Always on
This project successfully funded on 28th April 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Dart Gig Club - A New Wooden Boat
Dartmouth, , United Kingdom
Aim: Buy a brand new, hand-built, traditional wooden pilot gig so that all of our members can experience the joy of rowing in a wooden gig boat.
Who are we?
We are Dart Gig Club, a community rowing club with almost 120 members, from Juniors aged 11-16 up to Masters in their 70s, and everyone in between. We are one of the largest sports clubs in Dartmouth, and we are run entirely by volunteers who are all passionate about this sport.
Some of us row socially, lots of people train regularly for their physical and mental health, and many of us race competitively. We all enjoy being on the water, all year round, come rain or shine!
Why are we crowdfunding?
We want everyone to have the opportunity to row in a traditional wooden boat. The club has slowly been growing over the past few years, and we'd like to attract even more members, and make sure that everyone, social rowers and competitive racers, can row on the River Dart in a traditional wooden boat. We currently have 4 boats in total: two ‘plastic’ gigs for training and social rowing, and two beautiful, hand-built, traditional wooden gigs, Volante and Lightning, which tend to only get used for racing in order to keep them in top condition.
Photo: Ladies SuperVets Silver Medallists at World Champs 2024
Thanks to our excellent new gig shelter on Coronation Park, generously built with grants, donations and support from the community, it’s now easier to keep the traditional wooden gigs in good condition, and our aim is to add a third, which will allow all of our club members to have the wonderful experience of rowing regularly in a traditional wooden gig, and not just our competitive race crews. It will also mean that a beautiful, wooden gig will be an everyday sight on the river.
Juniors racing on home turf at Dartmouth in the South Devon Winter League 2025
A brief history...
The Cornish Pilot Gig is a fixed seat, six-oared rowing boat. It is built of Cornish narrow leaf elm and measure 32 feet (9.8 m) long with a beam of four feet ten inches.
A gig is rowed by six rowers and helmed by a cox, it is recognised as one of the first shore-based lifeboats that went to vessels in distress, with recorded rescues going back as far as the late 17th century.
The original purpose of the Cornish pilot gig was as a general work boat, and the craft is used for taking pilots out to incoming vessels off the Atlantic. In those days the race would be the first gig to get their pilot on board a vessel (often those about to run aground on rocks) got the job, and hence the payment.
Today, pilot gigs are used primarily for sport, with around 100 clubs across the globe. The main concentration is within Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, however clubs exist in Somerset, Devon, Dorset, Wales and London. Internationally there are pilot gig clubs in France, the Netherlands, the Faroe Islands, Australia and the USA.
All modern racing gigs are based on the “Treffry“, built in 1838 by William Peters of St. Mawes, and still owned and raced by the Newquay Rowing Club. The building of new gigs is overseen by the CPGA, the governing body of the sport to make sure that the sport retains it’s traditions and one class design specifications.
[Source: www.gigrower.co.uk]
...Back to the future
The new gig will be built by master boat builder Peter Williams, one of only 7 active boat builders in the UK.
Work will start in June 2025 and should be completed by September 2025. But only if we can raise enough money... The boat will cost £27,000 to build by hand. We would also like to raise money for a new set of oars (approx. £4,000) taking our total target to £31,000.
So far, our members have already raised an impressive £15,000 which means we need your help to raise the remaining £16,000...
As an inclusive club, we aim to keep membership fees affordable so that no one is denied the opportunity to get out on our river. Therefore we must reach out to the community again for their generous support in helping us raise money for our next big project, and help us get more people rowing on the River Dart.
Photo of a wooden gig still under construction. These boats keep heritage skills and traditions alive.
Row for Rivets
Each hand-built wooden boat is made with around 3000 rivets - these are small copper nails to hold the elm planks together. If you want to help us build our new boat, we're suggesting a donation of £5 for each rivet. If you're feeling generous, you could pledge for one of our rewards. Perhaps you can sponsor our rowers when they "Row for Rivets"at our club fundraising event on Saturday 29th March in Royal Avenue Gardens. Some of the rowing will be on rowing machines in the bandstand, and some will be ‘real’ rowing up and down the river.
There will also be a raffle with some fantastic prizes up for grabs, as well as delicious treats from the Tea Hut. Come along from 10am - 4pm and join us as we put the FUN into FUNdraising!
How we’ll spend the money raised
All the money raised will go to buy our new gig, and, hopefully, new oars. Maybe even a trailer and a cover if we can raise enough money...
The new gig will be named Smudger, after we had to sell our previous one to raise money for our shelter.
Photo of one of our wooden gigs looking beautiful after cleaning.
Community impact
Rowing is a team sport and benefits all those who get involved: it's a great way to stay active and social throughout the year, and our thriving junior section gets young people out, working as a crew, and learning new skills. Everyone can reap the rewards of improved physical and mental health from being active in the outdoors, particularly on the water.
Our gig club is good for Dartmouth too. We bring a lot of people into the town – many of our members are from local villages, and come into town on average twice a week, and we host at least three events throughout the year, with clubs visiting from across Devon and Cornwall. Most recently you may have seen us and guest clubs racing to meet the Paddle Steamer Waverley at the end of Dartmouth Regatta 2024.
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!