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Seachtain bháid bheag dubh

Five Day Experimental Currach Workshop
Monday 9th – Friday 13th June 2003

To be held at Chyvarloe, Porthleven, Cornwall, in connection with the Porthleven Basket Fair www.basketryandbeyond.org.uk with Holger Lönze (and hopefully the sailmaker Dave Buchanan)

The idea of the Seachtain bháid beag dubh is to build a traditional Bunbeg currach, develop new design ideas and subsequently apply traditional materials and skills in the building of these new designs.

The course is open to design students and to anyone who would like to participate in this exciting event. There will be about 8 places for students and 8 places for non students. Costs will be £100 for the week, with accommodation available (£50 for the week) and camping also possible on site. The course is free for FCA students (except for contribution to food and accommodation of c. £50). Chyvarloe is a National Trust property and offers workshop space and self-catering accommodation (two dormitories and two double rooms). It is situated on the coast above Loe Bar, an area of outstanding natural beauty, about twenty minutes walk along the sea to Porthleven (plenty of pubs and restaurants, large medieval fishing harbour). For bookings, please contact Hilary Burns 01803 553144, hilary@tiltfund.co.uk, for more information get in touch with Holger: 01326 213751 or holger.lonze@falmouth.ac.uk.

Description:
Participants will acquire making skills and apply these to new designs and ideas for boats and floating structures. The focus will be on basket making skills as applied to skin-boats (curachs and coracles), this being an important maritime tradition of the Western Seaboard of Europe, including the West of Britain. During the five day workshop at Chyvarloe, it is intended to reconstruct from archive photos a traditional skin boat of willow frame construction (a design from the Bunbeg area, Co. Donegal) in order to investigate and evaluate the techniques used in its construction, the application of sustainable materials, technical solutions required and its overall performance. In parallel, similar techniques and materials will be adapted by participants in constructing structures/objects to designs that have been drawn up on the first day. This five day workshop will include demonstrations and talks which will give the participants the opportunity to acquire, practice and develop basic techniques as well as to gain an understanding of the cultural and historic context of the products and methods used. It is intended that people will work in groups of up to three and that 4 to 5 boats/structures will be built.

The workshop fits within the wider debate and context of sustainable materials and contemporary crafts-design. It addresses the transfer of traditional crafts skills to their application in a contemporary design context. It is directly related to issues of material culture, sustainability and design processes. The participants will have the opportunity for contact with artists, makers and crafts practitioners also taking part in the Porthleven Basket Fair.

Schedule:

One or two currachs will be available for rowing and fishing trips during the week. Some films/videos around the subject will be shown and plenty of relevant literature will be available for reading.

Historical and folk-lore background:
The skin boat tradition is one principal root of European boat building, its origins go back at least to Mesolithic times. Their use once stretched from the circumpolar region down to the Mediterranean (Galicia) and some individual types developed in Iraq (quffah) and Tibet. Their distribution is now limited to the Western seaboard of Europe, mainly Ireland and Greenland.
The distribution of currachs on the Atlantic seaboard of Ireland stretches from the North coast down to the Dingle peninsular in the far southwest. The regional differences between the boats are astonishing, ranging from 8’, archaic and simply built currachs of the Bunbeg area to the sophisticated 25’ náomhóga of the Blasket Islands in Co. Kerry which is able to hold 2-3 tons of fish. These differences reflect the adaptation to their particular environment, needs of the users and availability of material. The keel-less and light currach, fragile but enormously seaworthy, is hence a beautiful symbol for the challenge of man to the overpowering ocean. For centuries it has been the economic, social and cultural centre point of the isolated communities of the far West. With great ingenuity, currachs were constructed from the cheapest materials (driftwood, flourbags, withies and tar pinched from the council…) with simple techniques, allowing their builders to sustain a living from them within a few days. Owing to this low key approach, currachs were never given names!

The Bunbeg currach has been developed for the use in long shallow areas of water on the North coast of Ireland and for swift launching from Donegal’s sandy beaches. The flat hull shape reflects this adaptation to the particular coastal environment and the keel-less construction adds to its great manoeuvrability at sea.

