Classic clinker-built wooden dinghies can mean a lot of maintenance work as they mature. Betty Armstrong's recent stories on Afloat.ie of restoration projects on some of the almost-forgotten 14ft Ballyholme Insects in the North, will have been an evocative reminder for many of the grim end-of-season discovery that it's going to be a busy winter if you're in the vintage clinker club, and wish to continue sailing a boat whose interior seems to be a complex mosaic of deterioration-attracting timber rectangles set under many ribs, all of which appear keen to join the rot rotation.
Thus it's little wonder that the advent of edge-glued rib-free clinker construction - as seen in the Rankin dinghies from Cobh - was regarded as a glimpse of the promised land. But barely had they started to make an impact before glassfibre appeared to take centre stage. Yet now classic fully-ribbed clinker-built dinghies - some of remarkable vintage - are on tops for a certain discerning cohort of sailors. And if you're vulgar enough to demand why they take an interest in such an arcane and not exactly inexpensive branch of sailing, the answer might well be the equally blunt: "Because I can".
Masterpiece in the making - an early stage in the creation of the two latest Dublin Bay Water Wags by Rui Ferreira in Ballydehob. Photo: Rui Ferreira
The hull shell is finished and awaiting the installation of ribs - many ribs....Photo: Rui Ferreira
The rib-installation programme is well advanced, with painstaking attention to detail and a continuous policy of cleanliness. Photo: Rui Ferreira
SOOTHING ATMOSPHERE OF CLASSIC BOAT-BUILDING
But that said, there's something extraordinarily satisfying about witnessing a master craftsman restoring or new-building a clinker boat - particularly if you've ever tried doing it yourself, to learn from frustration just how difficult can be this skill which they seem to make almost easy. And the very aroma of a good wood workshop is reassuring in itself too, as it's bred into us. For once upon a time a very long time ago, an affinity for wood and working with it was an essential survival mechanism. If your remote potential ancestor took against wood for some weird personal reason, then there's no way they were going to thrive sufficiently to actually become your ancestor.
Rib programme is now complete, and the centreboard case has been installed, but there's still much work to be done. Photo: Rui Ferreira
So today, when everyone needs something soothing to fortify them for the challenges of Cheltenham, the pace of Patricks Day, and the exquisite agony of anticipating the England rugby match followed by Mother's Day, we publish a calming image from Athlone, where Dougal McMahon is putting new ribs into the Alan & DJ Algeo's Shannon One Design wth a clean style that puts to shame anyone who has tried to short-cut by doubling-up on fractured timbers.
We also have images from Rui Ferreira in Ballydehob, where he has two new Water Wags for Dublin Bay under construction to such a standard that, really, they should be consigned straight to an up-market artworks auction. And finally, from Dun Laoghaire we have a photo of the multi-boat sailor Sean Craig's recently-acquired Water Wag, Brittany-built in 2022 by Skol Ar Mor's latest offshoot, a maritime and boat-building school in St Nazaire.
A good idea of the amount of work in fully finishing a Water Wag can be gleaned from this glimpse of Sean Craig's new Brittany-built boat. Photo: Sean Craig
