The 14-foot clinker-built dinghy has XIV on the stern, and it was sold to Paddy Prunty, ex Manager of Kinnego Marina on Lough Neagh, as a Ballyholme Insect class dinghy.
In 1953, Mantis was listed as number 14 in the BYC Regatta programme to a G Claney. Now she is lying in the Maghery Boat Restoration yard in the southwest corner of Lough Neagh, near the mouth of the River Blackwater, where Kieran Breen plans to start work on her by the end of the year.
(Above and below) The 14-foot clinker-built dinghy has XIV on the stern and is believed to be the Insect dinghy Mantis from Ballyholme Yacht Club on Belfast Lough
Ballyholme Yacht Club’s seventy-year-old Insect class dinghies, despite the Club trying to keep them in Ballyholme, have broken loose, and after the story in Afloat Restoring Ballyholme Yacht Club's 70-Year-Old Insect Dinghies, a few more have turned up.
I’m hearing of one in the Ulster Transport Museum near Holywood Co. Down, and others at Newtownards Sailing Club, in Belfast and near Strangford town on Strangford Lough, though these have all to be verified.
The Insect dinghy Mantis was bought for £50 and is now the subject of a restoration project
I have been told that Mantis had belonged for many years to Alan Hidden of East Down Yacht Club on Strangford Lough and subsequently that the Old Gaffers Association took care of it when Alan moved to England about 20 years ago.
Insect dinghies racing at Ballyholme in their hey-day with number 14 Mantis pictured left
The next known owner was Paddy Prunty, who said, “I bought the Insect for £50. It had been stored in a farm shed near Portadown for many years. I collected the vessel and moved it to Kinnego Marina. Before I retired seven years ago, I donated it to Maghery Boat restorers. I did not want to lose so much history from Bangor and Belfast Lough”. He continued, “The farmer had informed me it was an Insect class from Belfast Lough”.
The plan is to remove the white paint and restore the Insect dinghy Mantis to its bare varnished original finish
Kieran says it is only missing a mast and boom, and he plans to remove the white paint (which will be difficult on the inside) and restore it to its bare varnished original finish.
This Heritage Group members are all volunteers and have built Lough Neagh Cots, Currachs, Dorys, Eel fishing boats as well as restored old craft. And interestingly, Kieran has also brought a 200-year-old linen loom back to life.
