want to have a go then email newcomers @fmpgc.org