Back home to Topsham

Soon after I caught the train, Dave set sail from Falmouth on his own. The wind was still blowing NE Force 5, dead on the nose. The sea was pretty choppy leaving Falmouth but after 10 miles, both the wind and sea started to moderate, with less water coming over the deck. Instead of heading into Plymouth, 35 miles away, Dave decided to carry on. He passed outside the Eddystone Lighthouse, by which time the sea had calmed right down to a F3.
He reached Start Point around nine in the evening and had a good passage around the headland in calm seas with less than half a metre swell. He arrived at Brixham just after midnight and moored up for some sleep.
In the morning, Andy Voysey and his son Jamie joined David for the last leg home. The wind was still on the nose but only F2-3 and the sun was shining so they had an enjoyable trip back to the Exe, with Jamie on the helm most of the way. They went as far as Topsham, watched the start of the raft race across the river, then picked up the mooring and went for refreshments at Turf.


Since the boys didn't take any pictures, here's my Mum and sister after finishing the half marathon in Nottingham. Well done both of you!



The ‘Ros Ailither’ now has her sail covers back on and looks as if she’s been there all summer. In fact we have traveled 1,490 nautical miles at an average speed of 5.6 knots. We have thoroughly enjoyed the trip despite the inclement weather, especially meeting up with all the people from Ros Ailither’s past and discovering bits of her history. Thanks for giving us a good welcome in Ireland!
There are no more trips planned at present but we hope to be reviving ‘trawlertravels’ sometime in 2010.

Around Land's End

Ted Davenport joined the crew in Bideford. We had an evening meal ashore with the French crew on ‘Ambrym’ next to us, and even persuaded them to relive their youth on the bumper cars at the funfair! The next morning, we were very nearly ‘neaped’ on the mud but Dave got us off with a bit of oomph from Mr Gardner (the engine!). We headed out over Bideford Bar, where an impressive swell was rolling in, and headed for Hartland Point.



Ted was put straight to work hoisting the sails and we were soon cruising along at 6 knots. This increased to 10 knots as the tide swept us around Hartland Point, kicking up messy seas, but once away from the headland, the sea settled down again. We had a good Force 5 from behind so poled out the staysail and goosewinged our way down the north coast towards Lands End. There was barely a cloud in the sky and it felt great to have the wind in our favour for a change.



We dined on chicken curry before watching the sun go down, still not a cloud in the sky. This was our first overnight trip since arriving in Ireland and we were expecting the seas to pick up around Cape Cornwall. As it turned out, the wind dropped a little and we had a lovely sail around Lands End with a clear starry moonlit sky. There were plenty of lights on land, flashing buoys at sea and lighthouses to identify and a constant stream of ships passing in the distance.



We decided to carry on around the Lizard while the going was good and passed it three miles offshore with a ship either side of us heading in the opposite direction. From that point on, we lost the shelter of the land and the wind soon picked up to a force 5 gusting 6 from the NE - right on the nose! Our speed dropped to under 4 knots as the gusts kept stopping us dead so we decided to take the easy option and head in to Falmouth.

It is typical that we have been fighting westerly winds all the way to Ireland and now that we need them, we are faced with strong easterlies for the next few days! At least we have the sunshine…

Ted set off home soon after we anchored up, filled up with pasty, beer and lots of ideas for his forthcoming novel. We caught up on a bit of sleep before meeting local friends Graham & Heather in the Chain Locker pub, along with Ed & Maria, who happen to be holidaying in St Mawes! Sadly, our friends have to work today but we have spent the day relaxing in the sun with the Twittons, Archie and the bump.





I will be abandoning ship tomorrow to watch my sister run the half marathon in Nottingham, so it’s up to Dave whether to wait for better weather or bash through the seas back to Topsham.

Last leg in Ireland

Arklow harbour

The harbourmaster in Arklow recognized the boat straightaway and said ‘It’s a good few years since she fished from here’. He gave us a berth in the fishing harbour, which suited us just fine. We were right opposite the old Tyrrell’s Boatyard, which built many of the Ros fleet in the 50’s and 60’s, and Dave couldn’t resist the temptation to go and look around. This boatyard has now passed into different hands and is now mainly reduced to decommissioning these fishing boats.



There was a lovely looking black trawler, a similar size to ours, in the process of being decommissioned. The hull was in perfect condition as the owner had looked after the boat, keeping it on a mooring all its life but the deck, superstructure and bulkheads had all been ripped out. Even in this state, the boatyard were not allowed to sell her, despite her being unfit for fishing. Under the current rules for decommissioning, they have to chop up the whole boat, including the keel and provide a photo of every stage of the process. A 65-footer was still floating but reduced to a similar condition. It is a real shame as these boats will never be built again and there are plenty of ‘madmen’ like Dave willing to convert them for pleasure.




We had a visit from a fisherman, Dermot Green, who had seen us arrive and taken pictures. When he saw the name of the boat, he had to come and introduce himself as he had been on board in the 60’s. The ‘Ros Ailither’ was apparently the first boat to commercially fish for crab in Ireland and the BIM (Irish Fisheries Board) had provided the ‘Ros Ailither’ to the owner for this purpose. On the weekend of the Great Train Robbery in 1963, they were taking the boat from Baltimore up the west coast towards Killybegs when the engine blew up, throwing a piston through the bows. They had to wait 14 hours for the lifeboat to come out and pull them in to Valentia. Dermot didn’t hear what subsequently happened as he joined another boat, but he thinks the owner (James Haydn) was given another boat to crab with. Presumably the BIM fitted the ‘Ros Ailither’ with a new engine before she went to fish from the Aran Islands.

The south of the east coast of Ireland has a large number of wind farms, including one offshore on Arklow Bank. The boat we were moored next to, ‘Windcat II’, had the job of heading out to Arklow Bank every day to take engineers out to service the seven wind turbines. The boat alone was burning 175 litres of fuel an hour so this can’t have been a cheap operation for the electricity company. The guys on board were very kind to us, helping with our ropes even in a torrential downpour, and Peter Burne made us a lovely bell-pull for our ship’s bell.



We stayed in Arklow for one wet and windy day, amusing ourselves by taking Katie swimming but when the weather was still unsettled and looked like it might be for a long time, we decided to leave. We headed out with a forecast of W winds 5-7, but our internet sites had shown the wind easing that afternoon. They were wrong! We had a good sail to start with, as the wind was off the land. Then it turned more SW and we had to motor-sail. We passed Rosslare, and got to the bottom corner of Ireland, which the pilot book describes as ‘challenging’. They were right! The wind was still blowing a F5-6 and we had 2 or 3 knots of tide with us but against the wind, kicking up big seas. Tuscar lighthouse kept disappearing in the 3-metre swell and the decks got washed with spray. Katie, thankfully was down for her afternoon nap and slept through the worst of it. We were very glad to finally pull away from Carnsore Point and see the big bank of wind turbines on the headland slowly move aft of our beam. Finally, we got some lee from the Saltee Islands (aptly named!) just south of Kilmore Quay and the motion calmed down. We took the shallow short cut across St Patricks Bridge and were soon moored in Kilmore Quay.


wind turbines on Carnsore Point

It was worth the effort as we then met up with the family of the very first owner of ‘Ros Ailither’. Jim Campbell bought the boat brand-new in 1954 for his four sons, Jim, Jack, Dermot and Fred to fish. From the original crew, only Dermot is still alive and he came down to relive a piece of his past. Even though the boat has changed so much, you can definitely tell that Dermot had spent a lot of time on board, and he pointed out three of the bunks he had slept in from our photos. They used the boat for trawling (mainly herring) and always felt that the original engine, a 88hp Kelvin, was underpowered. They had lots of problems with it and, despite many requests, BIM refused to change the engine. This was the main reason they didn’t purchase the boat in full and it went back to BIM after 8 years.

After a while, Dermot told us that his wife Kathleen was waiting in the car. She didn’t think she could make it on board with two artificial hips but she hadn’t reckoned on Dave McCabe’s help! He soon had her on board, along with their nephew John, wife Suzanne and family, and a local fisherman who recognized the boat.

Dave, Kathleen & Dermot Campbell

Since we were staying put for a day (yet more strong winds), Dermot and Kathleen picked us up the next day and drove us to their home town of Wexford. This is where the ‘Ros Ailither’ originally fished from but we were unable to enter due to a difficult and shallow channel, which was risky without local knowledge. They took us to the Irish Heritage Centre, where they have recreated typical dwellings dating from the first settlers in Ireland, spanning the Stone Age up to Norman times. Katie enjoyed running around between each ‘settlement’ and hiding in the huts!



