JUST over 12 months ago a handful of enthusiastic West Devon folk gathered together in a village pub and talked about the possibility of forming a brand new sports club based on rowing.
So, now, a year on, it?s not hard to imagine what immense satisfaction they must have felt watching their new club members rowing their beautifully hand crafted, brand new traditional Cornish pilot gig cross the finish line at the World Pilot Gig Championships last weekend.
Indeed, to reach the start line itself took a marathon effort of fund-raising, co-operation and organisation, and is a credit to their dedication and hard work.
This same small band of people travelled with rowers, friends and supporters to the Isles of Scilly last weekend to watch the World?s finest compete in the astonishingly beautiful waters around Cornwall?s famous Isles of Scilly.
With their new craft only launched two weeks earlier the new crews of willing rowers had only a couple of chances to try out the gig before setting off for the championships. Every one of them a novice, they pulled together and found the strength with grit and determination to enter into the toughest event any of them had ever seen.
Club Chairman Bob Turner said on the last day of the championships: ?It?s been a hugely successful weekend, the women?s team putting up an extremely creditable performance considering they only had the gig for one week. The men?s team have also had the opportunity to train in difficult sea conditions.
?We now have a good core of rowers but need more potential rowers of all ages to fully establish the club on the Westcountry circuit.?
Both men?s and ladies? teams, with the help of club coach George Firk, rowing captain John Pearce and club pilots Jason Barrowman and Rebecca Hamlyn, spent as much time as possible training on the water to gain essential sea experience.
The ladies? team went through to the second day?s championship heats to finish in a very respectable 69th place.
The men gained some valuable sea time and coaching with the St Martins coach Keith Lowe, but were unable to compete in the championships due to the lack of an experienced crew and pilot. Championship rules exclude novices from this tough event.
But the man with the biggest smile on his face at the event was local craftsman Brian Nobbs.
He approached the committee in the early stages of establishing a rowing club and offered to build them a traditional Cornish Pilot gig.
Working inestimable hours, alone in his small workshop at his Lifton home, he crafted this beautiful boat and named her ?Ginette? in honour of his wife who must have seen little of him during the boat build.
Even the boat colours, blue and burgundy, were chosen in memory of his favourite local football club, West Ham United, when he lived in London in the 1960?s.