Saturday 13th August 2022 saw Dunbar's annual Sparkling Dunbar Pirate Festival.

To celebrate the event it was decided to attempt a record breaking build when two new Dunbar coracles would be made from scratch, fully fitted out, and launched and sailed all in one day !

Impossible they said, can't be done they said, who thought that one up they said...

The job seemed to be doomed to failure until the ever resourceful Captain "Mauler" Maule had a brain spasm -" dump it on Coracle Dave's lap and let him pick the bones out of that one - he is yer man for the job, and daft enough to give it a go!"

And the rest now is history as they would say.

Never missing the opportunity to get dressed up, coracle accepted the commission and slurped into action.

First job was for him to select a suitable pirate disguise to cover his Batman playsuit so he would blend in the the rest of the scurvey Dunbar rum- swilling bilge rats,

Next-handpick his crew; turned out to be two from Dunbar's Mans Shed .and a laddie and lassie from Dunbar's Sea Cadets, and the project was " bankrolled " by Dunbar Harbour Trust, so they would get first pick of the spoils at the end of the day (a shrewd move Cap'n Maule)

Fast forward to 9.30am on the morning of the 13th, coracle and crew hit the ground running (OK - maybe walking briskly then!) and not a bacon butty or mug of steaming tea in prospect, the decision was taken to make a start until the promised Caribbean pizzas arrived at lunchtime.

After much banging, sawing, sanding, bending, grunting, drilling, and clenching of nails and buttocks, by the said lunchtime, two unlikely looking craft were beginning to emerge from the seemingly organised chaos,and local visitors changed their chant from "wat are yer doin" to "OOOH look, I think it is some kind of boatey thingys they are doing?"

Several pizzas and an ice cream later, we cracked on and with  several good hearted locals who offered to help us get finished and clear up the site, we had reached our objective of not only one,but two one-day coracles being completed.

Finished indeed,and fully fitted out, and launched on their maiden voyages by a squadron from Dunbar Sea Cadets at 4pm all on the same day, I wonder if anyone amongst the coracle fraternity have done that before in under 8 hours? (answers on a £5 note please)

Unfortunately we do not seem to have made the Guinness Book of Records, but I certainly did enjoy the two bottles of draft Guinness when I got home that night,and slept like a babe-and maybe I will take my pirate suit off in the morning?

Once again,my personal thanks to Capn. Maule and Barnacle Bob for inviting me back to this wonderful Harbour Town just south of Edinburgh ,and to all the brilliant people who helped out,and those who expressed a lot of interest in what we were trying to do,and the many visitors we had to our stand on the day and their questions - most of which we had heard before and of course the hardworking Yvonne and her team for organising the festival events over the year - many thanks.

Dave Purvis