Less than two weeks to go to Scilly and we thought we would do a quick blog post about this year’s tides, as well as the race programme and some useful info.

Thank you to the Karma Hotel on St Martin’s for sponsoring this post and the downloadable charts at the bottom of the page.

 

Programme

Always subject to change due to weather.

Thursday April 28th: From 12 noon coxswain’s registration in the tunnel

 

Friday April 29th:

16:30 Coxswain’s meeting Methodist chapel

18:30 Ladies veterans St Agnes to St Mary’s quay

20:00 Men’s veterans St Agnes to St Mary’s quay

 

Saturday April 30th:  

12 noon Coxswain’s briefing Holgates Green

13:00 Ladies round one

14:15 Men’s round one

15:30 Ladies round two

17:15 Men’s round two

 

Sunday May 1st:

10:00 Ladies round 3

11:45 Men’s round 3

13:30 Ladies final

15:30 Men’s final

17:00 Presentation of trophies

 

The tunnel will be open from Thursday for breakfast then all day until attendance declines. This will continue until the Monday inclusive. Effectively this usually means food is available from about 8 AM until about 9 PM providing the volunteers continue to do so.

Event organiser’s website: http://www.worldgigs.co.uk/

Stats 

• 150 pilot gigs
• 3,000 rowers 
• An additional 1,000 coxes, family, friends and spectators
• A further 5,000 other rowers and fans following from the mainland and across the world
• * Estimates 

DOWNLOAD THE LIST OF ENTRIES AS A PDF

 

Useful numbers 

Co-op supermarket, 4 Hugh St, St. Marys TR21 0LL
Open: 8am to 10pm daily including Sunday

Tourist Information Centre Porthcressa Rd, St. Mary’s TR21 0LW

Open: 9am to 5.30pm (Fri & Sat) 9am to 4pm (Sun & Mon)

Getting around:

Golf buggy hire The Scilly Cart Company: 01720 422121

Taxis Toots Taxi: 07120 422142, DJ Cabs: 01720 423775

Bike hire Book a Bike: 07552 994709, St. Mary’s Bike Hire: 07796 638506

Inter-Island Ferries timetables listed daily at the Tourist Information Centre as well as on the boards on the quay and in Hugh Town.

Other things to do:

Golf IOS golf club: 01720 422692
Scuba diving St. Martin’s Dive School: 01720 422848

Sailing The Sailing Centre, St. Mary’s: 01720 422060

Runs & walks Over 60 miles of trails throughout the islands

Horse riding St. Mary’s Riding Centre: 01720 423855

Museum Church St, St. Mary’s: 01720 422337

Bird & wildlife tours Island Sea Safaris: 01720 422732

Health & Emergencies

Pharmacy & St. Mary’s Health Centre 01720 422628 King Edward Lane, Isles of Scilly TR21 0HE

(N.B. R Douglas Health & Beauty Shop in town sells cold remedies, painkillers, etc)

Hospital 01720 422392 Belmont, St. Mary’s, TR21 0LE

Local radio

Radio Scilly 107.9FM

Local station devotes the weekend to covering the Championships.

This year’s tides

By Pete Hicks
Pete lays the course for gig weekend.

The tides for this year are small neap tides, so although tidal flows will be a factor in the races, they won’t be anything like as strong as last year.

The tidal range over gig weekend is minimal at around 2.2m, with a height of around 4.4m and a low of 2.0M. This is almost half of last year when we had springs and so the effect of tidal flow will be significantly less than last year. Even so, it is certainly a consideration, and if a cox wants to cox their crews over the shortest distance they need to allow for this when choosing the course.

Beach: With a maximum high of 4.4m there will be plenty of space on Town Beach for storage and swapping of gigs during the weekend (1m less than last year).

FRIDAY

Ladies Vets: The tide will be just about slack in St Mary’s Sound so the ‘crossing’ flow won’t affect the gigs’ course. If anything there will be a slight tail tide at the west end of the line as the tide floods into St Mary’s Roads.

Men’s Vets: By 2000 the tide will be running left to right as the gigs line up. The West end of the line will now get a slightly stronger tail tide heading into the Roads. Gigs at the East end of the line need to allow for this as they cross the sound and head towards the Steval.

SATURDAY

Sat Agnes Race

Ladies: The tide will be flowing from left to right but this will be reducing as time goes on and if the race start runs late the effect will be less. Gigs at the East end of the line should allow for this in order to steer a straight line into the Steval.

Men’s: The tide will have just passed slack water and so the small amount of flow will be from right to left as men line up. Gigs at the far West end will encounter a small head tide for a while until they close on St Mary’s.

Nut Rock Races

Ladies: The tide will be running out towards the SW so when lining up the flow will be left to right.

Men’s:  By the time the men’s heats start the tide will be flooding in so the tidal flow will be reversed, running right to left.

SUNDAY

Morning: For both the ladies and men’s heats the tide will be flooding, so tidal flow will be right to left.

Finals: The tide will be opposite, with an ebb tide the flow will be left to right across the course.

Competition

Have you entered our Big Scilly Giveaway?

Just enter your email and be in with a chance of winning one of these great prizes:

1. 36 PINTS of Doom Bar from Sharp’s!
2. 7 Rock The Boat rowing towels
3. £100 Coast & Country Cottages voucher
4. FalRiver Travel Pass
5. Lunch at Karma on St. Martin’s
6. A bespoke rowing jacket from Agame
7. £50 worth of clothes from Reverend Troutbeck
8. Free parking at Westwinds, Land’s End
9: 7 Seasalt headbands worth £90.65
10: 7 gig urchin key rings/bag tags worth at least £40
11: A ‘half-boat’ illustration worth £90

Enter here

Charts 

Note: Not to be used for navigation, as reference guide only.

DOWNLOAD AS PDF