Galway Hooker 1/12 scale, built by Patrick, renovated by neptune

neptune said:
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The hull didn't seem to be in too bad a condition, however the false keel will definitely need removing and probably recasting before reattaching,

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The rudder was OK, just needs cleaning up and repainting with the rest of the hull,

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close up of the false keel, I was wondering if I can get her to sail with the ballast inside the boat,

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and looking down on her, looks bad but a lot of it is just dust and grime and that deck has to go anyway,

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another view, you can just see at the after end of the hatch where Patrick had started taking the deck off,

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The main sail, I'm hoping it will wash up ok, if not I might have to soak it in tea again to get the overall colour,

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close up of the jaws,

To be continued,
thanks for looking in,

Best regards John,
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Wow , she's a mess. Glad someone is taking the time to restore her. Good for you ! :)
 
neptune said:
Not sure where to post this so I will post it here,

... It was our 56th Anniversary today, we just had a quiet day, lunch at a local Hotel and a visit to the cinema afterwards,
Best regards John,
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Hello John, my very best wishes to you both on your 56th anniversary. I wish you both a joyful day together.
 
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A few pics of the rubbing down and the filling process, I had a full spray can of green enamel paint so I used that on the first coat, then gave that a good rub down and then a coat of black and another rub down,


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another view, in this pic you can see the underlying green paint and also the clear glass resin,

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and after another coat and a rub down, getting there now, I reckon another coat of green with a light rub down she should be ready for her top coats,


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and the last of the green, will see what she looks like after a good sanding,

best regards John.

.
 
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Shellback said:
A great restoration project Neptune on a model of a fantastic hard working craft from the West Coast of Ireland and quite a few examples still afloat these days. Patrick had a good friend.
I have a fibreglass molded hull shell on the bench ready for a winter project.
Out of interest what name did Patrick give his vessel?
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Great Job, I am at present looking to build one, do you have any plans?
 
Noelie said:
Great Job, I am at present looking to build one, do you have any plans?
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Contact the Galway Hookers Association in Galway at: https://galwayhookers.ie/en/resources/publications. The primary informational work on hookers is Galway Hookers: Working Sailboats of Galway Bay by Richard J Scott. (https://www.amazon.com/Galway-Hookers-Sailing-Work-Boats/dp/0954791509) This book was available through the Galway Hookers Association previously. Do an internet search and try to find it for less than Amazon is asking, although it won't be cheap, especially for a small paperback. It has small lines drawings of a few hookers of varying sizes, but most importantly is the only authoritative source that sets out the "rules of thumb" (proportional measurements) for building hookers.

There is another book, as I recall titled Húicéirí - Galway Hookers, which was also available from the Hookers Association, but I can't locate it online and my copy is packed away at the moment. This small book is bilingual, in English and Irish, and consists of a progressive series of black and white photos of the construction of a new hooker to authentic lines. The book includes a detailed narrated color video CD of the construction process of the vessel and a full set of folded large sized (approximately 22"x36") detailed construction plans of the vessel in a cover pocket. This book, CD, and plans set gives you everything you need to build your own "bad mor" ("big boat" 35'+ hooker.) As far as I know (and I know a fair amount for anybody outside of Galway ), there are no other authentic drawn construction plans for a hooker.

Traditionally, hookers are built to proportions ("rules of thumb") handed down within the families that built the Galway hookers. The hookers' shapes are defined by family-proprietary patterns, five to a boat, these being the stem shape, a midship shape and a transom shape, with two intermediate shapes equidistant between the bow and midship and the midship and transom. Everything else is developed by setting up these shapes on the backbone and connecting them with temporary battens within which the sawn half-sistered frames are fitted. The plans in the above-mentioned book were drawn by a qualified naval architect who translated the traditional construction "rules of thumb" into the modern conventional building plans, based on the best available mold shapes of an extant hundred-plus year old hooker built to the shape of the Rainey family's mold patterns. These two books in combination, should enable a knowledgeable boatbuilder or modeler to build an accurate hooker of any size.

Notably, a member of the Rainey family emigrated to Boston and began building the "Boston Hooker" as depicted in Howard I. Chapelle's American Small Sailing Craft: Their Design, Development and Construction (https://www.amazon.ca/American-Small-Sailing-Howard-Chapelle/dp/0393031438) That Rainey family boatbuilder returned to Galway after a number of years and resumed building his "Rainey-built" hookers there, after which there is no record of any further Boston built hookers. Chapelle's comments suggest his "Boston Hooker" was an evolutionary derivative of the Galway hookers developed by immigrant Irish fishermen in Boston, but, to put a finer point on it, Chapelle's "Boston Hooker," was actually a "Galway Hooker" built for Irish fishermen in Boston by a Galway hooker builder! Additionally, Chapelle's drawing clearly exhibits "Rainey-built" lines but depicts a sail plan quite different from the distinctive Galway hooker's. It is unlikely that Rainey put a sail plan anything like Chapelle's on his Boston-built hookers and quite possible that as Chapelle was famously wont to do, his Historic American Merchant Marine Survey (HAMMS) took the lines off an existing unrigged hulk and simply added a rig of his own invention. (If anybody has handy access to the original HAAMS survey notes in the Smithsonian archives, it certainly would be interesting to perhaps resolve this ambiguity!) It is also possible, but in my opinion unlikely, that the cut-down "Boston Hooker" rig Chapelle depicts was in fact unique to the Boston version and reflected the prevailing westerly winds blowing offshore in Boston, rather than the distinctive high-peaked gaff rig of the Galway hookers which provides their exceptional windward ability so essential in their home waters where the westerlies blow onshore creating West Ireland's wicked lee shores.
 
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