Ian cnat remember exactly when the rowing boats dissapeared think it was in the early 8os , the guys who owned the boats where real characters , there was Low Kelly who lived close to us & always wore a trilby a very cheery guy always smiling & then Yankee Shimmin who had the boats for years , Yankee is still alive i think .
The rowing boats used to be left accross the road from our house in Circular Rd on the corner of Hillside Avenue which was a bit of wasteland .
Can remember the boats getting towed out of the harbour every morning around to the beach .
Think the demise of the boats was the same as the demise of the deck chairs basically due to lack of tourists unfortunately .
Having been brought up in a boarding house & then a hotel i feel very lucky to have grown up in the 70s when there was absolutely loads to do here , loads of tourists & seemingly hot summers all the time .
And of course the TT races & MGP the highlight of my summer would be when i was growing up waiting for the boat to come in carrying the TT gang , from our house we could see it from the top flight , then run down stairs & wait for the guys outside the house .
Happy days , my kids dont believe how busy it was here .