Sponsored by Cancer Charity Macmillan, the Coracle World Championship 2019 is being held on 13 September on the River Severn at Pengwern Boat Club opposite the Quarry about 200 yards from the Boathouse.
The racing starts at 2:30 pm and should be marvellous fun. For those who don’t know, a Coracle is a boat that is completely round with no obvious method of steering other than vigorous rowing from either side of the vessel.
Coracles were first used in the UK over 2000 years ago, dating back to pre-Roman times. These craft were designed for fishing in the fast moving streams of Wales and Shropshire a purpose for which they are ideal being highly manoeverable and very light. They were however not designed for racing and I suspect the potential for the inexperienced to spin helplessly out of control while being washed downriver to Ironbridge is high!
Whatever happens it will be a fun afternoon, should you be inspired to enter a team, there were two places up for grabs at the time of writing – it’s a great cause, last year’s event raised £45,000.