Sink or float?
Had great fun last week at the launching of a couple of Currachs. A currach is a traditionally built wooden framed Irish boat, usually covered in canvas nowadays although animal skins or hide were used in the past.
When I say launch, I mean literally:
That was the smaller of the two, a Boyne Currach, sometimes referred to as a Coracle. They are paddled from the front with an action I can only describe as similar to stirring a giant pot of paint:
The larger Owey Island Currach was a bit heavier so had a slightly more sedate launch. The moment of truth as it entered the water:
The boats were built by students at the Crawford College of Art & Design under the guidance of the good folks at Meitheal Mara and in particular Pádraig Ó Duinnín. Meitheal Mara (ma-hal ma-ra) translates roughly as Workers of the Sea, and is an organisation that build boats in the traditional way and also trains people to do the same.
Will it might have made an interesting image if one or the other had sunk on it’s maiden voyage, I’m glad to report neither did:
The only danger in sinking would have been from filling up with the incessant rain that we had that day.
TTFN
