Moray gig ready for Jubilee Pageant
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YOUNG Moray sailors are looking forward to rowing in front of a TV audience of millions later this year.
The Moray Gig has been chosen to represent Moray in the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee pageant on the River Thames on Sunday, June 3.
Around 1,000 boats are expected to take part in the event from all over the UK and further afield.
A crew of 14 from Moray – eight youngsters and six adults – will row the 10km along the Thames on the 38ft gig, named Bien Trouvé.
It will be the largest flotilla in modern times on the river, with rowing boats, working boats and pleasure vessels of all shapes and sizes beautifully dressed with streamers and Union Jacks, stretching for an estimated twelve and a half miles.
The Moray Gig will be included as part of the Lord Lieutenants’ boats, which will sail ahead of the Queen’s flotilla.
The Moray youngsters took the covers off the gig this week, which has been in storage at RAF Kinloss over the winter, as preparations begin for the pageant.
One of the young rowers, Dougie Brown, a former Keith Grammar School pupil, said: "It is a real honour to be representing Moray and Scotland."
And fellow crew member Edward Tissiman, of Forres Academy, added: "It will give us a chance to show off what the Moray Gig has been doing on an international stage. There are expected to be two million people on the river banks."
Other members of the crew will include Hannah Rossiter, Elizabeth Owen and Robert Stone, all Forres Academy pupils.
Elizabeth admitted the Queen’s River pageant will be something completely different.
"It is going to be great fun. It will be such a different experience and quite formal. I am really looking forward to it."
All five youngsters agreed the 10k row is going to be an exciting challenge.
Moray Gig chairman Gary Hunt, who is also senior coxswain and training officer, said: "We will be rowing in front of the Queen’s boat and lots of people will see this beautiful boat.
Preparation work on the vessel will start in earnest in March and it won’t go on the water for the first time at Findhorn until April.
The Moray Gig is a 38ft replica ship’s longboat, as used by admirals and captains in the 18th century to get between ships of the fleet before the days of engines.
The gig is powered by 10 oars or three sails. She was buit to give the experience of sailing in a traditional boat to all in Moray, aged from 15 upwards, especially the young and disadvantaged.
She was built in 2000 in Findhorn and named Bien Trouvé after a French frigate that had entered Findhorn Bay at the time of the Jacobite uprising in 1745.
The gig is available for school and youth groups, corporate training days and social outings and private groups.
Mr Hunt, a former Nimrod aircrewman, is hoping to attract commercial sponsorship to cover the costs of the young people taking part in the Queen’s pageant.
More information on the gig is available online at www.moraygig.com
