For the first time, the Coracle Society was invited to organise a coracle build during the annual Islay Festival of the Sea during the weekend of 3rd-4th August 2013.
This beautiful little island lies off the west coast of Scotland, part of the southern Hebrides and about a two hour ferry trip from the mainland of Argyle and Bute. Its main claim to fame is being used as a stop off point for St. Columba on the journey in his currach to Iona in the sixth century AD, though it’s also known for its eight working world class single malt whisky producing distilleries and an international whisky festival.
Chris Morgan and Dave Purvis decided to accept the challenge and organised all the materials and tools to take to carry out the build. We thought it would be appropriate to take our recently completed currach so we could experience the sea conditions off the west coast. We travelled up in fine sunny weather through the stunning Loch Lomond and west coast scenery.
Our brief was that we could only run the class to build five coracles over a day and a half. Starting on Friday afternoon we had to have them all on the water by 4pm on the Saturday to fit in with the festival programme - a tight schedule, but we thought we were up for it!
We had planned to build five Cleddau coracles, just to be a little different from the normal boats we usually build, and the design allowed for more speed in the construction.
Our squad arrived more or less on time, considering the more “laid back” approach most rural people have towards timekeeping. The class was from a variety of backgrounds - a Joinery contractor (with just about every tool you could imagine), a forestry worker, a gamekeeper, a farmer-cum-hotelier and a student and his younger brother whom he was babysitting.
Conscious of the fact we had to be finished and everything packed away by 7pm everyone put their backs into the job in hand, despite the constant disruptions from a wondrous audience of sightseers. However on the stroke of seven all five frames were finished and screwed down to baseboards to set overnight.
One unexpected bonus for Chris and Dave was to discover a Sheephaven currach, which had been built there during the previous sea festival by the iconic Donal MacPolin, who was a friend of one of the Festival organisers. We were very pleased that we had brought our own currach and would have the opportunity to sail both of them over the weekend.
Saturday morning came around all too quickly, but everyone cracked on to get the coracles finished off with their calico coverings. By using bitumen emulsion were able to give each three coats, before testing them out in the bay before the 4pm deadline - all passed with flying colours, the launch being witnessed by a large festival crowd with both currachs on the water as safety boats.
After a practice paddle everyone were very pleased with their efforts and had enjoyed the experience. The Society has been invited back next year to run a build in the local school – if anyone’s interested in participating in this, let us know!
Dave Purvis
