By Eric Cerny

From Rowing the Loyaute

Three VCB youth decided to stay another night in Warren after the Head of the Weir to try out the Bantry Bay gig Loyauté. A few of us went down to the town dock for a morning row on Don Betts’s pilot gig, Cady, with a few of its regular rowers. All met back at Don’s house for breakfast and got ready to head to the beach where we would launch Loyauté. Once on the boat, the first-timers were taught how to come to oars and with only nine rowers and a cox, we were off. The newcomers got right into it and none of them even caught a crab. Approaching some mooring buoys, we all got a taste of a rowing slalom. At the Atlantic Challenge Contest of Seamanship, an international contest using Bantry Bay gigs, the slalom event involves weaving through buoys, making an about-face turn and weaving back, all without a rudder.
Soon, we grabbed hold of a mooring buoy elsewhere and raised the fore and main masts. Crew members who were new to sailing were given instructions on the several jobs for manning the sail: halyard, dip, tack and sheet. We performed some practice tacks and went out for a sail in the almost 20 knot winds. We got one successful tack done, but we needed three tacking oars to do it. It was a cold and very wet sail, but despite the rough conditions and the boat being a bit short-staffed, everyone had a great time and learned a lot about how to use the boat. The Stuyrowers said they can’t wait until the next time they visit Warren for another round on Loyauté.
Joanna Omar hitched the trailer back up to her car and we drove home, dropping the boats off at VCB around 9:00 PM.
Loyauté Crew: Don Betts, Mary Evans, Riley Hall, Joanna Omar, Roman Bezault, Joe Fung, Eric Cerny, Jenny Chen, Tony Fung, Teresa Wang

From Rowing the Loyaute