Downstrands Boat Building Project Open Day this Saturday

The art of wooden boat building is being revived in Portnoo. The traditional skills are being kept alive in the community as part of a Downstrands Family Resource Centre boat building project based at the old AOH Hall in Kilclooney. The Rosbeg and Portnoo Community Boat-building Workshop got underway in October with 15 men from south west Donegal meeting together, passing on their skills and learning from each other.

The Rosbeg and Portnoo Boat Building Workshop is holding its open day and launch this Saturday, December 10th, from 11am to 1pm. Visitors can come along and see the seven 17ft wooden boats in progress, talk to the boat builders and get an insight into the traditional art of building a wooden boat.

The three workshop leaders are all skilled boat builders from the community who are giving their time to pass on their knowledge and expertise to a new generation. “There is a skill in building a wooden boat and that will be lost if we don’t keep it going,” said Patsy Harkin from Rosbeg, one of the Workshop Leaders. Pasty built his last wooden boat in the 1980’s with his father Packie Harkin. Patsy kept meticulous hand-written notes on how to construct a 17ft boat and it is these notes and measurements that are being used as a blueprint to build the new boats.

Today’s boat builders - Patrick Harkin, Shane McLoone, Declan McLoone, George Adair, Daniel Johnston, Patrick Johnston, Pat Conlon, Ronan O’Muruchu, William Gallagher, Paul Brennan, John Carr and Joe Butler- are working in teams to construct the red deal, larch and oak boats. It is anticipated that the boats will be complete by Easter 2012 in time to celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the AOH hall in Kilclooney