Most of Mora Edith Macdonald’s exploits take place out of sight of her home town. When she takes ti the water, the Oban Lifeboat is usually heading out of Oban Bay but tonight the townsfolk had a grandstand view of some of the things she is needed to do.

The Lifeboat launched earlier this evening (1oth Decemebr 2010) at 18:46, to go to the assistance of the 30 ft. Crab-fishing boat Jean Francis – almost aground off St. Columba’s Cathedral in Oban Bay with a fouled propellor.

Within a few minutes the lifeboat was on scene and deployed her own inflatable dinghy manned by two lifeboat crew who succeeded in clearing the rope/net from the propellor.

The crabber was then taken in to the North Pier slip by the lifeboat where members of the lifeboat crew along with members of the Coastguard shore team assisted the single-handed skipper of the casualty to secure the vessel.

The lifeboat then returned to her berth at the South Pier at 19:47, refuelled and was ready for service again at 20:03.

More than 80 kayakers will arrive en masse in Oban Bay tomorrow (Saturday August 24th) for one of the sport’s biggest races in the UK.

The competition, which circumnavigates the isle of Kerrera, is the only Scottish event in the official sea kayaking race calendar.

Gus Brydon, one of the race organisers, said: “Kayakers are coming here in their droves, from all four corners of Britain and from all the places in between as well, from Cornwall to London and from Stornoway to Aberdeen and Inverness.

“This is our fourth year. The entries stayed around 50 for the first three years but this year it has really taken off and we will have 80 plus, this event is just going to get bigger and bigger.”

The race, which starts at 1pm at the beach in George Street, Oban, raises money for the town’s RNLI lifeboat, which will sound its klaxon to start the competition. The race raised the magnificent total of £4,500 for lifeboat funds in its first three years.

The kayaks will enter the water at Kilbowie slipway, on the outskirts of Oban, shortly before 12 noon and will form a flotilla, near St Columba’s Cathedral, before heading for the start line.

The race is 20km and the winner is expected back in Oban in just under two hours. Calum Urquhart from Inverness has won the race two years running but faces some tough competition tomorrow. (Saturday August 24th)

Moira Kerr

We will have a post-race report from Julian Penney of Sea Kayaking Scotland.