MADOC Yacht Club Rowing Section is celebrating its 25th anniversary by purchasing its first quad scull.

Mike James (Rowing Chairman) and Bob Chamberlain have led the move towards sculling, keen to give MYC members the opportunity to take to the water in different craft.

Mike borrowed six training sculls last year to gauge interest and after several successful sessions, a group have been refining their sculling skills under the watchful eye of Mike, Bob and successful competitive sculler Wendy Grainge.

MYC Porthmadog was awarded just over £16,000 by ‘Sport Wales Be Active Fund’ to help them provide the means to train members in the sport of sculling.

Currently MYC Porthmadog provide Celtic Longboats which have fixed seats and attend all of the Welsh Sea Rowing Northern League races and challenge events across the UK.

With the advent of Coastal Sculling becoming an Olympic sport, the club hopes to attract more people and make Madoc Yacht Club more inclusive in the community.

Unlike traditional Celtic longboat rowing, where each crew member uses a single oar, sculling involves rowing with two oars, one in each hand.

The discipline places a greater emphasis on balance and technique and is becoming increasingly popular as coastal sculling joins the Olympic movement

Money from the National Lottery ‘Be Active Wales Fund’ aims to get more people participating and helps people take part at clubs and activities into the future.

Currently MYC Porthmadog Rowing has members aged from 16 to 82 years and a third of members have competed in races this year.

The new boat is named ‘Dwyryd’ after the river that flows passed Portmeirion and into Tremadog Bay. The official naming of the boat took place on Sunday, 9 August by MYC Porthmadog Commodore Kaz Spring.

Kaz’s speech which included the blessing, asked the water god Poseidon, god of sea and storms to keep Dwyryd safe on the water. Hopefully Dwyryd will bring home many trophies in the years to come.

Mike James, Chairman of the rowing section said “This funding will make a massive difference for our club.

“We plan to use it to ensure we can provide sculling training to more members of our community making it a more inclusive and available sport to many people in the surrounding area.

“We hope to attract more people to reap the benefits of our sport that our existing members already enjoy.”

MYC Porthmadog Rowing have already competed in two sculling events this year in a quad scull borrowed from Welsh Sea Rowing.

In July a crew entered the Round the Islands Challenge row, a 20km challenge event in Teignmouth, Devon and crews also took part in the Aberdyfi Coastal Sculling Regatta on August 8th, which proved very successful with crews winning prizes in all categories entered.

Aberdyfi inaugural sculling regatta was a big success according to the rowing club's sculling captain Neil Bullman, who said the event welcomed 40 rowers from five clubs and featured eight races for singles, doubles and quads around a 4km course.

Conditions were ideal helping to create what organisers called a successful first event. Competitors travelled from Porthmadog, Fishguard, Clevedon, Moelfre and Aberdyfi, with rowers ranging from under-19s to over-60s taking part

If you are interested in rowing or getting involved with MYC Porthmadog please visit madog-rowing.co.uk or make contact on [email protected]