2018 World Plastic Gig Championship

Newlyn's Sandy Cove played host to the 8th Plastic (as opposed to traditional wooden) Gig Rowing Championships on Saturday with around 20 gigs and dozens of teams entered...

in excellent conditions - apart from the wind direction which saw every race rowing into the prevailing wind!..

every boat needs its complement of oars...

and rowers as the teams get ready for the next race on the gently sloping shingle beach...

as Porthleven's Under 14s launch the boat...

and climb aboard...

for some, the first time they have rowed out at sea in open water... 

they head off for the start line towards Penlee Point...

heading back after the mens' race...

some of the action on the day - and did the gig Portheras cross the line before Future?..

above the beach at Sandy Cove the Ocean Pride Restoration Project held an Open Day session..

which will be something people can drop in on as work progresses...

to restore the only counter stern Peake's built Mount's Bay lugger surviving.

Derek Thomas, MP for St Ives and Newlyn, "Does Theresa May has the 'guts and resolve' to get Brexit right?"

Newlyn's fleet have the most to gain - and lose.

One Tory MP has questioned whether Theresa May has the 'guts and resolve' to get Brexit right - courtesy of the Breakfast Programme, Radio Cornwall.


St Ives MP Derek Thomas believes the biggest challenge lying ahead as the UK enters the last 12 months before it leaves the European Union in March 2019 will be to get fishing rights sorted. Speaking to BBC Radio Cornwall, the West Cornwall MP said the biggest hurdle to getting Brexit right was to support fishing fleets and communities around the UK, including of course in Cornwall which is home to one of the biggest fishing ports in England.

However he wondered if the Government was going about it the right way.



He said: "The work of setting up deals is well under way and there are deals being done around the world for when we leave, but the real challenge for us is that fishermen are understood and the way the government recognises that challenge and work in their interest.


"I share the fishermen's disappointment at the status quo over the next 21 months and the transition period. Brussels wants to keep the current quotas arrangements and wants to guarantee access to UK waters. That's not the Government's position and certainly not what the fishermen want.


"But it's not clear yet that the Government has the guts and the resolve to deliver for fishermen."

When pushed further on criticising his own side, he added: "I simply wonder if they have the guts and resolve."

Camborne MP and Fisheries Minister George Eustace, Newlyn Harbour Commissioner Kevin Bennets and Derek Thomas MP for St Ives, Penzance and Newlyn.

Mr Thomas, whose constituency includes Newlyn fishing port, said he has been hard at work with other Cornish MPs and MPs from Scotland and Northern Ireland to see that fishermen do not end up with a raw deal.

Newlyn Harbour. The town's fish market secured £1.3m from the EU this summer to become best in South West

He said: "I work extremely hard right now because there is a real opportunity for UK fishing and for UK Plc but at the moment it looks like there is very little clarity about where we are going at the moment."

Mr Thomas said Edward Heath gave fishing away in return for 'other stuff' and that has been a concern for the entire fishing community ever since. His comments come as fishing's contribution to the UK's GDP is tiny, smaller than the pet insurance industry. He added: "The impact on our coastal industry and how we should improve our diet, it's important that we get it right.

French trawlers entering Newlyn.

"Fishing contribution is so tiny because French vessels are getting several times the amount of fish from UK waters that we've been allowed to catch."


On March 29, 2019, the UK will formally leave the EU and is due to enter a 21-month transition period before the final arrangements kick in.

The UK and EU have provisionally agreed on the three "divorce" issues of how much the UK owes the EU, what happens to the Northern Ireland border and what happens to UK citizens living elsewhere in the EU and EU citizens living in the UK.  Talks are now moving on to future relations - after agreement was reached on a 21-month "transition" period to smooth the way to post-Brexit relations.


When asked to describe what Brexit means to him in three words, Derek Thomas told the radio presenter: "Getting fishing right."

Newlyn's final #FishyThursday market for the month of March.

Traditionally, the market preceding Good Friday was always one of the strongest for prices as an entire nation opted to eat fish for Easter...

and what an impressive dish either of these two specimen fish would make on the table tomorrow...

Thursday's market was choc-a-block with fish from four beat trawlers, monk from the Trevessa IV...

sand soles from big Don on the Filadelfia...

a lonely black bream and a few boxes of red mullet from the St Georges...

a tasty lot of monk cheeks and liver from the Sophie Grace...

getting a closer look from one of the smart merchants...

the netter, Charisma also picked up a few big mackerel in her nets...

while Sid on the Karen made another good landing of MSC Certified hake...

including these two 7+ kilo fish...

thought there were several hundred boxes of hake for the buyers to choose from....

the odd brill, like turbot, sometimes get pigments on their normally pristine white bellies...

the buyer and the boat...

name that big white fish tail...

the netter, Silver Dawn landed her whitefish on Newlyn for the first time in a while...

check out the freshness of those blood-red gills...

and sparkling eyes, sure signs of quality fish...

another beamer, the Algrie landed a good selection of flats like these brill...

and the market also saw a handful of spurdogs back on sale again...

the downside of fishing for cuttles - the ink gets into everything including these not-so-red mullet...

and even big turbot...

looks like the lemons are more resilient to their ink though...

big ray and their big tails...

let sleeping ling lay...

pristine pollack from Tristan's Silver Dawn...

oodles of octopuses - if octopus was derived from Latin it would be octopi - but it isn't, octopus is from Greek...

oodles of buyers clamouring for fish...

a glimpse of the new market chill room this morning...

and sight of the new flooring made possible by having a bone dry market floor for the first time since it was built...

fish exit the market...

and it is still dark outside...

more than a few hours work in the St Georges for the boys on deck...

taking on new gear...

which came from the back of a lorry...

the visiting Dutchman, Zuiderzee...

is busy repairing his starboard beam trawl after landing to the back of a lorry...

two of the Nowell girls...

one new crabber's wheelhouse in the making...

now there's a bit of light in the sky...

Z38 Zuiderzee at rest...

looking towards Penlee Point and the old Penlee Lifeboat station home and now memorial to Penlee Lifeboat, Solomon Browne...

there are now only a handful of big varnish-hulled fishing boats in the UK and the immaculate Britannia V is one of them...

don't miss the first Newlyn International Film Festival coming to the Centre next month...

ever wondered how don't seabirds get frostbite on their naked feet?