On a glorious sunny bank holiday weekend in May, thousands of rowers from around the world made the 28-mile journey from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly for the annual World Pilot Gig Championships, 2025. Among them was Leweston parent and Captain of the Portland Women's team, Ms Jenny Bousfield, and our own Head of Sixth Form, Matthew Ryan-East, who was excited to be experiencing the event for the first time.
Gig rowing has a fascinating history, going back centuries to when these six-oar rowing boats were used as general work boats, taking local pilots out from Cornish harbours to help incoming vessels navigate the often-treacherous waters. The tradition of different boats competing against each other grew from the need to be the first to reach the arriving vessels to secure the job that would result in payment for the crew. However, these boats are also credited as being one of the first shore-based lifeboats as well as reportedly being used for smuggling along the South Coast. Modern 32ft racing gigs are still all based on the design of one boat – the Treffry – built in 1838, made from Cornish elm with seats for six rowers, the pilot and a coxswain.
Racing takes place over three days in the waters around the islands of England’s only archipelago, involving multiple categories and numerous heats until the excitement of the finals on the Sunday. The courses vary in length between 2km and 3km, requiring crews to row out from the shore, where boats are moored for the weekend, to the start line, before racing all the way back into the harbour.
Ms Bousfield's and Mr R-E's teams from Portland Gig Rowing Club, and their beautiful red and white gig ‘Pulpit Rock’ (named after the iconic coastal feature at Portland Bill), rowed hard in the Women’s and Men’s seniors (16+) category, and in the Veteran’s (40+) categories, doing their club proud. When not rowing, the crews supported each other from the beach, ready to launch or retrieve a boat from the water before or after a race. While the competition was fierce, especially between local clubs, the positivity, camaraderie and feeling of community, born out of a shared love of rowing, was palpable throughout the entire weekend. As a poignant symbol of this sense of fellowship among the teams, as each of the winning boats came over the line in their respective categories, they were greeted by the cheers of all the other crews rafted together, holding their oars aloft as a sign of respect for the victors’ show of power, endurance, skill and teamwork.
For Mr R-E, the World Pilot Gig Championships is a perfect illustration of the joy and reward of healthy competition in sport. Gig rowing demands that teams are in total synchronicity in terms of their timing, working as a single engine to drive the boat through the water. However, different positions within the boat also require rowers to possess and develop individual attributes for this engine to operate at maximum efficiency and capacity. When all this comes together, and the boat is cutting through the waves and singing on the water, there is no other feeling like it!
Returning on the Scillonian ferry, weather beaten and still buzzing from the weekend, Mr R-E harboured hopes that some of the students at Leweston might one day also be able to experience the wonderful sport of gig rowing, promising himself to investigate this on their behalf later in the school year. However, it also occurred to him that the same principles of teamwork, resilience and effort, demonstrated in truly magnificent style by our Leweston Ten Tors teams earlier this term, would also apply to the crews competing in the upcoming Dragon Boat Racing charity event taking place at the end of May. Mr R-E wishes all Leweston students participating in any upcoming physical challenge or sporting competition the very best of luck and hopes that this article may even go on to inspire some readers to take up the mantle of becoming the next generation of gig rowers from Dorset and beyond.
