The Galway Hooker was an 18th century development; a boat constructed with
the specific needs of the fishermen of the West in mind which quickly became
their very own. The Galway Hooker is a unique variation, developed for the
often unwieldy seas off the West Coast. It is most easily identified by the
sail formation, which is extremely distinctive and quite beautiful. It
consisted of a single mast with a main sail and two foresails. A derivation
of the Hooker was the Pucan, which had one main sail and one foresail, and
is also unique to Galway. Recently there has been a major revival, and
renewed interest in the Hooker, and the boats are still being painstakingly
constructed. The best place to see them? - Cruinniu na Mbad at Kinvara
annually - the sight of twenty odd hookers on the bay will take your breath
away!



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"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
It's not clear to me that he was referring to a Galway Hooker. I think a
"hooker" in British usage might be any funky, traditional craft or modest,
handy boat. If anyone across the pond can enlighten us on this point, I
would appreciated it.

I'm a great admirer of the Galway Hooker type though. Developments of
these craft by the Boston Irish fisherman were renowned for their
seaworthiness and influenced the thinking of a naval architect named
Collins who worked to develop a safer type of fishing schooner due to
excessive loss of life in the industry. The hull characteristics we now
associate with New England fishing schooners thus trace their lineage back
to these boats. These developments in turn influenced smaller craft such
as the Friendship Sloop. There may be no traditional type that has had as
much influence on American vessels.

If it was a Galway Hooker that Burrows saw, there are few tradittional
boats better suited to taking your family across the Irish Sea on a night
like that.

I believe that the racing boats of the time were just as seaworthy as
traditinonal craft and perhaps more so. Many did quite well in the storm
and some arrived surprised that there had been any casualties. Generally,
the higher the speed they maintained, the less trouble they had. This
takes a lot out of the crew so the seaworthiness of the racing type in
heavy weather may depend on a large crew that can rotate helmsmen often
enough to keep them fresh.

--
Roger Long