Gaff Rigged Vessels

On the back wall there are two particularly fine half models of traditional Irish gaff rigged sailing vessels – a Galway Hooker and a Donegal Zulu. These are by a Bretagne artist – Bernard Lagny. Around the corner from the Jolie Brise there is a three dimensional Ex Voto artistic piece depicting Galway Hookers in action at a regatta – Cruinne na mBad – in Innisboffin in 1894. This is by another Bretagne artist – Anne-Emmanuelle Marpeau who, incidentally, is married to Bernard Lagne. In truth, our Pub itself is a tribute to traditional gaff rigged vessels.

In the words of that great Irish circumnavigator, Conor O’Brien:

“These boats were built by poor men for poor men suffering from the two great spiritual evils of poverty – ignorance and prejudice. That they produced fine boats is to the glory of natural man, who, living close to elemental things, develops an instinct for the earth or the sea which passes sophisticated understanding.”

You cannot help but notice the scale model of the fully rigged Mary Ellen K - a newly built traditional gaff rigged Falmouth Oyster Dredger – built to full cruising specifications in Martin Heard’s family boatyard at Falmouth. The boat itself graces our berth in Kilmore Quay Marina.

Interestingly, the oyster fishery in the Fal estuary has survived for over a
century through the effectiveness of a Bye Law which requires that oysters can only be fished under sail.