Category: Working boats

An ancient Irish skin boat engraving to hang on your wall

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Ancient Irish skin boat engraving - ancestor of the curragh

Ancient Irish skin boat engraving - ancestor of the curragh

Engraving of ancient Irish skin boat based on a model in the Broyghter hoard, and a drawing in the Pepysian Library

All this talk of curraghs inspired by Jim Van Den Bos’s holiday photos from Ireland has reminded me that I have a lovely old book that includes an engraving of an ancient Irish skin boat that would be well worth hanging on a convenient wall or setting as screensaver – so here it is for your entertainment!

The smaller image provides some explanations, but the mast is made of a tree that has been incompletely trimmed, and the square object near the bows is an early anchor. The author reports that the sail was probably made of skin, but I have difficulty imagining how sailors of the time would have been able to manage with such a heavy sail – particularly if their boat had the same round sections we see in today’s curraghs.

For more posts on curraghs:
Irish curragh skin fishing boats on the Dingle Peninsula
The curraghs of Ireland
Some curragh photos

Irish curragh skin fishing boats on the Dingle Peninsula

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Irish curragh fishing sikin boats on the Dingle Peninsula

Irish curragh fishing skin boats on the Dingle Peninsula Irish curragh fishing skin boats on the Dingle Peninsula

The legendary Irish curragh skin boat is still used for fishing and racing on the remote and beautiful Dingle Peninsula

My good friends Jim and Eileen Van Den Bos recently visited Eileen’s family in Ireland, and along the way Jim managed to bag these photos showing important details of modern curraghs.

There are some features to notice here: the traditional square-section, non-feathering oars are still clearly in use for auxiliary power, but the boats have outboard wells in what is otherwise very much the hull form you see in old photos and books. Also, these are long, narrow hulls with very round sections, and they also have no skeg and no more than a very slight rubbing strake. These features will allow seas to slide under the hull rather than throw it around, and their low wetted area will also contribute to these boats’ speed under oars or outboard. I’ve several times heard these boats described as canoes, although they’re not really paddling boats.

I’d guess that on such an exposed Atlantic coast these are exactly the characteristics that have enabled this amazing ancient boat type to survive into the 21st Century.

I’m also struck that there may be a suggestion that these boats may have a Continue reading “Irish curragh skin fishing boats on the Dingle Peninsula”

Some photos from a short sailing cruise on the Swale

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Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - Dolphin at Queenborough

Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - Bonita Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - a sweet vee-bottomed sailing dayboat Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - mystery boat

Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - sweet vee-botttom sailing dayboat Some photos from a short light wind cruise up the Swale - Whippet motorsails by

Various views from a short sailing cruise up the Swale

I thought that intheboatshed.net readers might be entertained by a collection of photos we took on a recent trip short trip up the Swale to Queenborough. I had hoped to travel further from Faversham but the winds on the way out were too light to enable us to sail far (we generally need a F3 to plug the tide here), and I regard the outboard as an unpleasant if sometimes necessary evil.

The Swale is an interesting and varied cruising ground for a small boat. The western end of the Swale is a curious place, seething with wildlife apparently living cheek-by-jowl with the Medway’s industrial landscape, while down towards the sea Continue reading “Some photos from a short sailing cruise on the Swale”