St Ayles Skiff World Championships – July 8th to 14th 2013

Doryman hopes to take a trip to Scotland in 2013 to enjoy the festivities at the first St. Ayles Skiff World Championships. Hope you can come along!

Heres the invite that came in the mail today:

"The Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club is delighted to announce that Ullapool has been selected by the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association as the venue for the first World Championship for Coastal Rowing using the St Ayles Skiff. With the astonishing growth of St Ayles Skiff building and rowing by communities internationally the time is right to run a Skiffie Worlds to give an opportunity for Rowers from across the Globe to meet in friendly competition."

"Ullapool, on the banks of Loch Broom, a large sheltered sea Loch in the Northwest of Scotland, is an ideal location to host such an event. With an existing infrastructure developed to cater for the needs of visitors and great community experience in running large cultural events SkiifieWorlds will be well within the capacity of the village."

"Ullapool Coastal Rowing Club together with their partner organisations, the Loch Broom Sailing Club, Coigach Community Rowing and the Ullapool Harbour Trustees look forward to welcoming visiting crews to our magnificent waters. A full programme of maritime and landbased activities and entertainment is planned culminating with the Prizegiving followed by a boisterous Ceilidh Dance on Saturday 13th, 2013."



Its hard to pass up an invitation like that. Ive been promised that there will be "loaner" boats available for international guests who cant bring their own Skiffs.

Let the races begin!

Photo courtesy of Chris Perkins.

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St Ayles Skiff North American Championship

The St. Ayles Skiff North American Championship race will happen July 1, 2012 at the Mystic Seaport WoodenBoat Show.

WoodenBoat’s Boatbuilding And Rowing Challenge (BARC) is sponsoring a Maine State Championship race in Belfast, Maine May 30 @ 10am.

For information on each of these events, visit WoodenBoats BARC site.

There are currently sixteen St. Ayles Skiffs built or being built in the US:

Mount Desert Island High School, ME
George Stevens Academy, ME
Belfast Alternative High School, ME
Deer Isle Stonington High School, ME
Sumner Memorial High School, ME
Washington Academy, ME
Vinalhaven High School, ME
Peekskill, NY
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, VT (two)
Renbrook School, CT
Chariho Tech School, RI
Moravian Academy, PA
Wind & Oar Boat School Womens Rowing Club, OR
Florida Institute for Saltwater Heritage, FL (two)

In addition there are twenty-five St Ayles already built in Scotland with twenty-three on the way.

Four boats are under construction in the Netherlands, one in England and I hear the Australians are getting in on the action.



The competition is heating up and you dont want to be left out, so submit your order for a Skiff and get to work!









If you wish to see more photos of these sleek rowing vessels, visit the website for Scottish Coastal Rowing.

For previous DoryMan posts on this topic, please click here.

Jordan Boats, in the UK, is the source for the St Ayles Skiff.

Hewes & Company Marine Division, the North American distributor of St Ayles Skiff kits, can be found on Facebook.
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St Ayles Skiff World Championships 2013

The first St Ayles Skiff Championships are being held at Ullapool in the North West Highlands of Scotland, on the 8th to13th of July, 2013. Last year this time, I expected to attend and was pretty excited about the prospect. As fate dictates, this will not be for me, this year. Im trying to not be too disappointed and to soothe me, the organizers have sent me a patch for my sweatshirt. Isnt that nice of them? Thank you! Apart from the St Ayles being an incredible boat, its the spirit behind this endeavor that draws me to it. Nice people, those Scots.

If you intend to participate in the first World Championships for the St Ayles Skiff, you have just four days to sign up. You will find all the information you need on the SCRA World Championship "Notice of Race" .

A truly novel entrant will be Sephira, also known as The Musical Ark. Sephira was built collaboratively by students and teachers at Moravian Academy, a pre-kindergarten to 12th grade college preparatory school in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The vessel is a seaworthy St. Ayles-style skiff, rigged with eight long piano wires from masthead to stern to make it a sea-going harp. The string length and resonance properties of the hull are designed to play notes in the frequency band of whale song.

A $12,000 fundraising goal is currently underway to ship Sephira across the Atlantic. This figure includes $8,000 for the vessels round-trip across the Atlantic Ocean in a 40 foot-container, as well as $4,000 to support the crew of students with travel and accommodations. The Moravian Academy has asked us to help make this epic voyage possible by supporting this project with a donation. You can help by pledging on the Musical Arks Kickstarter page. 

Follow this link to hear Sephiras Whale Song.



This is an independent trip abroad and is not being offered by Moravian Academy. Any student who goes will be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

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 Doineann the second St Alyes Skiff launched in Portland

Doineann (Gaelic for "Storm"), a St Alyes Skiff, was launched last Sunday, in Portland, Oregon.
She is the eighth St Alyes skiff built in the US and the second on the west coast.
These boats were built at the Wind and Oar Boat School, a non-profit run by director Peter Crim, by the teams that will race them.

