Paula Wight thought gig rowing looked so easy on Facebook.

Then she tried it.

The first time the 52-year-old went out with the Bermuda Pilot Gig Club she became hopelessly muddled.

“The coach was saying to push with my hands and feet, while leaning back and keeping my oar in the right place,” she said. “I thought, ‘I can’t do all these things at the same time!’”

It took five rowing trips before she got it.

“Everyone was so supportive,” she said. “Because gig boat rowing is so new to Bermuda everyone was starting out.”

She’s now preparing for the World Pilot Gig Championships. She and 30 club members will head to the Isles of Scilly for the competition in May.

Jill Parlee said everyone was a little disbelieving when coach Steve Lock suggested they compete.

“He has been talking about the world championships from the beginning,” the 30-year-old said. “We’ll be Bermuda’s first team to go and it will be exciting. Most of the people competing will be from Britain. We will be one of four international teams taking part.”

There are two female crews and one male crew representing Bermuda at the annual event.

They practise daily, at 8am and 6.30pm, out of of East End Mini Yacht Club. Membership is $100; people can do three test rows before deciding whether to join. Shervon De Leon, 37, said it’s been a challenge getting men involved.

“I’ve been working to get the number of men up since I joined last June,” he said. “It’s a matter of commitment as men are so busy.”

Ms Parlee fell in love with gig rowing the first time she tried it last summer.

“It gets you outdoors on the water,” she said. “And it’s great exercise.”

Their hope is to train in rougher waters in the days to come. The championships are held in open ocean, not in protected harbours.

“That is the most fun,” said Ms Parlee. “It can be challenging because your oar has to find water.

“That’s hard sometimes when you are up on one side because of the chop but then it comes and you are low to the water. The choppier the better as it makes it challenging.”

She admitted that some rowers did get seasick on particularly rough outings.

Club member Susannah Cole finds rowing very calming.

“There are no electronics or other distractions,” she said.

“To row well you have to get into a rhythm.

“As soon as I was finished my first row, I knew that was exactly the break that my mind and body needed to feel good.”

Cynthia Millett said there were other challenges to the sport besides the rowing.

“You don’t just get in the boat and row away,” she said.

“It has to be dressed up when you start, and dressed down when you finish.

“To dress it up you have to put in the seats, stretchers, ropes and steering mechanism. Then you have to put in the pins for the oars. Then it has to be moved from where it sits into the water.”

On one occasion, everyone was in the gig before they realised something was wrong.

“There was seven of us and no one could figure out that the oars were missing,” Ms Wight laughed.

“We’d left them in the shed. Luckily, we hadn’t left the dock. We had to get out again, unlock the shed and get the oars.”

Pilot gig rowing stems from the days when crews would row out to an incoming ship to guide it to shore.

The first crew that reached the ship, got the job.

This was common in Bermuda until the 1930s when government started paying a branch pilot to do the job.

Ms Millett’s great uncle, Jed Lambe, was a pilot before the days of boat engines.

“It is nice to be carrying that on,” she said.

Club organiser Mr Lawrence Bird said one of their biggest challenges was fundraising, first to buy the gigs and then to get the team to Britain.

As part of that, the group is hosting a wine tasting at Discovery Wines from 5.30pm to 7.30pm on Friday.

Tickets, $50, are available from www.ptix.bm or on 705-4908.

•For more information visit www.bermudapilotgigclub.com