Events/News

Australasian Amateur Boatbuilder and Kitboats (#119 OCT/NOV?DEC 2022): St Ayles Skiffs Row the Rip

Scottish Coastal Rowing (June 2022): 10 Year Anniversary Film

Scottish Coastal Rowing (June 2021): Refugees & Skiffs

From the West (Jan 2021): Keeping the wind in his sails

From the ABC (8 Jul 2017) : Refugees who want to be like 'any other Australian' build boats and community

From the West Australian (12 June 2017): The grumpy old men rowing the Swan

From the Guardian (26 February 2016): Kiwi St Ayles Skiff Raid

St Ayles Skiffs Row the Rip

from Australiasian Amateur Boat Building Magazine

After a life time at sea, I must have entered, or departed Port Phillip Bay on numerous occasions in vessels from 800-ton coasters to sizeable 23,000-ton bulk carriers to much larger tankers. Transiting “The Rip” was always undertaken with great care and under the direction of a well experienced Port Phillip Pilot, and sometimes under horrendous conditions.

St Ayles Skiffs Row the Rip

In the Wake of Captain Stirling Take 2

In March 2017 my old mate Michael Lefroy and I decided to re-enact the small boat voyage that Captain James Stirling RN made up the Swan River in March 1827. It was this voyage that lead to the establishment of the Swan River Colony that eventually grew into the State of Western Australia.

In the Wake of Captain Stirling Take 2

Reflections on the Steamers Run

What was to become the Steamer’s Run St Ayles Skiff raid was born of a collaboration between the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally team and the St Ayles Skiff Community Rowing Association of Australia (SASCRAA). The Steamer’s Run would follow the 19th century steamers’ route from the Port of Sale down the Sale Canal into the La Trobe River, across Lake Wellington and McLennan Strait and across Lake Victoria to Paynesville, a distance of 74 km. The distance would be rowed in 3 days (26th-28th Feb 2020), seeing the raid party arrive in Paynesville on the day before the Paynesville Classic Boat Rally. The four skiffs would then participate in the Rally’s Grand Parade on the Saturday 29th.

Reflections on the Steamers Run