GIVEN that rowing is the act of propelling a boat through water by muscle power and levers, Barry Didcock must be forgiven for overlooking another aspect of his reported revival of this healthy sport or pastime ("Golden girls inspire thousands into boats", The Herald, November 3).
All rowing may look the same but we are divided in our enthusiasm by a natural element – waves.
Undoubtedly, Olympic triumphs have spurred many into action in sleek, hi-tech, slimline craft with sliding seats and no freeboard. Not for them the inconvenience of disappearing tides, lumpy water and prevailing winds. These are all part of the realm of the coastal rower. That's what Barry Didcock missed. Around the Scottish coast, since 2008, there has been a huge growth in the interest in rowing 22ft wooden boats in the revival of an old Scots tradition which saw local people competing between villages in boats that they had built or adapted themselves for the purpose. Naturally, we race against each other, through the swell, across the tide and into the wind, all around the coast. The Scottish Coastal Rowing Association recognises 38 boats hand-built in local communities and rowed with fantastic esprit de corps through our often-turbulent coastal waters.
We may not have Olympic gold in sight, but we row out to sea in vessels we have built ourselves and face the elements in them. Surely we deserved a mention.
Dr David Sutherland,
Secretary, Troon Coastal Rowing Club 1, Lochend Road, Troon.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article