It is light enough to be carried to the water by one person, yet it is able to carry five or more people over the deep inlets (loughs) of the sea in this area. It can be rowed as well as sculled with a paddle over the front (a skill that will be fun for the participants to learn …). Like all currachs, it is very versatile, being used for long line and net fishing, transport of goods and people, or simply for leisure or the occasional cattle raid.

Archive photos of the later type of Bunbeg currach (c. 1950s)

Technical information:

While a later type of Bunbeg currach was built with wooden laths and a single gunwale frame, its early type was of much simpler construction. Some archive photos show the use of willow for the main structure of the body. Rods, possibly up to ¾” thick were inset in a single gunwale frame and paired with their opposite member.
To stiffen the structure, thinner ½” withies were introduced at each of these ribs and were woven into a stiff side wall, using French randing (see photos below). It is somewhat unclear from those archive photos, how the longitudinal stringers were connected to the ribs (tied?). This is one of the challenges of the workshop…
The gunwale frame is made of timber, possibly in 5 sections (stern, main gunwales, two shoulder pieces and a bow section) not unlike the later type. Simple lap joints were used and holes for the ribs drilled or burnt in with a small lump of turf. The frame is built first, the whole boat is built upside down. The cover was originally hide, but was replaced in the mid 19th century by canvas (flourbags) that was waterproofed with coal tar (we will use bitumen roof paint or pitch).

The cover is tacked onto the gunwale, partly darted. The dimensions are in the region of 8-9ft, c. 3ft width (beam), 2ft deep; it is light enough to be carried by one person (c. 30-40lbs). Propulsion is and was either by a single paddle over the front (with a figure of 8 motion) or a pair of rowing sticks.

Images of the scale model

Design considerations:
Although widely ignored by boat designers, the skin-boat offers a variety of advantages over other boat construction methods. It is extremely light, inexpensive (max. £150 for the material for a 17’ Dunfanaghy currach!), simple to build and versatile in use. No mooring is needed, it can be launched from inaccessible locations and hardly needs any maintenance.
Notably the materials used in its construction meet the challenge of sustainable design: nearly all materials are from abundant, sustainable resources, many can be recycled, it can be repaired very simply and is bio-degradable. The materials have low embodied energy and their appearance is æsthetically rather pleasing.

The starting point for new designs will be the material involved and their individual function: timber for the gunwale (structural strength), coppiced hazel and willow (creating volume, space) and tarred or pitched canvas (waterproofing). The combination of the materials leads to a rigid but very light vessel.

As far as the design is concerned, anything goes that swims, floats, carries 1 to 16 people and is made using the materials provided. Given the limitation of materials, size should be restricted to max. 10ft length. The designs should reflect the philosophy of the currach: cheap, found and recycled materials assembled in short time with simple techniques and a minimum of technology. Please start developing some ideas for new designs in advance of the workshop and bring them with you, so we are able to work out of a pool of ideas on the first day and make a swift start. It is intended to bring the sail maker Dave Buchanan in at this stage to assist with the development of designs and to give advice on the making process.

References and Literature:
Hornell, James; British Coracles and Irish Curraghs, London, 1938
MacCullagh, Richard; The Irish Currach Folk, , 1993
Hogan, Joe; Basketmaking in Ireland, Dublin, Dublin, 2002
McGrail, Seán; Ancient Boats in N.W. Europe, London, Longman, 1987 http://www.mmara.com/history.html http://www.geodesicairoliteboats.com/
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.sauvarin/Home1.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/christopher.sauvarin/Bernd_Unstaedt1.html

What to bring:
Some design ideas, details, sketches, etc. old bedsheets, tea towels, old tarpaulin, socks etc. for the covering basic tools: hammer, saw, secateurs, knife, scissors, string (ideally marlin twine) working clothes, waterproofs, walking boots If you have any, please bring a life jacket (in case of any design flaws…), odd pieces of wood (up to c. 6-7ft in length) and a sewing machine. Materials such as willow, hazel, some timber, nails and pitch will be provided.

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