We were then treated for lunch and completely spoiled for the day; even Katie was given a new teddy. Back on the boat, we had a visit from Dermot’s son Jim, a photographer for the local paper, along with a fellow journalist, so it looks like the ‘Ros Ailither’ may appear in print yet again! Later that night, another nephew Colm, brought his family for a quick look onboard.

Dermot had hoped to see the boat sail away but we weren’t sure exactly when we would be leaving. The winds which were forecast to drop hadn’t done so by nightfall so we got a few hours sleep and set off in the early hours. The wind had dropped but we still had a good force 5 on our stern quarter and a sizeable swell. We averaged over six knots the entire trip. Another sailing boat set off at the same time as us, a 35-foot Hallberg-Rassy design, and we both entered Milford Haven harbour within five minutes of each other. Not bad for an old fishing boat!

So we were back in UK waters! We anchored in the little bay called Dale, just off the entrance channel. It seemed strange to go ashore and hear Welsh accents after two months of Irish tones. The following day brought strong southerly winds which turned our peaceful spot into a very rolly anchorage so we spent most of the day ashore - playing on the pebble beach, having a roast dinner in the yacht club and picking blackberries in the hedgerows.

The following day, the wind died almost completely and we motored across the Bristol Channel to Bideford Harbour. After two false attempts at mooring (once in a fishing boat’s spot), we were given some local advice and moored alongside the traditional schooner ‘Kathleen & May’ in a soft mud berth. A French yacht, ‘Ambrim’, who had come across with us from Dale, moored outside of us. We are both hoping to set sail on Wednesday morning and if the weather holds, get right around Land’s End.

Dublin to Arklow

We were hoping to moor on a pontoon right in the middle of Dublin but unfortunately it was impossible to reach as a new swing bridge was being built but didn’t swing yet. So we ended up in Poolbeg Marina, a 20-minute cycle from the city but right on the edge of the shipping zone. This was amusing at first but less funny
when we were woken at 3am by a huge cruise ship turning round (with the help of two tugboats) about 15 feet from our boat!



Anyway, it was a convenient base from which to explore Dublin. We took a tour on the open-topped bus, and couldn’t believe it when two friends from the Ardglass festival, who had moored in a completely different marina, appeared on the same bus.
They probably couldn’t believe it when they got dragged along with us for a tour of the jail, Kilmainham Gaol. It had been highly recommended by the bus driver and was actually very interesting, just an awful lot of information to take in. As our guide took us around the prison, he gave a series of lectures filling us in on the last 200 years of Irish history, the famine, the struggle for independence, the fate of the martyrs, (many of whom were put to death in this prison), and of course the appalling treatment by the Brits.



Katie was very patient throughout it all, especially as food had been specifically forbidden during the tour! One thing I had never realized was the significance of the colours of the Irish flag. The green represents for the ‘true’ Irish, the orange is for those Irish descended from the British and the white symbolises peace existing between the two.

So, back on the bus for some well-deserved snacks and the return trip through Dublin. We passed the statue of ‘sweet Molly Mallone’ and Dave was dismayed to discover that she was not just a vendor of cockles and mussels but a lady of the night. Or, as the driver put it, “the trollope with the scallops”. An illusion shattered!



We got a more agreeable tip from the driver about where to go for lunch. He pointed us to an old-fashioned pub, or ‘drinking emporium’, just off the busy O’Connell Street where we had a delicious meal at reasonable prices without the crowds. After escaping from the guilt of the prison, we had to relax with a pint or two… Here we parted ways with Dicken & Pam, who are sailing back to the Bristol Channel with their lovely pilot cutter, ‘Peggy’.

The next couple of days we wandered around at our own pace. We found busy shopping streets, quiet market stalls, street entertainers galore, beautiful old buildings, ugly new buildings and all the things you expect in a city. We visited the National Gallery, Dublin Castle and managed to break a smile from a harassed-looking waitress in the tourist area of Temple Bar. We crossed the river Liffey on the new Millenium Bridge and back over the old Ha’penny Bridge (much more elegant).