The first boat to come out of the school was Rosie, whose all-woman team will be participating in the Skiffie Worlds next month in Ullapool, Scotland. Rosie joined Doineann on the Willamette River, with Portland in the background, as the new team tested their fine craft for the first time.

Congratulations to the builders of Doineann and also to the Wind and Oar Boat School!

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On to St Barts

The last time I went ashore in St. Barts was 25 years ago. Ive sailed past it many times since because it is so  crowded to anchor. This time however was the same but different. The sail up wind from St. Martin was all done in 18- 25 knt winds taking 4 tacks to make the beautiful anchorage of Anse Du Colombier. Of course Wild Bird beat us there but only by about 15 minutes. Hogfish does well to weather pointing just as well as this 74" deep Van De Stat design but not fast enough to weather. We carried full sail easily but Wild Bird had a reefed main and Genoa.  I love chasing other boats as it really gets you to try and sail better to weather. We came in under sail and anchored right off the beach.

Rachel giving her best St. Barts pout. Hogfish and Wild Bird behind her.

Hiking to the highest mountain around the next day shows how pretty it is and how many yachts are about in todays world. Being in the Carribean in the summer is different as not to many boats but you have to be ready to take off if I hurricane is coming.

The bay is getting smaller as we go up the trail.

At the top looking to the eastward. We are heading for the beach ahead and then will back track along the shore. All the roads here are poured in concrete with elaborate stone work every where. All the houses are built beautifully and are well built to withstand the storms sea and salt. I like the way they have been very careful in cutting into the hillsides on this island. Very little visible scaring.

Gayle posing along a standard road and rock wall. The grades here are like living in Knob hill in San Fransico. Very steep.

No snow and ice here so who cares!

These tortoises roam freely about the islands down here. Pip and Gem have no idea what this thing is.

Walking back along the shoreline.

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Rachel spent a month a few years ago as a nanny to my old bosses new child on St Barts staying in his new villa. She had a blast and was spoiled rotten by him as he has done very well in life. Needless to say she likes St Barts very much.

These islands have lots of dry cactus areas on the windward sides as the rain tends to be dumped on the leeward side.

Rachel on Shell  beach. I found lots of broken sea glass that Iam sure was from the original Jack Sparrows drinking binges from years gone by on this beach.

Standard photo of the harbor. The intresting thing is so far most basic food items in the grocery stores are not much more than in the states. Resturants are different but still not by much. I think the U.S. Is getting to be very expensive. All the islands so far are better as when you buy a beer they are a buck or two. Try finding that in the states in a chichi place that has topless girls on the beach and its not a national crisis .

Eating lunch with David and Samina at their beach front house. Years ago I built a house for David in Grenada. I will be posting that story soon here. We all used to race on Davids yachts in the regattas down here. 

St. Barts is a very fun place . I could live here. They have a very good tax code. Unfortunately in the hurricane season you have to have a place to put your boat which is not here. The harbor is very crowded with tons of local boats on moorings plus all the charter yachts. You need a very good car here to drive up the inclines. Plus you will have to get used to looking at and being around lots of good looking people. Yes there were lots of topless girls about . Ill be back.

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St Barts to Statia

 Statia island has a wonderful extint or dormant volcano on it that is a good hike up and down into. A 3,000 ft. Climb. Tim and Gayle had hiked ten years before and wanted to do it again.

One of the things you have to get used to sailing down here is that all these islands are little nations and think they are big nations so they take all immigration and customs very seriously. Plus I think its good business for them as it puts locals into a lifetime job. Every place you go to has at least two pages of paper work that has to be filled out at the minimum. Plus they charge you different port fees and so on. The French countries dont charge and are very relaxed which is nice.

I think what I would do is make all the countries have the exact same crew list form. You make 20 copies for all the islands , go in hand them a copy with the cash they want,and they just make you sign a piece of paper that has the rules on it for that country which would all be the same, dont work without a permit,no fishing, dress modestly and so on and if you break the rules you cant come back for awhile. Its like driving in the states and having to clear into each county in each state. So it takes a bit of time but 90% of the local officers are very nice. 

This is the volcano were going to climb.

Rounding the leeward part of the island with this huge white wall of limestone rock that was pushed up from the bottom with the last volcanic eruption about 1,600 years ago.

Anchored in the bay.

The fort. All these places have great forts as everyone back in the day were at war with each other.

Old store house on the shoreline. 

Starting up the climb about half way.

Rachel on one of the lesser rim peaks.

You could see SABA, St. Martin and St Barts that day. 

Going down into the volcano.

Big trees in the bottom of the crater

Almost at the top of the rim looking SE over to St. Kitts. Perfect day for hiking.

Looking back down at our boats at anchor. The last parts of the trail had ropes to aid in getting up the rocks. Was too steep for the dogs.

A selfie at the top.

