If you were to bring together even half of the boats built with the involvement of the late great George Bushe of Crosshaven, you'd have the makings of a fascinating maritime museum. The master boatbuilder – whose skills live on nationally and internationally in his sons Mark and Killian – was game for any challenge, whether it was of complex boat engineering, or a world-class yacht finish. And if it came to the pinch, he was more than capable of turning his hand to boat design as well.

It says everything about the quality of George's work that he is still remembered for building a boat too well. In the mid 1950s, he was commissioned to provide one of only two International Dragons ever constructed in Ireland, in this case Melisande for ace Cork Harbour helm Joe FitzGerald.

With Melisande finished and looking exquisite, the Class Surveyor was brought over from Scandinavia to certify her as a true International Dragon. But she was rejected. It seems that George had rounded off the edges of all the bent timbers within the hull when apparently the Dragon small-print rules – in a throwback to the class's origins as an inexpensive weekend cruiser – insisted that the timbers be left basic finish, with angled edges and no fancy smoothing off.

It was quite a challenge to re-frame Melisande without damaging her superbly-finished hull, and by the time she was finally certified as a Dragon, the overall cost was well north of the economy package which had been the thinking at the class's origin in 1929.

The traditional Crosshaven Boatyard setup of camping out in the main boatshed, complete with a small shed shed for your own gear, the spars newly varnished, and a mysterious old boat lurking alongside with a magical little transom that suggests serious ambitions in rowing races. Photo: Darryl Hughes

But getting it right was one of the many challenges George took in his stride. Another was the very Corkonian one of a local dinghy sailor ordering a new Bushe-built IDRA 14, with the deal only being finalised and the boat accepted if she had won the up-coming IDRA Nationals on Lough Derg. The word is George built the boat as the ultimate IDRA 14 of that year's crop, and then raced her himself to victory on Lough Derg, with a done deal following immediately afterwards.

With such a talent - whether ashore in the building shed or out on the racecourse – you'd think any way at all of linking a boat to George Bushe is something special. So it has been something of a wonder that in Crosshaven Boatyard, where he has been re-fitting his 1938 43ft Tyrrell classic gaff ketch Maybird, that noted mover and shaker Darryl Hughes has managed to find a very special George Bushe boat called Lorelei of early 1950s vintage, a boat which had more or less slipped away under the radar.

All is revealed as Lorelei is turned for the first time in years – this was George Bushe's 1953 take on a serious racing skiff. Photo: Darryl Hughes  

He'd become curious about a 30ft long and very slim four-oared classic rowing skiff, dusty and hidden in the shed against the wall beside a space where he'd found some room to do the usual wellnigh perfect varnish work on Maybird's already many spars, which seem to double in number whenever varnishing time comes around.

In Crosshaven, where boats are involved, you approach such mysteries as this sidelined skiff with care and diplomacy, and it has been doubly difficult with the pubs being shut. However, eventually, it was revealed that the last known owners were the now non-functional Crosshaven Rowing Club. But the boat hadn't been used for at least twenty years, and if rowing does revive on the Owenabue River, it will more likely be with more modern design concepts which emerged from hotbeds of design development such as the Ron Holland Office.

The old hidden boat was built to race with a class of similar skiffs which were very active up in Cork City at the time, based around Marina. In her day, she must have been quite the hot property, as George incorporated lots of weight-saving techniques such as notably wide plywood planking which was edge-glued, while the reinforcing hull timbers are of minimal size. And as each rowlock had its own reinforced bracket external to the hull, he didn't feel the need to reinforce the entire gunwhale with further weight other than using a slightly heavier gauge of marine ply as the top strake.

Seen from ahead, the lightness of construction is evident, yet there is no sign of it having been too light. Photo: Darryl Hughes  

This makes you think that the boat must have wriggled along when they were rowing at full power, but the fact that after nearly 70 years, the hull is still in basically good order seems to indicate that George got it right.

After her period up at Marina, she was acquired by the expanding Crosshaven Rowing Club, but for at least two decades, she had become out-of-sight and out-of-mind in this hidden corner of the boatyard until Darryl came poking around.

As it's a time of change at Crosshaven Boatyard, he reckoned that the occasion was ripe for this remarkable boat to find a viable new home and guaranteed future. So having contacted the surviving members of the CRC and Mark Bushe, permission was given for Barry Saunders and the Stella Maris Rowing Club in Ringsend in Dublin to take her over, and now this remarkable craft has a new home on the banks of the Liffey, with her first appearance afloat under the new custodianship a keenly-anticipated event.

Changed circumstances – Lorelei in her new home at the Stella Maris Club in Ringsend, her slim lines much in evidence in her first appearance in sunshine in 20 years. Photo: Barry Saunders

Yet what, you might well ask, has all this to do with Tinseltown's blonde bombshell Marilyn Monroe? Well, the mystery skiff is very clearly named Lorelei. So it could well be that her early crews were enthusiasts for Germanic mythology and its influence on Wagnerian and other operas through the story of Lorelei, the doomed Rhine maiden.

There's no doubting the boat's name, but why was she so-called? Photo: Darryl Hughes

But the smart money bets otherwise. It doesn't see lusty rowing crews as being into opera, notwithstanding the importance of the Cork Opera House. However, at the time Lorelei was built, one of the great new box office movie hits was the musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, starring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Monroe was on top form as the showgirl Lorelei, she was at her best, and of course if a crewman's missus or girl-friend threw a frost over the boat being name after a Hollywood pin-up, the advantage of a rowing club is that you could say it was nothing to do with you personally, but everyone else seemed to want it……

Whatever, it gives us an opportunity to draw your attention to a YouTube clip which dates from a time when movies were supposed to be totally entertaining, songs were expected to be witty and tuneful, and musicals required a mind-boggling level of choreography: