sUNSHINE LENDS four-day mARITIME celebration A MEDITERRANEAN AIR
Traditional boat festival returns to port
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Sunshine and soaring temperatures greeted visitors yesterday at the start of a four-day maritime celebration on the Moray Firth coast.
The 16th annual Scottish Traditional Boat Festival at Portsoy was blessed with Riviera-like conditions.
Organisers expect at least 20,000 visitors by the time the festival draws to a close on Sunday evening.
This year’s event has been expanded from the usual two days to mark its status as a Year of Homecoming attraction.
The centrepiece of the first day was an international symposium on maritime subjects. Topics ranged from nautical traditions to boat-building, sea shanties and gansey knitting.
The symposium was chaired by Maldwin Drummond, the interim chairman of the Cutty Sark Trust.
The harbour area hosted a variety of displays and demonstrations to reflect crafts associated with seafaring and fishing.
These included boat-building, basket-making, coopering and other nautical skills, with some of the experts from Scandinavia.
One of the festival themes is maritime knitting and this was represented yesterday by a giant ball of wool and large knitting needles.
Festival chairman Roger Goodyear said: “Knitting and nautical traditions are intertwined and ganseys were the equivalent of a seafaring uniform. He added: “We have Hazel Tindall, the world’s fastest knitter, with us, and Paul Dodwell, a leading expert on gansey knitting.”
Other events yesterday included weaving, songs at the Portsoy salmon bothy and shanty singing at the Wally Green.
The boat festival will be visited today by the Princess Royal. She is due to arrive at 11.45am and tour the harbour area and salmon bothy.
Her brother, the Earl of Wessex, visited the festival two years ago.
Highlights of today’s programme include onshore demonstrations and a ballads and bairns concert at 5pm at the Wally Green.
The festival showcase concert starring former Runrig frontman Donnie Munro, also at the Wally Green, is due to start at 7pm.
The boat festival is supported by VisitScotland and Event Scotland and the Press and Journal is among the main sponsors.
