About Hayle Gig Club
Founded in 1976 as Hayle Rowing Club, we are one of the longest-standing rowing clubs in Cornwall. Based in Hayle Harbour, rowing from the beach slipway on North Quay, we started with a variety of boats and now focus on Cornish pilot gig rowing.
Today, with over 90 active members, we are continuing to grow, boasting a full complement of juniors, men’s, women’s, and veterans crews competing throughout the year at regattas all over the South West. We offer year-round training for all our members; including circuit training, indoor rowing, social rowing, and crew racing. Throughout spring and summer months, the club is active around Hayle harbour, with many squads training hard to represent the club at weekly regattas.
Each summer we hold the County Under 14s Championships, which is the only event in the racing calendar purely for the U14s. Copperhouse Pool provides the ideal location – safe, easy viewing for spectators, and good access. We are proud to hold this event and believe it is a great benefit to the town, bringing hundreds of people to the area from all over the county. We thank the Harbour Authority and the Town Council for allowing us to continue hosting this prestigious event.
If you would like to find out more about coming along and having a go a gig rowing, please visit our Join Us page for more details. We always welcome new rowers!
Have a look at our photo gallery or join us on Facebook to see what we’ve been getting up to!
History of the Club
The club has a long history dating back to 1976, predating the days of popular gig racing. In the 70s, 80s and into the 90s the club owned a variety of rowing boats for competing in the Cornish Rowing Association races.
Although not a conclusive list, past boats include; Isis (Pilot Gig, sold 2013), Vectis, Bandit, Hayle Harbour Skiff, and some ‘Flashboats’.
We have two traditional wooden racing gigs (Azook – 1999 and Arveth – 2013), and two plastic gigs (Piala – 2009 and Gwinear – 2022) allowing multiple crews to row together.