He brought new life afloat and ashore. And there was and is so much in the story of the late Mick Hunt “of Howth and Connacht” that thousands of words could be written about him. Yet we can get a more focused flavour of the man simply by concentrating on his restoration projects. And the most visible of these were traditional and classic boats, of which we’ll feature just three.
But before going into his ventures afloat, it must be acknowledged that he brought a completely fresh existence to many vintage vehicles, partly through his interests as a haulier. And the Hunt restoration, of which most people are aware is the exceptionally comfortable and warm living space that he and Elaine made of their family home and business hub on the waterfront in Howth.
Way back in the early 1880s, this property had been the rented residence of John Butler Yeats and his family. A reasonably successful barrister with artistic talent, Yeats Snr more or less deliberately impoverished himself so that he could live the “real” life of his desired vocation of being a portrait-painter in the making. It might have been admirable enough, were it not for the fact that his young yet already promising family became impoverished with him.
Howth waterfront in the late 19th Century, with the “cold and damp” Yeats house at centre
Howth waterfront as it is today, with the former Yeats house – now the Hunt house - immediately above the left hand edge of the Howth Yacht Club “regatta roof”. Photo: HYC
He moved them to a couple of addresses out in Howth. But while other houses in the village may have plaques claiming that the Yeats family lived there, it was in one of those two tall narrow houses in under the cliff on the old harbour waterfront that they were to spend most of their two or three years on the peninsula.
And though the emerging poet William Butler Yeats and his artist brother Jack were soon able to escape, their two younger sisters Susan and Elizabeth - known to all as Lily and Lolly, and later the founders of the Cuala Press of Celtic Revival significance – were condemned to remain in these inhospitable surroundings until they were of an age to find alternative solutions.
The house remained a byword for damp and cold into the late 20th Century through various occupancies. But when the Hunt family moved in with several imaginative alterations and skilled building projects, they were able to seal off the wet cliff and overcome the seemingly dead-end location, thereby transforming the place. In some ways, their achievements were an inspiration for the continuing complete up-grading of the Howth waterfront and the development of the harbour.
Getting on with the job – Mick Hunt at work in the open on An Lady Mor on Howth pier in 1985. Photo: W M Nixon
Meanwhile, wherever space could be found – usually on the nib at the end of Howth’s East Pier – Mick would have some boat restoration project under way. He closely followed his brother-in-law Johnny Healion in pioneering the revival of the Galway Hookers in the early 1970s, and it says much about the respect in which their work was held that West Coast accounts of the Hooker renewal movement make a point of acknowledging Johnny’s special input.
Launching the restored An Lady Mor at Howth in 1985. Photo: W M Nixon
The main man. A recent photo of Mick Hunt with the inevitable cheroot. Photo: Tony Brown
Praise from such a source for an East Coast sailor is praise indeed, and Mick Hunt is usually included in the words of goodwill, as he was to make his mark with the restoration in Howth of the big Connemara boat An Lady Mor.
He and Johnny and their shipmates made a notable voyage-in-company to The Netherlands, where the inspiration of their characterful vessels was to be reflected in the Dutch building of some Galway-style boats in steel. The coast of Spain also came within the ambit of the Healion-Hunt voyaging ambitions, but it was with a different kind of boat that Mick Hunt made an impact in Iberia.
He’d become interested in the Manx Nobbies. Distinctive double-ended fishing boats from the Isle of Man, several of them had ended up based in Ardglass on the County Down coast, and inevitably project-minded people like Mick Hunt wondered how best they could be used in their post-fishing lives.
Thus he took on the Vervine Blossom, and while he faithfully restored the hull in its original form, the robust gaff ketch rig he fitted was a world away from the labour-intensive standing or dipping lug that had originally done the business in the vessel’s working days. Yet in taking Vervine Blossom to Vigo in Northwest Spain in 1998 in order to race back again – often to windward - towards Dublin in the small class in the year’s Tall Ships’ Race, he demonstrated that he’d created a rig that was both picturesque and effective.
Although the G L Watson & Co designed Earraid was seen by most as a mainly motorized Scottish MFV motor-sailer, Mick Hunt sailed her whenever possible
Mick was one of those people who seemed to have heightened vision and a sixth sense when he was anywhere in the neighbourhood of a potential boat restoration project, and one day while driving through Holyhead he briefly sensed an interesting boat, or perhaps it was no more than a glimpse of an interesting part of a boat with potential.
Earraid was this and more. Design by the historic firm of G L Watson and built in 1948, she was still varnished, though only just, But the prospect of sheer hard work never bothered Mick Hunt, and when this classic little Scottish MFV-type motor-sailer re-emerged after the Hunt treatment in 2003, she was a real eye-catcher.
While officially a motor-sailer, the emphasis was very much on the motor. Yet Mick was so determined to emphasise her sailing ability that one day we went right across Dublin Bay under sail to join an Old Gaffers Rally in Dun Laoghaire, and he brought her into port under sail while he was at it.
Keeping the spirit. Earraid with a Heard cutter in a DBOGA event at Howth
He was the sort of person who liked to quickly convert thought into action. Having decided on how to do a job of work, he simply went at it instead of wasting time in contemplating alternative ways of doing the task. He needed projects. At the end of his days at the age of 83, his friend Ian Sargent says that despite increasing frailty and stiffness of movement, he was seriously contemplating taking on the restoration of a very tired Mermaid 17ft clinker-built sailing dinghy which he’d heard of in Clontarf. That was the way it was with Mick Hunt. He is much missed.
WMN
