Ralph’s Day Ramsey Island Row

On Friday 14th June, a group of hardy rowers from Tamar and Tavy gig club made the long trek to the far corner of west Wales in atrocious weather to take part in a special rowing event on the Pembrokeshire coast. “Ralph’s Day”, hosted by Tom Sutton and local Welsh gig club, Porthgain, was in memory of renowned gig builder Ralph Bird, one of the founders of modern gig rowing.

Luckily, by Saturday morning the wind had dropped and the sun shone, giving ideal conditions for the row. Some 50-60 rowers from several gig clubs (Devoran, London Cornish, Rowhedge, Tamar & Tavy and Porthgain) gathered on Whitesands beach near St David’s to launch into the surf, with the aim of circumnavigating the beautiful Ramsey Island. The route is some 7.5 miles through sometimes challenging conditions with strong tidal currents, and took around 3.5 hours, including lots of short breaks to keep the flotilla together and take in the scenery and the wildlife. Ramsey Island is an RSPB reserve, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a Special Protection Area for the Chough, and many of our stops were accompanied by razorbills and guillemots whirring overhead. We were not lucky enough to see dolphins or porpoises this time but the row was punctuated by many curious Atlantic Grey seals.

The 120m high cliffs are full of sea caves which can sometimes be entered, but conditions on the day did not allow us to nose the boats into these caves. One highlight of the row was passing through the narrow gap at the southern end of the island known as the Twll- not that much wider than the boat plus oars and with a strong surge through the channel, the bow of the boat positively took off as we hit the confused waves on the other side. After completing the circuit of the island and surfing the boats back in to the beach to be recovered, everyone converged on Tom’s nearby farm to get ready for the Ceilidh that always rounds off the day.

The origins of the Ramsey Island row go back to 1981 when Tom Sutton and Robin Pratt found an Irish Curragh washed up on the island, canvassed and tarred it, and hosted the first race against the Tenby Bass Catchers from Caldey Island. They lost the race and decided, along with St David’s Cathedral stonemason, Des Harries, to build a four-oared GRP boat which became the Pembrokeshire, or Celtic, Longboat (Cwll Hir in Welsh). And so Porthgain Rowing Club was born and the racing of Celtic Longboats expanded along the Welsh coast.

Fast forward to 1995, by which time Tom Sutton was milling oak and elm in Devon and Northants, when Tom was visited by Ralph Bird on the hunt for good elm. Ralph showed Tom a photo of a Cornish Pilot Gig, and Porthgain Rowing Club switched from four-oared GRP boats to 6-oared wooden gigs! Ralph built four gigs for Porthgain Rowing Club, and was delighted that Tom’s son, Ben, could tell him exactly where the elm trees used for each gig had grown: elm from the Duke of Roxburghe’s estate for Kathrin Rose; from the estate of Sir Alec Douglas-Home for Ella Rose; and from the Knuthenborg estate for Boy Ben. Porthgain’s fourth gig was named Ralph Bird, in acknowledgement of Ralph’s huge contribution to gig rowing and close links with Porthgain, and this gig, coxed by Tom, led the flotilla around Ramsey Island on this celebration row.

Tamar and Tavy was delighted to be part of this special row and look forward to the next one- huge thanks to Tom and his family for being such great hosts, and to all members of Porthgain Rowing Club for a great weekend.