WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Denmark Community Rowing Association

Location: 16 Lights Road, Ocean Beach, WA 6333

 

About:

A core group of mostly retired boating enthusiasts who had been volunteering to restore wooden boats in a boat shed in the coastal town of Denmark on the South coast of WA often talked about the possibility of building St Ayles Skiffs for the community. Inspired initially by the success of the Royal Freshwater Bay Yacht Club skiffs and then by Augusta Rowers we decided to have a go.

We are still very new to this and have so far had an inaugural general meeting back on June 1st 2021, where 20 attendees voted to incorporate the not-for-profit association and voted in the committee and the standard set of rules. Incorporation was easily achieved and a bank account was opened with an ABN so membership money could be accumulated.

The five committee members made an initial donation and then we started fund raising with a sausage sizzle outside our local IGA, which was a great way to get ourselves out there engaging the wider community and publicising our next events.

The following weekend (25 and 26 September) a St Ayles Skiff from Perth and another from Augusta with enthusiastic crews headed by John Longley and Bill Perry respectively, enabled our interested community members to have a go. This helped us to increase our membership to 26. The next day we had organised to have a Classic Boat Show in the middle of town where the St Ayles Skiffs could be demonstrated to the general public. This was really well attended and a lot of publicity was gained.

Throughout these events we have been selling raffle tickets for an 8ft pram dinghy built by committee members which has been a significant initial fundraiser. We also took the dinghy to the Albany International Folk ‘n’ Shanty Festival where some of the committee members were singing shanties in our group the Salty Seadogs.

We are now going to concentrate on seeking sponsorships in the hope that we can raise enough funded to buy two kits by the end of December and start the build project in February with a plan of completing the boats by November 2022. We will also apply for grants but don’t want to be reliant on the vagaries of timing and availability to start the project. If you would like to support us please contact me.

Just recently we have found an ideal shed in the centre of town to build the St Ayles Skiffs in and a very generous couple, Harry and Kay, who are prepared to lend it to us for the duration of the build.

It’s a journey for all of us to enjoy and even in these early stages there has already been a great feeling of building community spirit. From a small group of enthusiasts the ripples of connection are reaching out to people who are interested in building and or rowing skiffs, to the established St Ayles Skiff associations in WA and around Australia and to our wider Denmark community.

 

 

 

 

Contacts:

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/999601200794147

 

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