Falmouth Harbour is teaming up with the town’s Pilot Gig Club to support a first-of-its-kind Junior Gig Rowing Academy to coach and encourage aspiring young rowers into this growing World sport.
The Academy – brainchild of life-long Falmouth gig rower Jordan Smith – aims to create a clear pathway for 11 – 18 year-olds from junior into senior gig rowing, widening the attraction to young people with little or no background in water sports alongside those who are already keenly involved. It will deliver a high-quality training and mentoring programme on and off the water in rowing and all-round fitness – as well as a skills programme including navigation, chart work and first aid to give young rowers an understanding of the environment they train in.
“As gig rowers we are passionate about our sport, our gig communities and culture and the huge physical and mental benefits for people of all ages of getting out on the water with a committed crew to compete or just for fun,” says Jordan.
“Our dedicated Academy aims to get more young people rowing and to support them through a critical stage in their development so they keep rowing into adulthood.”
All Academy training will be provided voluntarily by Falmouth Pilot Gig Club members and partner organisations including Falmouth Harbour, with the Harbour also providing free onshore classroom space, storage for a training gig and sponsored kit for the young rowers.
Fundraising is well underway for a new full-size GRP (Glass Reinforced Plastic) training gig, primarily dedicated to the Academy, along with a new set of oars of the appropriate weight and size, lifejackets and some kit for the rowers. Sport England and the Movement Fund are providing 50% match funding for all money raised.
As well as an ongoing crowdfunder campaign, the Gig Club’s Junior members have just raised more than £1,500 through a sponsored indoor 120km Rowing Challenge at their Falmouth Watersports Centre base. The new GRP training Gig and other kit will allow more ‘On Water’ time for Academy Rowers, increasing participation, consistency and safety while protecting the Clubs’ wooden race boats.
Tristan Rowe, Falmouth Harbour’s Head of Commercial Operations says, “Pilot Gigs are such an iconic sight out on our beautiful harbour waters – and the Gig Clubs themselves create such strong and important communities. We’re proud to be able to support our local Club in establishing this World-first Junior Gig Rowing Academy to bring more and more young people into this fantastic and inspiring sport and nurture that enthusiasm into the senior rowing levels.”
Cornwall’s classic pilot gigs date back to the late 17th century and are recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats deploying to vessels in distress. As a general work boat they would take pilots to incoming vessels off the Atlantic Coast – and since pilots had to compete with each other for work, the gig crew which got their pilot aboard a vessel first would get the work – and hence the payment.
Today’s pilot gigs are used primarily for sport, with Falmouth’s pioneering club formed more than 30 years ago. Much of the club’s success has been built on consistent development of a strong junior and youth section – an approach which has helped embed gig rowing deeply within the local community.
Falmouth’s current Junior captain Jill Hoather, along with her husband Geoff, have worked tirelessly to nurture and train the Club’s younger rowers and keep them on the water. She says, “Our new Junior Academy, with the support of our Club Captain, Jordan Smith, will give renewed energy and structure to the work we already do with our young rowers in Falmouth and hopefully help give them a life-long sense of the value of rowing on mind and body. There’s really nothing quite like it – as our Veterans, Super-vet and Masters crews will confirm as they continue rowing and competing into their sixties, seventies and even beyond!”
The popularity of competitive gig rowing has grown since the first World Pilot Gig Championships in the Isles of Scilly in 1990 when competing crews came from a handful of Cornish clubs – to more than a hundred clubs across the globe, as far afield as Australia, the United States and the Faroe Islands.
For more about Falmouth Pilot Gig Club and its crowdfunder campaign for a Junior Gig Rowing Academy see https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/falmouth-pilot-gig-club-academy or for more on the work of Falmouth Harbour, including its wide-ranging environmental initiatives, see https://www.falmouthharbour.co.uk/ .
