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Welcome to Port Isaac Rowing Club.
For more details of what we can offer you please contact Gail or Clare
A Brief History of Gig Rowing
Cornish pilot gig rowing is a fast growing sport with traditional roots. It is an exciting sea-based team sport with a strong social element.
It grew from a need to take pilots to larger vessels and guide them safely into harbours. The first pilot to the ship got the job and the salery.
The interest in gig rowing for sport originated in the Isles of Scilly and has grown so much that there are over 40 clubs stretching along the coasts of Cornwall and reaching as far afield as Pembrokeshire in Wales on the north coast and Weymouth on the south. There are also clubs in The Faroe Islands, France, Holland, America and Australia.
These clubs all come together once a year in the Isles of Scilly for the World Championships. A very exciting and challenging weekend of rowing and socialising in a beautiful part of the world.
The boats are clinker built 32feet long, 4feet 10inches wide and constucted of Cornish Elm, for the older gigs, or Scottish Elm for the newer ones. They can be sailed but more usually rowed with six oars with a coxswain to command the crew and steer the vessel. The modern gigs are built form a patten taken from a boat built in 1838; the Treffrey of Newquay and painted in a huge variety of colour making a spectacular sight on the sea when racing.
Start line of the Men's Race - World Championships, Isles of Scilly
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