Ha’Penny Bridge

There was a lot of building work going on, particularly on the north side of the river, so lots of cranes, dug-up roads and scaffolding barriers, which I’m sure will be lovely when it’s finished. We got rather lost on our bikes and ended up the wrong side of a huge basin off the main river. Rows of restaurants bordered two sides of the water but we ended up at a dead end where somebody had set up home in a caravan right in the middle of the street, with kids toys scattered around the road. We had to drag the bikes across two sets of lock gates to get back to the main road to the marina.


Chloe came out to visit and after one last night among the throngs at Temple Bar, we set off down the coast to Wicklow. We had a good sail with the wind off the land, crossed one fleet of racing yachts near Dalkey Island and another further south near Graystones. Chloe did a great job at entertaining Katie, doing a 2-hour stint of painting at sea! By lunchtime, grey clouds had taken over the sky but in between showers we had great views of the coastline and the pointed peak of ‘Great Sugarloaf mountain’.



We had to dodge a colourful fleet of sailing dinghies outside Wicklow harbour, then went in and moored on the quay wall. The first thing we noticed were the paintings of ships the length of the harbour wall. Before long, a man on a bicycle arrived to say hi and he turned out to be the artist, named Pat. As well as being a postman (yes, Postman Pat), he is a ship enthusiast, and seems familiar with all shipping movement along this stretch of coast. He knew the name of the cruise ship that ruined our sleep in Dublin and often travels to nearby ports to see and photograph unfamiliar ships arriving.


Wicklow harbour with Great Sugarloaf Mt behind

Pat pointed us in the right direction for the town centre and we went to stretch our legs and treat ourselves to an icecream. Wicklow seemed a nice little town, with lots of stylish clothes shops, a vast selection of pubs and several Chinese restaurants, but we couldn’t find a bench to sit on and ended up eating our icecreams on a deserted doorstep!

Pat with one of his paintings

The forecast for the whole week was pretty uninspiring, winds between SE and SW and varying from moderate to gale force. There was a possibility of heading 15 miles down the coast to Arklow the following day but we managed to miss both the late night and early morning forecasts and so assumed the forecast of SW 5-7 that we had heard was still valid. (Our dongle for getting internet on board has gone from excellent to intermittent to not working at all.)


Instead, we took the train to Dun Laoghaire (pronounced Dunleary), where there was a Festival of World Cultures. There were rows of stalls offering foods from all over the world, but at a price – crepes for €5 seemed a bit steep, but we couldn’t resist the German pretzels or American muffins. Sadly, the rain came down in earnest just as lunchtime approached and we didn’t fancy sitting in the rain to eat African food, however authentic. Instead, we wandered into the town and happened upon a lovely little café that did us a fantastic lunch in the warm and dry.



Once the rain eased off, we wandered back and took a very excited Katie on the Ferris Wheel. This gave us an amazing view over the town and harbour, where a fleet of small boats were barely moving in the breeze. It certainly didn’t look like a force 5-7. Of course, this was the sheltered shore, but even so…! Anyway, the train didn’t go back until 7pm, so we had no choice but to re-immerse ourselves in music and watched a flamboyant display of Brazilian dancing.



The next day really was wet and windy. The harbour was sheltered from most of the wind but we could feel the boat surging in the swell and the lifeboatman’s opinion that “it’ll be dirty enough out past the headland” settled it for us. We had a last wander ashore before the rain came in, then cooked a roast chicken dinner before waving Chloe off on the train back to Dublin.

The next day, we headed out towards Arklow. Again, the winds seemed light in the harbour and just outside, but we only realized how much shelter we were getting from Wicklow Head when we got to it. It was blowing a good F5-6 on the nose and against the tide. The lifeboatman was right, it was pretty dirty! Olaf, at the end of our bowsprit, was well and truly submerged in the swells, and our topsail mast got bent up and broke. (Our fault for not lashing it better.) Two hours later, we arrived in Arklow and moored in the fishing basin. We will be here to wait out another gale before heading south to Kilmore Quay.

To Dublin

We spent two days in Portavogie. There was surprisingly little ashore so we were pleased of a chance meeting with another wooden boat enthusiast. Nick had a 68-foot fishing boat in nearby Bangor, which he was in the middle of revamping as a charter boat. He drove us up to see his boat, ‘Dundarg’, which was in remarkable shape, especially after a weekend of celebrations for her 70th birthday!

The following day we set sail for the Isle of Man, the seas were big to start off but soon settled down and gave us a good sail, if a little bouncy. A dark fin lurked in the water as we approached the island, it turned out to be a large basking shark that soon whipped off when it seemed we must run it over! We had no expectations of Peel Harbour so were delighted to find a picturesque harbour overlooked by a castle, a perfectly shaped hill and the town and beach.



We moored in the inner harbour where we could float at low tide inside the sill (a new and controversial development which is already malfunctioning). After Katie’s nap, we set off to explore and climbed the hill for fantastic views over the well-preserved castle and surrounding sea. We also met up with Mike Craine, editor of the 40+ Fishing Boat Association, who took us for a drive around the top of the island, told us some local history and showed us the thatched cottages used in filming ‘Waking Ned’.



Yet another unpromising forecast kept us in Peel for an extra day, so we were able to peruse the shops and buy some kippers, a local speciality. We discovered that the herring for these kippers has to be imported from Scotland as only 2 Manx fishing boats retain the right to catch herring! Katie enjoyed time off sailing on such a lovely sunny day and had a good time playing on the beach and flying her 99p kite.



We heard about an Old Gaffers Festival that weekend in Ardglass so headed there the following day in calmer seas. The poor weather had put off some of the regular comers but the eight or so boats there had enough crew for a very jolly night at the local pub. There was music and singing, with a variety of instruments from guitar thru squeezebox to spoons.
We had been told to make up a limerick beginning ‘There’s not a Tall Ship in sight at Ardglass’. After formulating 2 verses, I forgot to take the piece of paper I’d written it on and had to read out something half remembered and half made up on the spot! It sufficed to win us a pair of insulated mugs, and like every boat we were given a bottle of locally brewed wine, an Old Gaffers Special Reserve called Vino Calapso!



So one big gale and two hangovers later, we were finally ready to head south again. With the wind straight on the nose and squally showers, we decided to cut the trip to Dublin into two hops, stopping for the night at a place called Drogheda, that I can’t pronounce properly. (Apparently there’s no ‘g’!!??) It was a pleasant detour up the river Boyne and we moored for the night next-but-one to yet another sister ship, the ‘Ros Einne’.



Next morning we had a lovely sail in sunshine and flat seas down the coast to Dublin. We cut inside the privately owned Lambay Island, which has a population of six people and a large castle, then rounded the Ben of Howth and entered the busy shipping area leading into Dublin. We are moored in Poolbeg Marina right near the city and with a great view of container ships coming and going!

Across the top

From Killybegs, we moved up the bay to Teelin in order to get the boat ship-shape again. It turned out to be a beautiful anchorage, surrounded by green hills but with the same dark brown water as in Killybegs. Maybe caused by fresh water running down through the peat?? It looked like we were in a bay bounded by two long sandy beaches until we tried walking to one and ended up on a wild goose chase up the side of a river. A local man saved the day by allowing us through his garden to the narrow strip of beach behind and Katie was finally able to paddle.



The next day we had some pretty strong winds pushing us up the coast, along with fog, visibility was down to less than half a mile. We passed the famous Sleive League coastline but the clifftops were hidden in clouds and their magnificence was hidden in the grey drizzle. A lifeboat overtook us briefly in the mist then disappeared again, we later found out they had steamed around from Killybegs. As usual, Katie didn’t seem too bothered by the motion!



The lighthouse on Arranmore Island finally appeared through the mist and once around Torneady Point the swell dropped immediately. After anchoring, we went for a wander ashore and Dave spotted a similar boat to ours ashore on the slip and badly affected by gribble (worm). Later the owner came out by RIB and confirmed it is indeed a sister ship, the Ros Oirthir, his father fished her for years and he is considering the huge task of rebuilding her, replacement keel and all. Another sister ship, the Ros Ard, is apparently still fishing here and in immaculate condition but she was moored way around the south of the island and we didn’t get a chance to see her.

The weather was perfect the following day, blowing W3-4, and we had a great sail up the last of the west coast and around Bloody Foreland. We passed several islands - Tory island, Inishbeg and another Inishbofin and anchored for the night in a place called Portsalon, halfway down Lough Swilly. There was a long sandy half-moon beach but we were rather disappointed to find that the ‘village’ consisted of bunches of identical modern holiday homes. Not a single old stone cottage in sight. Were they all knocked down to make way for this or was it uninhabited before? Either way, the boat looked pretty at anchor and the holiday-makers seemed to be having a grand time.

The wind had pretty much disappeared the next day but we hoisted the mainsail in hope and motored out to Malin Head. This was the northernmost point of our trip, though not of Ireland, as we cut inside the island of Inishtrahull. Having seen very few pleasure boats at sea so far, we were surprised to cross paths with two right at the top of the Emerald Isle! One was a yellow RIB who stopped for a moment to take in the scenery, snap a couple of pictures and exchange a friendly wave before disappearing into the distance. We wondered for a moment if it was Ed William-Hawkes reliving his round-Ireland adventure from several years back!



We also crept up on another blue boat with tan sails, this one a highly unusual junk rig. We exchanged hellos as we passed by and ascertained where each other was going. We had planned to stop in a fishing harbour called Greencastle but after a quick recce Dave decided there was precious little room so we motored on and joined the other yacht at a place called Coleraine up the river Bann. They were a British couple who had cruised down from Scotland with their newly aqcuired boat, and hadn’t been near ‘civilisation’ for over a month!
They certainly found it in Coleraine (pronounced Coal-rain), in the form of a busy town centre and a shocking amount of traffic on the road - we had obviously slowed down to the pace of life in Southern Ireland! Here we had crossed the border into Northern Ireland and it was just like being in England, with a big Tesco’s down the road and prices in pounds sterling instead of euros. One of the bonuses was a big swimming pool in the town, complete with water slides, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.


Strong winds were forecast for the next three days so we realized we weren’t going to make it the 25 miles to Ballycastle where we were hoping to meet up with Pat Nolan, who wrote ‘Sea Change’, a book about the 50-foot Irish fishing fleet. As it was, he came down to meet us and took us for a drive along the coast as far as Ballycastle. The road followed a stunning coastline dotted with castle ruins, lovely beaches and busy holiday towns. We passed the world-famous Giant’s Causeway, a geologist’s heaven of natural lava rock formation but sadly it is not visible from the road and the queue of waiting cars put us off actually taking a guided tour to see it. The same applied to the wobbly rope bridge across to an island so we had to be content with the view from above. It was great to see the coastline we would soon be sailing along and get to know Pat a little better after our brief meeting in Killybegs.



The following day we took the train to Belfast for the last day of the Tall Ships celebrations, arriving just in time to watch the fleet departing. They made a spectacular sight, especially the majestic ‘Europa’ with her square sails set. A man from GMTV overheard us say we’d come from England and wanted to interview us but Dave, ever camera-shy, declined.
We had promised Katie a visit to the funfair but we couldn’t believe it when a 3-minute ride on the carousel cost £6!! They were certainly making the most of the masses of people visiting.



Before we left, we spent a sociable evening in the local yacht club where we caught up with our neighbours on ‘Moonshadow’, who we had first met in the Azores last summer! We all looked back fondly on the glorious weather we had experienced there… but, as we keep reminding ourselves, we didn’t come to Ireland for the weather!

We left the next morning to find the strong winds had turned to no wind. This was much preferable as the NE corner of Ireland has some of the strongest tides, running up to six knots through the Rathlin Sound and Northern Channel, and causing strong eddies and a whirlpool so dangerous it has a name - ‘Slough-na-more’. It was harmless when we passed through, being whizzed along at speeds over 12 knots on the GPS!! We had a brief glimpse of the Mull of Kintyre in hazy cloud but that is the closest we’ll be to Scotland on this trip. We took advantage of the flat seas and fair tide to get as far as we could and made it to Belfast Lough by 10pm. We anchored for the night in Ballyholme Bay then were off again at 6am to reach a sheltered harbour before the forecasted southerly wind picked up again.



So here we are in Portavogie, amongst a fine fishing fleet, mostly wooden boats. There seems to be little ashore apart from a chandlery, a shop and a pub, but the harbour is bustling with industry. As usual in Ireland, the harbourmaster is very accommodating and seems more keen to actually help us out rather than charge us. A novel experience after the south coast of England!
Considering the constant boat traffic, we were amazed to see a large number of seals, apparently fifteen of them, who actually live inside the harbour, fearlessly popping up between the moving boats. This is a boat maneuvering in the narrow entrance with a seal’s head just visible behind. Four of them followed him in at a distance of just a few feet!

