Historic boats to set sail for new festival

TWO historic fishing boats will join a team of lifesaving seamen and a bunch of old gaffers at North Queensferry's first Traditional Boat Festival.

About 30,000 people are expected to head to the banks of the Forth later this year for the show.

The festival is being organised by Queensferry Boat Club and is based on an established and hugely successful traditional boat show in Portsoy, Moray, which regularly attracts tens of thousands of people.

Amongst the confirmed attractions are the 108-year-old fishing boat Reaper, a 70ft herring drifter from the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther and the 32ft bauldie White Wing.

The museum's boat club has helped re-equip and restore Reaper, and a second refit is under way on White Wing.

Lifesavers from the RNLI are also expected to attend, along with a delegation from The Old Gaffers Association (Scotland), whose members are aficionados of gaffer boats, distinguished by their four-sided main-sails called gaff-riggs.

The festival will take place on Saturday, 11 September.