World Pilot Gig Championships 2024
May 4, 2024 4:39 PM Subscribe
The Cornish Pilot Gig is a coxed 6-oar, clinker built rowing boat, originally built to take pilots out to sailing ships to pilot them into harbour. Since the first pilot to get to a ship got the job, speed became essential to anyone who wanted to get paid, requiring strong arms, stamina and innovations in boat design. While this trade is long gone, most Cornish harbours continue to support a gig club who race competitively, purely for fun and glory.
This weekend sees the annual world pilot gig championship take place on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the SW tip of the UK. There are men's and women's open categories, plus veterans, super-vets add masters categories. The open attracts ~130 crews in both the men's and women's open categories, with a total of 441 crews, more than doubling the population of the islands for the May Day weekend. Open racing begins with a straight line race amongst all of them (hard to film), before splitting crews into groups of 12 for subsequent races. Three rounds of these heats with top 2 promoted up and bottom 2 relegated leads to open finals on Sunday.
The sport also has its devotees further afield, with clubs from as far afield as the Netherlands, the US, France, Australia and Devon - a Dutch team, KWV De-Kaag - remain the only non-Cornish team to take a world open title.
Champion of gig rowing: Ann Glanville, a champion rower in the C91th, rowing into her 60s. Named by the British press as the "champion female rower of the world". Her name is memorialised on the lead boat of Caradon, a leading gig team and previous world champions.
The Cetatwayo: Recreating a champion boat of the past: A highlight for the wpgc's Scilly hosts this year is their new boat, a hand built recreation of a C19th racing boat with a bit of history.
A bit more on the history, boat building science and life saving of the Cornish Pilot Gig and its rowers.
This weekend sees the annual world pilot gig championship take place on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago off the SW tip of the UK. There are men's and women's open categories, plus veterans, super-vets add masters categories. The open attracts ~130 crews in both the men's and women's open categories, with a total of 441 crews, more than doubling the population of the islands for the May Day weekend. Open racing begins with a straight line race amongst all of them (hard to film), before splitting crews into groups of 12 for subsequent races. Three rounds of these heats with top 2 promoted up and bottom 2 relegated leads to open finals on Sunday.
The sport also has its devotees further afield, with clubs from as far afield as the Netherlands, the US, France, Australia and Devon - a Dutch team, KWV De-Kaag - remain the only non-Cornish team to take a world open title.
Champion of gig rowing: Ann Glanville, a champion rower in the C91th, rowing into her 60s. Named by the British press as the "champion female rower of the world". Her name is memorialised on the lead boat of Caradon, a leading gig team and previous world champions.
The Cetatwayo: Recreating a champion boat of the past: A highlight for the wpgc's Scilly hosts this year is their new boat, a hand built recreation of a C19th racing boat with a bit of history.
A bit more on the history, boat building science and life saving of the Cornish Pilot Gig and its rowers.
When you visit Cornwall they will tell you the two traditional industries were tin mining and fishing. By "fishing" they actually mean smuggling. Getting boats out to a ship very quickly was about more than just a pilot getting first to the job, lol.
posted by rikschell at 7:50 PM on May 4 [2 favorites]
posted by rikschell at 7:50 PM on May 4 [2 favorites]
Women's open final starts one hour from this post, at 1.30 BST. Men's open final 2 hours after that.
posted by biffa at 4:29 AM on May 5
posted by biffa at 4:29 AM on May 5
This kind of seems like a Catch-22 for the boat captain. Whether you have no Cornish pilot on board, or your pilot has a cornichon board, either way you’re in a bit of a pickle.
posted by mubba at 7:50 AM on May 5
posted by mubba at 7:50 AM on May 5
Thanks to this, I was inspired to do a little local searching, and there's a community boathouse rowing a bunch of these things locally! And it's not hard or expensive to get involved!
Looking forward to scratching the rowing itch!
posted by jellywerker at 3:58 AM on May 6 [1 favorite]
Looking forward to scratching the rowing itch!
posted by jellywerker at 3:58 AM on May 6 [1 favorite]
Excellent, I would warn you, its all fixed seats, so maybe think about taking something like Vaseline to protect your backside from chafing. It's also a slightly odd grip, so your first session is going to batter your forearms.
posted by biffa at 12:52 PM on May 8
posted by biffa at 12:52 PM on May 8
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