The older boats were holding their own at Féile an Dóilín, Ireland's oldest Galway hooker festival, writes LORNA SIGGINS
WHEN Brazilian round- the-world skipper Torben Grael joined Green Dragon'sIan Walker and Fernando Echávarri of Telefonica Blackon board a bád mór in Galway Bay two months ago, it probably did as much for the traditional boat movement as Jack B Yeats's paintings and Richard Murphy's epic verse.
The trio basked in the sunshine as the American Mór, owned by Dermot O'Flatharta, competed in a hooker regatta for the Volvo Ocean race stopover. And, for young skippers such as O'Flatharta, whose late uncle Tom originally owned the 1884-built vessel, hooker racing is to south Connemara what Cowes week is to the Isle of Wight, minus the deck shoes and blazers.
Sean MacDonncha, schoolteacher and owner of the leath-bhád Norah, says that a grant scheme awarded by Údarás na Gaeltachta and administered by the Galway Hooker Association (GHA) has generated enormous interest among a new generation of young skippers, including his daughter.
“There were maybe three boats sailing when we started féile an Dóilin back in 1977,” says fellow skipper John Darba O’Flatharta, owner of the gleoiteog Caroline Ann. “We had 35 boats here two years ago and there are about 60 boats sailing in all classes.”
In a new departure for the féile in An Cheathrú Rua at the weekend, there was racing for the relatively contemporary and very fibreglass Flying Fifteen dinghies. “Someone began sailing these beyond in Sruthán and next thing we had a fleet of them and a club. It seemed only sensible to include them,” says the festival’s press officer, TG4 journalist Rónán Mac Con Iomaire. He is aware that some traditional-craft purists might regard this as a slightly heretical move.
On Saturday, southerly gales forced the cancellation of the first day’s contest, including match racing, which the féile organisers introduced three years ago. The “rás bád le bád” has become one of the regatta highlights, and may be rescheduled for this week if the weather permits.
Conditions yesterday in Greatman’s Bay were fresher than forecast, with gathering cloud shrouding the Twelve Bens and Maamturks to the north. For the spectators waiting for a late start, there was much to provide distraction on Trá an Dóilin, where trillions of pieces of coral have colonised the beach. “Wonderful, luminous” was how currach-builder Padraig Ó Duinnín of Meitheal Mara described the strand. He was here to research the next few episodes of his maritime television series for TG4. Up near the lifeguard hut, artist James G Miles was setting out his framed impressions of hooker sailing, using his van doors as a “gallery” and a Kilkeel fish box to hold unframed works.
Féile an Dóilín has billed itself as the State's largest and oldest Galway hooker festival. An Cheathrú Rua was one of last ports to support the fleet of turf traders who plied the coast in the 19th and early 20th centuries, which, in turn, supported a network of boatwrights, carpenters and blacksmiths. In 1978 in An Cheathrú Rua the Galway Hooker Association was founded, two years after Dubliner Johnny Healion made history by returning a restored bád mór, Morning Star, to the west in time for the St MacDara festival of 1976.
There are four different classes of hooker: the bád mór (big boat), 10.5-13.5m in length); the leath-bhád (half boat), 8.5-10.5m; and the gleoiteog and pucán, which are roughly the same size at 7-8.5m. All four classes set out yesterday afternoon from Caladh Thadhg, with a course set off Trá an Dóilín.
Among the fleet was the Capall, crewed by the sons of the late Johnny Bailey, one of the last of the trading hooker skippers. As the only boat entered with calico sails, it benefited from a handicap system that takes into account the individual characteristics of the many vessels. Character is key, for each boat has its own story to tell, as recorded by the late maritime historian Richard Scott. Significantly, it is the older craft that still hold their own in races, as John Darba O'Flatharta point out.
“The boats are better geared than ever, given that some trading skippers once had to rely on straw ropes,” O’Flatharta says. “The racing keeps it alive, there’s no doubt. There was a move a few years ago to use more sail, but the older owners knew what they were doing when they used less. The boats were safer, faster, because they had better trim.”
For details on September’s weekend, see www.doilin.com
