BETTER BY DESIGN
Everyone says Galway Hookers were built by eye. You will be told with confidence that there is no fixed design for a Galway Hooker. This conjures up an image of an old Connemara boatman in a Paddy cap, puffing on a short pipe and spying along the growing skeleton of a new hooker, saying to his apprentices something like, “left hand down a bit”. Such absolute nonsense belongs to pretelevision programmes on BBC comedy radio.
Nineteenth-century bodybuilders built their boats to be efficient, seaworthy and capable of bringing crew and cargo home safely, even in the rough north Atlantic off Connemara. To achieve these ends, boats were built according to a set of principles and proportions, of angles, guidelines and rules of thumb that were tried and tested over generations and handed down from master to apprentice… and with a degree of secrecy to put the Free Masons to shame.
It was common in the 19th century for boys to leave school aged 10 to 12 and to go into apprenticeships for five to six years. Entry to
