Flushing & Mylor Pilot Gig Club

March 23rd will be a very special day for Flushing & Mylor Pilot Gig Club. Our long-awaited boathouse will be officially opened and we will start to enjoy the luxury of being able to store our gigs under a roof!

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.

Tough racing conditions made for a long slog up the Helford River course for all crews during this weekend’s racing. MA managed to find themselves in the midst of a heavy hailstorm and all had to battle against strong gusting winds trying to blow them back to sea.

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):

Towards the end of 2012, three of FMPGC club members commissioned the building of their own pilot gig. Last weekend saw the official ‘naming’ ceremony of Vilt, on Flushing beach in front of a good turnout of friends and family.

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.

Report from your Chairman:

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