Coracle Society Annual General Meeting & Coracle River Festival at Mortimers Cross Mill
Coracle Society AGM - Saturday 16 June 2007 @ 12 noon
Open to all Coracle Society Members - It's your Society so please make the effort to turn up
The Coraclers Gathering at the Mill on June 15 to 17th 2007 will follow the same order of events as 2006 starting with a fly fishing from a Coracle competition on Friday evening at 7pm.
Entrance will be free and no money will be collected at the gate.
Situation Report - 15 June 2007
The river is up 6 inches today & very muddy. We think it is unsuitable
for learners & beginners to be in the main river so will limit them
to having a go in the mill stream only. The river is unsuitable for
a regatta and difficult to paddle upstream so we will only have downstream
races and definately no novices. There will probably be several Millers
Mile attempts on the record by experienced Coraclers but I would not
want children in that part of the river.Its very swift.
The AGM will go ahead as planned
Its not raining this minute & the sun is shining but things change.
River might get better or worse. It's not that high yet demanding me
to have to open the sluices. This means the mill stream is useable.
If the river gets above the current level then I`ll have to open the
sluices and that would make the mill stream unuseable because one cant
paddle against the flow. So. Not a wash out just yet but close. The
muddy water gives the illusion of major flood but its still only 6 inches
above summer level. Water is too cold though to fall out in.
The fishing competition is cancelled as is the water polo!
Also the field is too boggy for cars so you will have to park in the
car park & walk down!
Click Here to view for
the full Programme of Events at Mortimers Cross 2006
3 Pages of Photos + 2006 Report
Photos
Page 1 , Photos
Page 2 , Photos
Page 3
Fly Fishing from a Coracle Competition
Friday 15th June 2007
2 anglers fished.Nothing caught because of river height. .
Saturday 16th June 2007
3 anglers fished but only Quentin Page caught so he was the winner.
The Millers Mile
Several competitors took advantage of the increased flow of the River
Lugg on Saturday June 16th.
The fastest time ever and setting a new world record in a “Teme”
hide covered coracle of his own make was Peter Faulkner with a time of
5.39.79. Dave Nicoll set a new world record in a wood & canvas coracle
made by himself on a Greenwood Trust course with a time of 6.06.75. Wendy
Gee set a new world record in a Dick Mundy Fibreglass Coracle with a time
of 6.46.44. Wendy also raced again in a traditional wood/canvas coracle
with a time of 6.30.91. Quentin Page did a time of 8.08 in his Stour Coracle.
Sandra Prosser did a time of 9.54.58 in her willow Coracle made by herself
at a course in 2004. Sadly this Coracle suffered a collapsed seat during
the weekend and has been given to the Museum of Coracles here.(Its 3 year
history is worthy of earning a place in the Museum,not the actual design
which is very poor. Considering Sandra paid good money to learn how to
make this suggests to me there ought to be a Coracle Makers/Teachers classification
system with society recommendations. A Coracle ought to last 20 years
plus not 3 years!)
By Sunday June 17th the river had dropped and only two Coraclers raced
The Millers Mile. Quentin Page in his wood/canvas Stour Coracle did a
time of 7.44.08 and Conwy Richards (our worthy chairman) did a time of
9.05.58 in his wood/canvas River Wye Coracle made by himself. (Nice to
see a “local” coracle competing.The River Lugg of course is
a Wye tributary)
No other competitions were held on Saturday due to the height of the main
river. I had suggested racing a mill stream millers mile from one footbridge
to the other and back but it was deemed too tiring! Only one Coracler
was keen to try it. Johannes Prosser ! But just when he wanted to get
on with it a load of adults barged in to race the Millers Mile and an
opportunity was lost. Sorry about that Johannes.
By Sunday June 17th the river had dropped and cleared considerably. I
rang “SARA” but they were unable to attend so we strung two
ropes across the river above the weir and provided a rescue boat on permanent
standby.
Sandra Prosser was our model coracle teacher for the day and several were
made of willow grown at the Mill.She had had the presence of mind to bring
several miniature seats with her from London. I had to do guided tours
of the Mill so I missed the results of the model race ! But managed to
attend as Ye Olde Miller
The Grand Parade of Frivolously Dressed Coraclers amidst much merriment.
I thought Paloma Prosser had it in the bag with her specially made costume
of a charming river fairy,closely followed by Peter Faulkner as The Green
Man and Sandra Prosser did an excellent performance as The Bag Lady but
our judge,Mandy Smith decided Seb as Rambo was the winner with Dick Mundy
2nd. Dick just stuck a clay pipe in his mouth and Seb just put mud on
his face. No one got rewarded for effort! Quentin didn’t dress up
at all so why didn’t he win it?
The first race of the regatta was the adults 60 metres
1st Peter Faulkner. 2nd Quentin Page. 3rd Bruce Watson . 4th Sandra Prosser.
5th Dick Mundy
2nd Race Ladies 60 metres
1st Sandra Prosser. 2nd Sabrina (who was actually a bloke dressed as a
woman just to provide Sandra with some competition.The other ladies present
declined to race.)
3rd Race 18 years & under 60 metres
1st Dean 2nd Seb
4th Race. The One Handed 60 metres
1st Peter Faulkner. 2nd Quentin Page. 3rd Sandra Prosser
5th Race The Hide Coracle 60 metres
1st Peter Faulkner 2nd Dick Mundy
6th Race
Appears to have been a two up race with two Coraclers in each Coracle.
Johannes and Paloma Prosser were deemed the winners and Peter & Michelle
2nd.
Peter Faulkner, having won the most medals, was declared overall champion
of the Gathering !
The end of day party of japes and reels on Saturday night was superb.
Louis Gordon, Peter Faulkner and Bongo Bob were on really top form with
their instruments and we all joined in on the occasional song. Fantastic!
Special thanks To Andrew from London who manned the rescue boat.
To Louis Gordon for compering the races.
To Peter Faulkner for the free loan of the PA system.
To all the campers for leaving the site so clean.
Next Years Event will be on 20-22 June 2008
THREE VIDEOS
Video url of Conwy doing a Millers Mile dry run.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2038057153
Conwy & Quentin Race The Millers Mile. Video Url.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2038062799
Peter & Michelle Duet at The Coraclers Gathering
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2037891636
Mortimers Mill - General Blog
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=147426406