2019 – Longcraig Photographic Competition
Next year is the 50th Anniversary of Longcraig Scout Centre operating at Longcraig Pier.
You will recall a competition that was set up earlier this year inviting challenges to find the oldest photo of scouting involvement at Longcraig Pier, or even of any of it’s predecessor locations around Edinburgh.
We will be ‘closing the door’ on this competition at the end of October so we can announce the winner before the end of 2018, and the likelihood is that the winning result will take pride of place in our Anniversary events and activities next year!
So, if you have not yet dug out your old troop, group or family photos yet, now’s the time to do so! These can be sent in to Regional HQ at Bonaly, or can be e-mailed as PDF or photo images to: ian.harrower2@virgin.net by 31st October.
Storm Ali
After surviving the summer storm in June unscathed apart from having to cancel one or two activity bookings, Longcraig did not escape Storm Ali on 19th September quite so well.
The storm, whilst quite short lived, was particularly ferocious and caused three of our moored sailing boats to be capsized at their moorings. We have never had three boats capsized simultaneously before. Whilst we have occasionally had a boat broken off it’s mooring, capsizing of moored boats are extremely rare. A team from the Longcraig ASU attended in the early evening, supported by the local H M Coastguard team, and successfully recovered two of the capsized boats with some struggle. Damage included some of the masts and is still being assessed. The third boat subsequently also broke it’s mooring and was recovered later from the rocky shore at Hound Point, a bit the worse for wear especially on the decks as it had washed ashore upside down. Again, the full extent of this is being assessed but we are confident that repairable damage can be made good over the autumn and winter and that the whole fleet will be back in action again next year.
Fortunately, the storm caused no additional damage to the buildings or any other equipment.
Recruitment
The Longcraig team has been busy this year seeking out new recruits to support the ASU both on and off the water. Longcraig is not a ‘closed club’, we welcome any adults who wish to pursue their water related skills to pass onto young people. We welcome anyone who has a water qualification, or simply some skills in any water activity. We can provide the necessary training to lead people to activity permits and suchlike so we are also eager to hear from folk without activity skills. For example, we have a number of support tasks which require volunteers, such as marketing and promotion, catering skills, mechanical or electrical or repairing skills, as well as grass cutting, and activities which can help the Centre develop further adjacent skills to support and supplement the range of on-water activities that we currently do.
If you are interested to find out more, please get in touch via getinvolved@longcraig.info or ian.harrower2@virgin.net where we can discuss your interests and how best we can incorporate your volunteering into our operations.
Longcraig is run entirely by volunteers, so depends on a wide base of staff from water specialists to a range of non-water specialists. So please drop us a line!