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Big Boat Build

An Account by a Workshop Participant
by Eugene Pratt

The journey by road to Baltimore is a delight – full of distractions from the foreboding which normally follows my initial euphoria when I sign up for something new in a rush of enthusiasm. The Big Boat Build project is fascinating – an historic Irish ketch, with geographic and biographical links with many parts of Munster and abroad; Ireland’s last wooden boatbuilding yard of substance; the opportunity to learn traditional skills; a week in West Cork. But would I fit in with the other participants who would probably be vastly experienced sailing types or master craftsmen broadening their skill-set?

The Old Court Inn, adjacent to the boatyard workshop location, provided a warm welcome to participants as they checked in for the week-long stay. There were, as I feared, some experienced crafts people of varying ages and backgrounds, but also some youthful novices, and in the course of that first evening I realised that everyone belonged.

Our reasons for being there varied, but a common thread ran through us all – something to do with sustaining endangered values, represented by the refitting of this traditional vessel. There was a possibility that this noble thought arose from the generous measures of West Cork hospitality, enjoyed during that introductory evening, but I can confirm that by the week’s end this view was sustained.

The week’s programme promised sessions on wooden boat construction, taking patterns and shaping moulds, marking up and shaping new floor and frame timbers, as well as removing of frames/floors for renewal and fastening refurbished and new frames and floors.

The work was to be done under the supervision of experienced shipwrights from Hegarty’s Boatyard and others. The beauty of the informal nature of the workshops was that each participant contributed in whichever way they felt most competent. Specific tasks fell to those who were most willing to take them on, and in this way everyone played their full part – the definition of job satisfaction! Among the week’s highlights for me were Brother Anthony’s introductory talk on the characteristics of oak, watching the professional boat builders patiently talk us through different stages of the refitting, the tea breaks infused with lilting West Cork conversation, the aroma of freshly cut wood and the evenings spent around Old Court and Baltimore enjoying the produce of the Atlantic.

With body and mind exercised and refreshed, the road from Baltimore seems very different now, and why wouldn’t it – I’d contributed to its heritage and would surely be back to do so again.

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