A new gig was launched in Scilly during the 1999 World Championships, primarily available to Junior crews from the Islands wishing to learn the skill. It was announced during the Winter that the Tregarthens Hotel would sponsor the new gig and the gig would take it’s name from the hotel.
Local youngsters were delighted with this news as they had previously had to use the Slippen, which has fallen into disrepair and is in need of an urgent overhaul, one member of the junior crew commented “When I put pressure on the hull, water would come in!”
The new gig followed an announcement and the setting up of a new Junior gig crew scheme set up early in the previous year by Jeff Penhaligon, the harbourmaster and Des Bird, the local policeman.
The gig was to be built by the D J Curragh boat builders who infamously made new gigs such as the Defiance. This was to be the first new gig in Scilly since the Islander was built by Tom Chudleigh in 1989.
The new gig, the Tregarthens was to be used by the top crews in Scilly during the World Championships and other gig regatta’s as well as by the Junior crews from the ages of 8 - 16. One local was concerned that the new gig would be seen as just another resource that anyone could take out and race on a Friday night and that the plight of the youngsters would be neglected amongst all of this.
The new craft is expected to cost the sponsors around £10,000.
The maiden voyage after the official launch of the ‘Tregarthens’ was to be the junior crew race which would kick off the World Championships 1999, against the Porthminster, a gig from St Ives that was sponsored by the Porthminster hotel, in the same chain as the Tregarthens hotel. The crew of the Porthminster would be made up by a mix of Gig rowing talent from all over the Cornwall.
The local Scilly crew was made up from Natalie Handy, Nathalie Jones, Ben Blackwell, Stephen Duncan, Richard Dalimore, Julian Pearce and Annabel Penhaligon.
The race itself was secondary to the launching and the turnout of support for the local crew was poor. The Tregarthens lost a hard fought race, beaten by a length and a half. The usual gig racing controversy ensued with allegations that the Cornish crew were older than youth gig rowing organisations normally allowed and other such accusations, but all was forgotten in the good nature of the event.
All who Rowed in her agreed that she was indeed a fine gig, comparable to the Shah with her fine lines, one of the Junior Crew said after the race “She felt so light, she seemed to skim through the water”. The Golden Eagle crew obviously had similar feelings as when they rowed her in the men’s World Championship finals, they came in, second only to the all-conquering Caradon Mary Newman crew.