M is for Maritime

Coastal rowing takes place on the sea and along sea coasts and is generally practised in larger and more stable boats (with fixed-seats) than traditional flat-water rowing boats. Coastal rowing has very practical origins - to get goods and people from 'a' to 'b', - rather than as a recreational or sporting pursuit.

Yachting regattas on the lower Clyde were the first to include rowing, which would now be classed as 'maritime.' These open-water pulling contests were a minor part of the programme, added to allow professional mariners to provide entertainment for the crowds. They involved general-purpose manually-propelled 'gigs' and 'jolly boats', which serviced larger sailing ships. As early as 1826, specially-chartered steamships conveyed crowds of spectators from Glasgow to Greenock, for 'the rowing and sailing matches of the Northern Yacht Club', while 'viewing some of the most romantic scenery on the Firth of Clyde'. The rowing saw 'four-oared boats … five gigs to pull from Largs to Cumbray', over 2 miles, and another match at Greenock saw a 'very numerous assemblage of the beau monde from Glasgow'.

Naturally, coastal rowers wanted their own dedicated clubs and regattas, with multiple coastal rowing clubs formed to meet demand. Many from the southern Clyde estuary are documented in Tom Mackay's history 'Old Clyde Pullers: Inverclyde's Coastal Rowing Clubs' (2015). They included amateur, trades and 'trades amateur' clubs, reflecting the contested and often-shifting division between the pretensions of gentlemen and financially poorer manual labourers. The well-appointed Port Glasgow Amateur Rowing Club (founded 1868) had a diverse fleet to practise with in the 1870s, offering 'outrigged skiffs, sculling boats, jolly boats, gigs and pleasure boats'.  

There were also one-off contests, whose rowers frequently also entered the up-river Glasgow Regattas. In 1853, Hundreds arrived on a special train of 28 carriages from Perth, to watch the Scottish rowing championship on the Gairloch.

Vast sums were bet on each 4-man gig (the famous James Banks McNeil was on Glasgow's team), but Perth won in a mahogany vessel by Claspers of Newcastle, covering 5.5 miles in 32 minutes. There was a predictable outcry because the winning boat 'was of English construction'! 

The sport has recently undergone a considerable revival, and the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (SCRA) now has over 70 member clubs around the Scottish coast and on large freshwater lochs. Much of this is due to the success of the Scottish Coastal Rowing Project - a community-based initiative launched in 2009 to encourage people to build and row traditional wooden boats called St Ayles Skiffs. The project aims to promote community involvement in the sport of rowing and to revive interest in traditional boat-building skills.

The project was started by the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Fife, in partnership with the Scottish Coastal Rowing Association (formed in 2010). The idea was to create a low-cost, easy-to-build rowing boat that could be constructed by local communities using traditional boat-building techniques. 

Since the launch of the project, more than 200 St Ayles Skiffs have been built by communities around Scotland, as well as in other countries around the world. The boats are used for recreational rowing, as well as for racing in local and national regattas.

The Scottish Coastal Rowing Project has been hugely successful in promoting the sport of rowing and in bringing communities together around a shared interest in traditional boat-building and rowing skills. It has also helped to revive interest in Scotland's rich maritime heritage and has provided a platform for the promotion of coastal tourism and economic development.