Statia was a very nice quiet settlement. The island gets a lot of revenue from the oil industry that stores its oil there . For a small population of less than 3,000 people I have never seen so many new cars, and so many hugely obese West Indians. There is very little turisum there but everyone seems to be over fed. The other sad thing we observed was when talking to the young teenagers at the town dock, they were asking about our dog ,none of them knew the names of their neighboring islands. Within 50 miles of this island are 13 other bigger islands and 8 are independent nations. It was like asking an American what that huge island nation is thats 50 miles off the coast of Florida. Ah... Bermuda? Barbuda? Barbados? Bonaire? Oh I know ! Its that communist place with all the terrorists called Cuba. 

Thats why I like being in the Bahamas as most Americans belive it has only one island called Atlantis.

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St Ayles Skiff Doineann

Shortly after this blog began, almost a decade ago, I became enamored of Iain Oughtreds Ness Yawl . The Ness Yawl has taken Doryman readers through many voyages. (If you took the time to follow that link, welcome back!)
In the intervening years, Iain, who was then an internet no-show, has become possibly the most popular small boat designer in the world. And once again I find myself drooling over a new design from the Master, his beautiful sharpie, Haiku.
Shes exquisite, but thats a subject for another day.

While I was writing extensively about the Ness Yawl, Iain designed the St Ayles Skiff. The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association was formed on 29 May 2010, to encourage boat building and rowing and racing of coastal rowing boats along the Scottish Coastline. Communities were encouraged to become involved in the building of new boats to be rowed, principally the St Ayles skiff.

Doryman was quick to promote this extraordinary design and though hundreds of these boats have been built globally, only two St Ayles Skiffs exist on the west coast of the US, Dorymans cruising grounds. Both were built in Portland, Oregon at the Wind and Oar Boat School .

The first boat off the molds at WOBS (Rosie) lives in Portland, rowed regularly by the team of women who built her. The second St Ayles Skiff to come out of that shop was Doineann (Irish for tempest or storm), built for her proud owner, Julius Dalzell. The following update from Julius is the answer to my suggestion that the St Ayles Skiff might make a great sail-and-oar boat, if only she had a sail rig.

"Hi Michael,

It has been sometime since our last communication. As you may recall, Doineann was the second St. Ayles skiff built by the Wind and Oar and Oar School. My wife and I decided upon retirement, in July 2014, to move to a favorable locale, in Cathlamet, Washington for a variety of reasons, not the least being the beauty and boating opportunities of the Lower Columbia River. A significant aspect of our new abode was the availability of a large shop. Today it is a home and restoration facility for small craft.

Of course Doineann is one of the permanent residents. And yes, we did proceed to design and make a sail-rig for Doineann.

Before proceeding with the story, you might be impressed to know that we have a regular crew rowing Doineann, most having little prior rowing experience. We find that performance is outstanding regardless of wind or chop. She slices through anything with little fuss. Totally enjoyable.

We started with an e-mail exchange with Iain Oughtred himself. Iain warned that the craft was designed for rowing, not sailing, and would be tender, so recommended a small lug sail, maybe something around 90 sq. ft.. Iain stated that the existing keel might be sufficient to support lateral stability with minor leeway. He wasn’t sure how she would tack because of her wide turning radius.

We decided to go low budget. After considering many sail designs, our choice was an 85 sq. ft. balanced lug.

The mast was a used item acquired from a builder. Quite the specimen, ugly but it works. A sail was ordered from Lee Sails. I insisted that the sail be mounted without use of fittings or attachments. No screws, nails, brackets or drilled holes. In other words, no intrusions that would impact the original design.

The mast partner we devised uses the kabe support at the forward rowing station, using the kabes and pins incorporated into each rowing station at the gunnel. The mast step slips into the floor boards below. So, on a fine August day, we took to the river for the first sail. In a fresh, accommodating wind, her response was beyond expectations. She went like mad with five adults aboard. The existing steering rudder, though designed for rowing, performed well.The boat was not tender, in fact quite stable regardless of wind on any quarter. We had a ball!

Tacking was a challenge. Because of the long keel, she took her time. Speed would drop off and we would be in irons, propelled in reverse. Throwing the rudder over steered her in reverse through the tack. The sail would again fill and we were off. Too much rudder did nothing but enhance the stall, acting as a brake. The answer to a successful tack was two fold - lots of speed going into the tack, and finessing the rudder. A slow tack became doable.

The materials I used for gaff and boom are too light. Currently another gaff and boom are under construction. Three strips of tight grain fir to be epoxied and shaped.

So, Michael, that is the Doineann story to date. My expectations for the craft are progressing!"

Thank you Julius for that update. Its obvious you love your boat and its easy to see why.
Of course the St Ayles Skiff is a one-design racing machine, so Julius was careful to keep the design legal for racing. He looks forward to the day when more St Ayles are built and racing here in the US. (me too!)

Meanwhile, the Haiku is calling me. Isnt she a beauty?

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