Spurr
Builder - Peter Williams classic boat builder, based in Fowey
Year - 2015
Spurr is our main racing gig. Since launching in 2015 she has been one of the top competing boats with our Men's, Ladies and various Vets crews.
She is named after Richard Spurr (1800 – 1855), a cabinet maker and lay preacher based in Truro. He was leader of the Chartist Movement in Cornwall in the early – mid 1800’s, seeking political reform to give working-class people more rights.
Messack
Builder - Andrew Nancarrow, based in Bissoe
Year - 2009
Messack is our second racing gig and despite handing over the batten to Spurr in 2016. She is still a very competitive gig and can regularly be seen in regattas throughout the Southwest. Over the spring of 2020 she was thoroughly sanded and repainted with the generous help of Pendennis Shipyard apprentices. A photographic journey of the repainting of Messack can be found here.
She is named after a headland on the east side of the Carrick Roads.
Royal
Builder - Ralph Bird (1934 - 2013)
Year - 1988
Royal was built in 1988 by Ralph Bird and she was the first gig that was actually owned by TRRC. Her name was chosen as a tribute to the main sponsor, the Royal Hotel of Truro (now the Mannings Hotel). Though of heavy build and of considerable vintage, she still competes, managing to finish in Group D at the 2019 World Pilot Gig Championships.
Aside from three decades of competing in rowing events all over the country, she is also one of a small number of gigs that is still sailed and we are proud to have the necessary skills in the club to do so.
Former TRRC gigs
Over the years, TRRC also owned the pilot gigs ‘Circe’ and ‘Richard Lander’. Circe was built in 1995 by Andrew Nancarrow for TRRC (his first boat) and was named after a 19th century Truro gig. In 2008 she was sold to Nankersey Pilot Gig Club. Upon the reuniting of Flushing & Mylor Pilot Gig Club and Nankersey Pilot Gig Club, she was gifted to the CPGA who subsequently sold her to Porlock Weir Pilot Gig Club where she continues to row under the name Circe.
Richard Lander (named after the famous Georgian Truro-born explorer), also built by Andrew Nancarrow (2005) is now owned by Brixham Pilot Gig Club where she was renamed ‘Henry Smardon’.
Lady Loe and Paul Williams
Aside from our traditional, wooden pilot gigs we also own two fibreglass pilot gigs, Lady Loe and Paul Williams. These boats are the go-to boats for regular training sessions, making them the workhorses of the club.
Jo Pearce a founder member of the TRRC, lives and her family own Loe Beach. The first plastic boat was named after Jo’s mum Patricia Williams, also known from her youth as Lady Loe. It was in 2017, that Truro became the owners of a second plastic training boat, and with the then resent passing of Mr Paul Williams, it was without a shadow of doubt the only honour that TRRC could do was name the plastic after Mr Paul Williams after all the family had done to start, and keep the club so close to their hearts. Now with the passing of Mrs Patricia Williams in 2020, the two inseparable ‘love birds’, Paul and Lady Loe now sit side by side on the beach overlooking the wonderful waters.
