Name of new vessel is tribute to family who built her


A crowd gathered to watch the Rev Philip Sharp blessing the new pilot gig. Picture: Andy Kyte


Proud day as fourth pilot gig launched


Large crowds marked the launch of a £24,000 Cornish- crafted gig paid for through a massive community fund-raising effort.


Bad weather and rough sea conditions meant Looe Rowing Club’s new pilot gig was not actually able to take to the water, but that didn’t stop the


celebrations.


The boat has been named Currah’s Pride – and this is the fourth pilot gig to have been built in Looe by the Currah family.


Support


Their first, Ryder, was built in 1992 by Jim and Dave Currah, and the latest has been crafted


Currah’s Pride on her special lightweight aluminium trailer – the first of its kind to be built in Looe


by Dave Currah, so the name was voted for by club members in acknowledgment of years of help and support received from the family, from building Ryder, Sapphire, Talisman and Currah’s Pride to maintenance and repairs.


The boat’s new trailer also represented a first – it was by Gecko Trailers as their first lightweight aluminium trailer to have been built in Looe. The Rev Philip Sharp blessed the new gig and guests then went to The Old Sail Loft for a


buffet, with the gig positioned outside on the quay so a closer look at it could be had by all. A spokesman said: ‘Looe Rowing Club would like to thank everyone who made this possible. ‘Currah’s Pride was paid for by hard work and fundraising, Looe’s community really doing the club proud with wonderful support and generosity.’ Currah’s Pride will now feature at gig racing’s world championships on the Isles of Scilly in May.


Josie makes her Team GBR debut in Majorca By JOHN COLLINGS


With more than 1,200 sailors; 850- plus boats and over 60 nations represented, the Olympic-classes regatta in Majorca is big.


But for a 17-year-old Cornish girl it is simply awesome.


Somewhat remarkably, the Duchy has no fewer than five young windsurfers representing Team GBR in the prestigious 49th running of the Sofia Iberostar world-class regatta in Palma.


But while Bude’s Izzy Hamilton and Launceston’s Sills family (Sam and twin sisters Saskia and Imogen) are well used to the international stage, despite their tender years, Josie Spencer is the new kid on the block – and the first member of Looe Sailing Club to wear a Team GBR bib in an Olympic-rated regatta.


The South East Cornwall club has produced many top dinghy sailors over the years, most notably Sixties helms Paul Martin, Robert Newton, Mick Marshall and the late David Pengelly in the Enterprise class and more recently the Crabb and Bowdler families in the Mirrors but to finally get a foot on the Olympic rung is a well-deserved accolade for the


Buller Street headquarters, well- known for their excellent promotion of world and national sailing championships.


Josie tried out dinghy sailing – her brother, Simon, still contests a Laser in Looe Bay – but she tells me she got bored sitting in a boat!


Anyone who has ever attempted to stay upright on a windsurfer will know that boredom is not an option and when an 11-year-old Josie ventured out on Siblyback Lake she was immediately hooked by the discipline.


What she didn’t know then was that the waters of the man-made reservoir on the edge of Bodmin Moor, north of Liskeard, had an Olympic pedigree all of its own.


Barcelona


It was there in the 1970s that Penny Way, Great Britain’s first lady of the sport, honed her skills. Penny was Britain’s first Olympic windsurfer and a top medal hope for Barcelona in 1992 until a faulty, broken board – supplied by the Olympic organisers – robbed her of glory.


Based in Christchurch these days, the now Mrs Penny Wilson is mother to windsurfers Emma and Dan who,


East Cornwall windsurfer Josie Spencer


coincidentally, are in the same Team GBR squad in Majorca as Josie.


The UK youth squad member, who lives at Morval, near Looe and is studying for her A-Levels at Devonport High School, has graduated from the South and South West Zone squad.


With support from her parents, she qualified for the under-17 squad, representing Great Britain in the


Junior Europeans in Latvia and finishing sixth in the under-17 worlds in 2016. The following summer she was 31st at the under-19s on Lake Garda and third under-19 female at the National Windsurfing Championships.


As well as her full international debut in Palma, Josie hopes to represent Great Britain this year in the Youth Worlds in Penmarch, France, and Youth Europeans in Sopot, Poland.


LOOE NEWS MAY JUNE 2018 21


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