Argyll en fete this weekend
published this on 2:17 am, Friday, 3rd July, 2009Major Events| News | Comments (rss) | Respond | Ping |
We and our visitors are spoiled for choice this weekend and its all more or less on the water.
The Crinan Classic Boat Festival began on 2nd July and runs until Sunday 5th, this year graced by, among others, the visit of Sceptre, the Americas Cup yacht built at Robertson’s Yard at Sandbank on the Holy Loch. She began building in October 1957 and was launched in April 1958.
She won the British trials and sailed against the American yacht, Columbia from 20th-25th September 1958, at Newport, Rhode Island. The Americas Cup requires 4 wins out of 7 races. Sceptre was beaten by Columbia by 4-0, truncating the event somewhat.
She will be one of many historic boats, each with a story to tell and to be seen racing and resting in and off Crinan on the Sound of Jura between now and Sunday afternoon.
The Round Mull Yacht Race crosses the start line tomorrow for the first leg to Tobermory – with a party in the Mishnish afterwards and the presentation of prizes won on the leg.
The fleet sets off from Tobermory down the spectacular west coast of Mull to Bunessan for the second leg on Saturday – with nothing less than a ceilidh in the evening to sap the rest of the strength from tired sea legs.
On Sunday, it’s out of Bunessan and back to Oban, with the promise of the Oban Sailing Club’s dinner dance in Novemeber where the awards are presented.
If you can get to any vantage point on the shore line of any of the passages the fleet are making on each day, the sight will be spectacular. There are 45 boats in this year’s entry – a record.
The Tarbert Seafood Festival is on Saturday and Sunday (4th & 5th July). This celebrates another of Argyll’s unforgettable harbours (pictured) – this one on Loch Fyne – and host to the biggest yacht racing event in the UK outside Cowes Week – the Brewin Dolphin Series.
The Seafood Festival has celebrity chef Nick Nairn cooking up a storm on the quayside on Saturday. Add market stalls selling seafood all weekend, the crowning of the Seafood Queen and live music from 2.00pm onwards on Sunday. Stamina required.
The Atlantic Islands Festival, running from 4th – 11th July is, in its very name, about the water. The festival is based on the slate island of Luing whose Sound is opened by the ‘great gate’of the Dorus Mhor – a fearsome swirl of water well known to sailors.
The Festival programme brings together artists, writers, poets, sculptors, musicians and natural history specialists, many from some of the other Argyll islands like Mull and Seil – not to mention the talented – and apparently hyperactive – inhabitants of Luing itself.
For a first festival, running a packed 8 day programme takes real ambition and confidence – aspirational and inspirational.
Oh and festival goers on Luing will also be taking to the water. Part of the programme is a boat trip to either of the little nearby islands of Belnahua or Eileach a Naoimh.
The photograph above of Tarbert Harbour is by copyright holder, Anne Burgess and is reproduced here under the Creative Commons licence.
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