大象传媒

Strip down to your swimmers, lubricate yourself with grease, pop on a rubber hat - and you too can join Ye Amphibious Ancients - the oldest open swimming club in Scotland - formed in 1884.

The Phibbies, as they are also known, practise in the dramatic harbour of Broughty Ferry, Dundee's posher neighbour; splashing and diving through the sea weedy water in the shadow of the castle. The members regularly plunge into the broad waters of the Tay - not least for the New Year's Day Dook - racing, training, squealing and shouting. It's a fresh air frolic for the hardy, and those beloved of the open water swimming without the chlorine and formaldehyde of the indoor pool.

With official names such as Chief Ancients, Scribes, and a Purse Bearer, the club relishes its history. Netta Spence, still Honorary Chief of the Phibbies, recalls how in 1950, at the age of 17, she and some school friends fancied doing the 'Tay Swim', not attempted since before the war. She reckons her time was about 37 minutes, not bad for someone chatting to her boat man the whole way across. "I am a bit of a chatterer".
The Tay Swim involves crossing the tidal waters right across the width of the river from Broughty Ferry to Tayport, accompanied by a fisherman in a cobble as a safety vessel. Back then, Netta says proudly, they used engine grease rather than vaseline. You also had to avoid not only seals, jellyfish, and sailing boats, but the steam ferry too. Today the ship yards are closed down and the ferry long gone, but breast stroke swimmer Heather Miller never tires of the riverside views.

Scott Goodfellow, who grew up close to the pier where the swimmers head out, and used to peer through the windows of the old boat house as a child, wondering what on earth an Ancient could be, finally plucks up courage to join the members on a practise swim out in the harbour. Not for the fainthearted!

Presenter: Scott Goodfellow

Producer: Sara Jane Hall.