Hauled out in Killybegs

Things moved quickly after our arrival in Killybegs. The local paper did a big write-up about our visit, featuring a photo of us with a group of former workers from the boatyard. Most of them came aboard for a look but sadly one or two were unable to get down the ladder, including one man, Columba Cunningham, who started work in the boatyard in the 1950's. Here he is holding a book about Killybegs showing him working at the boatyard at the tender age of 14½!

Brian McGillowry, Patsy McGowan & Columba Cunningham

Michael O’Boyle had arranged for us to get hoisted out for free by Mooney’s Boatyard, where the Ros Ailither was originally built back in 1954. So the following afternoon we took her over to the lifting bay, built on the site of the boat railway where she would originally have been launched..



It was a historic moment that obviously brought back lots of memories. The foreman at the yard, Patrick, came in specially on his day off to operate the container hoist. His father, Patrick, was foreman when Ros Ailither was built, and his son, also Patrick, works there too. Michael O’ Boyle was there with his son Martin and little grandson, as were former workers Pat Cunnahan, Jackie Neehan and Josie Murran. Pat Nolan, author of ‘Sea Change’, a book about the BIM Irish 50-footers, had driven down from Northern Ireland, and representatives from the Marine Times were there to take pictures.


Michael O'Boyle, Pat Nolan, Patrick the foreman, Martin O'Boyle

We all watched as the Ros Ailither slowly came up out of the water and was set on chocks next to the hoisting bay. Everyone remarked on what good condition she was in for her age. Lee Mooney, owner of the yard, came over for a good look inside once he could get away from his work. His father worked in the BIM yard prior to taking over the boatyard and it was obviously still a thriving business. It looked deceivingly quiet from the road but two brand-new (aluminium) boats were under construction in the huge shed, not to mention several boats out of the water for repairs.

Lee Mooney on board with Dave

For the next four days, David worked hard on getting the topsides and bottom rubbed down, filled and painted. It was a great spot to work, uncrowded and with a lovely view over the harbour entrance, shame about the annoying rain showers! Dave had several visitors who were all able to add more snippets of information of how the Ros boats were built.

Mooney’s yard was instrumental in making Killybegs such an important fishing harbour back in the 1950’s, building 37 wooden fishing boats during the 1950’s alone. They built two or three boats simultaneously, each with a team of 19 shipwrights working on them. Surprisingly little was available in the area so all the nails and steelwork, for example, had to be specially made and shipped in.



Hazel and Katie spent the days exploring Killybegs. It is a small town (with no coffee shop!) totally dominated by the large fleet of enormous fishing boats on the quays. We happened upon St Catherine’s Well, a source of natural spring water dedicated to the town’s patron saint, and still used as a place of prayer. Our arrival coincided with the street festival weekend and Katie was very excited to see the funfair setting up. Obviously she is a bit small for the ‘Drop Zone’ ride but enjoyed clambering up the inflatable slide!

longest carpet loom in the world

I was surprised to discover at the Maritime & Heritage Centre that Killybegs was also world famous for carpets. This was the site of Donegal Carpets, makers of high quality hand-knotted wool carpets. We were shown a video of women at work in the 60’s – it is a slow business and took a team of women four months to make a single (large) carpet, each one individually designed for its destination. We saw the largest loom in the world (42 feet long and weighing over 4 tons!!) and were allowed to put a couple of knots in a ‘show’ piece of carpet in-the-making. The factory is now only a fraction of the size and was not in use when we were there but still goes into operation when a commission comes in.



On Monday morning, Ros Ailither was looking much the better for a lick of paint, and we had even painted the original (trademark) shamrock back on the bows. Lee Mooney himself lifted the boat back in the water with Michael and Martin O’Boyle who came to watch and take photos (and video for u-tube!).



We moved back to the fishing quay for a short while then made a move the 10 miles down the bay to Teelin in order to get the boat straight for sailing again.
We would like to thank Lee Mooney for the free haulout and use of all his facilities, and to Michael O’Boyle for setting it all up, and for all the background information. Thanks to everybody who gave us such a warm welcome and sorry we didn’t hang around for longer. When the weather’s right, you’ve got to keep moving!