Portobello Sailing & Kayaking Club

Credits to Paul Main…..the moment that we were on the water, the fire started and the sun joined in 😮

And Portobello’s own Jenny skylark (Skiffie number 15) will be on her way tomorrow for a week of 2k races along with lots of fun stuff 💞😎

‼️ Programme Now Online ‼️

The full SkiffieWorlds programme has just gone live on our website, featuring seven days of entertainment.

Highlights include the spectacular all-boat row-in on Sunday 6th July to open the event, live music every evening, Daft Duck Day on Tuesday 8th, and family-friendly activities like circus skills, storytelling, and craft workshops throughout the week.

We are particularly excited about the Wellness Hub, which acknowledges that coastal rowing is as much about mental health and community connection as it is about physical fitness. The activities available there include yoga, sound baths, meditation sessions, creative workshops and even a full moon ceremony.

The on-shore festival programme reflects everything that makes this sport special, from the international friendships forged through shared love of the water to the wellbeing benefits that keep people coming back to rowing.

With just over a week to go, we are so very much looking forward to welcoming everyone to Stranraer.

Find the programme here: https://stranraerwatersports.com/skiffieworlds2025/daily-programme

Find the schedule of racing here: https://stranraerwatersports.com/skiffieworlds2025/race-schedule

Thanks to the members of Stranraer Coastal Rowing Club and Portpatrick Coastal Rowing who took part in our launch photos!
Photographer: Colin Hattersley

Rowporty are heading here a week tomorrow…..wish us luck 🎉🎉

‼️ Programme Now Online ‼️

The full SkiffieWorlds programme has just gone live on our website, featuring seven days of entertainment.

Highlights include the spectacular all-boat row-in on Sunday 6th July to open the event, live music every evening, Daft Duck Day on Tuesday 8th, and family-friendly activities like circus skills, storytelling, and craft workshops throughout the week.

We are particularly excited about the Wellness Hub, which acknowledges that coastal rowing is as much about mental health and community connection as it is about physical fitness. The activities available there include yoga, sound baths, meditation sessions, creative workshops and even a full moon ceremony.

The on-shore festival programme reflects everything that makes this sport special, from the international friendships forged through shared love of the water to the wellbeing benefits that keep people coming back to rowing.

With just over a week to go, we are so very much looking forward to welcoming everyone to Stranraer.

Find the programme here: https://stranraerwatersports.com/skiffieworlds2025/daily-programme

Find the schedule of racing here: https://stranraerwatersports.com/skiffieworlds2025/race-schedule

Thanks to the members of Stranraer Coastal Rowing Club and Portpatrick Coastal Rowing who took part in our launch photos!
Photographer: Colin Hattersley

A great medal haul at Queensferry rowing club regatta today…..and the sun came out eventually ☀️. Let the rowing regatta season begin! Xx

Come and find wonderful inspiration for planning holidays! On the promenade, on our boatyard fence for the next 2 weeks

We're very happy to host the banners for this great exhibition by Porty Community Energy - going flight free is one of the really positive steps we all can take to help address the climate crisis and its impact on the sea and coast.

The Travel Agents of Change Exhibition is up on the Promenade, on the Portobello Sailing & Kayaking Club fences. Visit it over the next two weeks. 🚴🏻‍♀️🚞🛶⛵️🚶‍♂️The zine is now available from The Portobello Bookshop Thanks to everyone who came to the opening party and AGM at Bellfield yesterday. It was great to see you! Flight Free UK @pilardeleaniz @banzai.edinburgh @edinburghccan #flightfree #flightfreetravel #lowcarbontravel #slowtravel

Come along and buy our baking this Saturday!

Fantastic photos and story of this year's camping tour by oar around the Isle of Lewis with An Eathar

Ten years ago we started to build the Yackydoola in a hut beside the old school in Siabost. In that decade much has happened. This rowing boat and her fellow floating friends have changed us. Less unfamiliar with Loch Ròg but more enchanted. Each year we invite rowers and sailors from near and far to join us on a camping tour by oar and sail. This year 28 of us in 6 vessels departed Breascleit to pass under the new bridge across to Bearnaraigh Mòr for the first time. Reevik, a Shetland Yoal based in Kinghorn; The Wee Michael from Newhaven; Jenny Skylark from Portobello’s Row Porty and Callicvol - a Sgoth Niseach - looked after by Steòrnabhagh’s Falmadair Trust. We lunched together at Iarsiadar, indifferent to the wind and tide against us, making good progress regardless.

Our first beach of the voyage arrive shortly after that. Traigh Theinis is revealed as you slip behind the island that bears the same name. That lovely sound and feeling as the keel slides softly into the sand. We cannot sit about too long as the Horshader bus is meeting us at Bhaltos to help us get our baggage to the nearby campsite where we are spending the night.

Poraged up and showered at £1 for three minutes, a slightly smaller fleet sets out from Bhaltos in the morning, intent on spending the night on the island of Pabaigh. Shepherded by the ever patient Michael Skelly in his fizz boat we dump our baggage at Traigh Bhlairan and row up the islands sheltered east side and slip into the lagoon between the larger and smaller Pabaigh islands. It’s as peaceful as ever in there. In the afternoon we fish our way around the northern tip and with supper caught we complete the anti-clockwise circumnavigation squeezing into a couple of caves on the way.

Ashore its time to second guess the fickle and conflicting weather forecasts. Strong southerlies are waiting in the wings trying to catch us on the sea stage for our own version of the Tempest. The weather kindly holds off whilst we cook mackerel in an old ruin and share a little wine while Ian Stephen tells a tale or too. A pair of enormous eagles levitate from the behind the hill above us, floating nonchalantly for a while and effortlessly out of sight again. A soft rain and a rising southerly shoos us back to our tents.

In the damp morning we wait until the wind drops and take to the sea at noon. Soon the drizzle drys and the sun glimpses through. The fishing is spare but we take onboard a few more rionnaich and a fair sized lùigh. We go single file to slip between Bogha Mor and Sgeir Bheag nam Fiasgan by B***a, dodging Bogha Shleibhte - a reef sitting malignly in the mouth of Caolas Cumhang Bheàrnaraigh Beag. We never tire of Traigh an Teampuill and out comes the sun to welcome us ashore on Beàrnaraigh Beag. We had hoped to spend a night here but finally the forecasts all agree that tomorrow afternoon is going to be a punishing time. With the current weather so bright blue and kindly we decide to press on pleasantly to our final destination - Breascleit. A small air plane appears over head and circles us, we realise it is one of our own, piloted by fellow rower and cox Iain Macleod of Gabhsann - saying his own aerial "kia ora" to us from above. An Eathar Coastal Rowing Club in the Outer Hebrides gratefully acknowledges the support of Horshader Community Development. 20th July 2024

Thank you Ullapool for a great weekend as always….weather slightly different than last year ☀️. As always, your organisation and hospitality were awesome (and the pubs are not bad either) . Inspiring for all xx