Lewes Pilot Gig Club has just had their first anniversary.

Lewes Pilot Gig Club has just celebrated its first anniversary which feels like a major achievement for the club. Lewes Pilot Gig Club has come a long way from the very small beginnings when five people responded to a Facebook post and met in The Dorset Arms to talk about the dream of starting Lewes’ very own gig club. The Chairman and Founder Gary Budd had spent years dreaming about it, having spent ten years rowing and competing in the Scillies and loving it.

Now the club has three boats; the Billy Pritchard which they bought as a club, Walter Hicks which was thanks to the CPGA and Club in a Box and then finally in August they purchased Irene. The club feels extremely lucky to have their own beautiful wooden racing boat which will hugely benefit them by helping their rowing technique and allow them to compete in more races. Kate from Lewes Pilot Gig Club has even been quoted saying ‘As you will know she has a fantastic pedigree, so we’re hoping she will bring us good luck as we start to race in her.’

The club has had support from Sport England and they were very lucky to be given a grant which meant they could buy Irene.

The club has grown from that room full of five to nearly 80 members. There are many Vets and Supervets but the next push is for a junior section and many more rowers under 40.

There has been some brilliant media coverage which has helped the club attract members from all walks of life: First on BBC South East, in lots of local press and then BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live in which Gary passionately made the case for the club as an important part of the community.

LPGC has a firefighter, A&E doctor, social worker, artists, garden designers, photographers, blacksmith and nurse amongst its members.

They train on Piddinghoe lake when not out at sea, launching from Newhaven Marina. The next ambition is to make more use of the River Ouse in Lewes and they are hoping that a new development will give them another slip to use which means that they can be even more firmly rooted in the town’s community. The club feel that being seen rowing through the town under Cliffe bridge feels like an important part of that.

Lewes took part in their very first Regatta at neighbouring Newhaven’s gig club in July when they raced in Billy Pritchard.

Kate from Lewes Pilot Gig Club said ‘We were so happy to have that chance to race in our first regatta on such a beautiful day, racing up the River Ouse. We won heats, came third in our 5k race and felt we’d done ourselves proud. The next challenge is for our Supervet teams at the Swanage Regatta in a couple of weeks and of course Irene has been entered for the Scillies which is a wonderful and sobering goal for us all. In another milestone for us the South East of England League has been established by Patrick Bird which will bring together many local clubs to start competing amongst each other. It will be a brilliant way for us to learn from each other. LPGC is very excited to be hosting the first event at Bewl Water on 3rd November.’

Thank you to Kate Conway from Lewes Pilot Gig Club for all the information and to Carlotta Luke for the photos.