Boat Building School
Reviving and teaching the practical and transferable traditional skills of wooden boatbuilding to young people.
Come work on the Ilen
Come and work with some of Ireland's few remaining traditional shipwrights refitting Ireland’s sole surviving sea–going sailing ship.
Big Boat Build News
The Irish Times, Extract - An Irishwoman's Diary, Lorna Siggins
...FURTHER ALONG the coastline, this Friday is also an auspicious day for Gary McMahon and a team of master shipwrights who have been working on restoration of a very special vessel. The ketch Ilen is as significant in Irish maritime history as the Asgard or it successor, Asgard II .
Baltimore Wooden Boat Festival - Framing Out Ceremony
One of the opening events of the festival this year is the Framing Out Ceremony of the good ship followed by a tour of the vessel and a talk on the Ilen Project.
Orlaith's Blog
Ilen is currently in a stone shed, with lush ivy creeping through; the cobbled floor harkening back to times when it was the courtyard of an O’Driscoll stronghold.
Framing Out Ceremony
Friday May 28th is a celebratory day for the Big Boat Build project. On that day we fit the final of our 28 great Irish oak frames – a milestone in our workshop programme. It is to be marked with a framing out ceremony for all our participants, supporters, friends and guiding shipwrights.
3 Day Big Boat Build Workshop Every Month
Traditional Wooden Boat Building
Our workshops run all year round
A shared love of wooden boats and the sea
For 3 days I was lost in time, watching and helping the traditional shipwrights turn out intricate frames from rough-sawn slabs of oak. I saw at first-hand these revered and amazing skills and was involved in the re-build of AK ILEN.
For myself and many of the other workshop participants this was one of the most rewarding and heart-warming activities in which we have ever participated.
Captain J.G. Burns, MNI, Chief Officer & Master of ASGARD 2
Build a Boat
Áilín Quinlan talks to a boating enthusiast who helped rebuild an old Irish wooden sailing ship and hears about the three-day workshops open to anyone who fancies doing the same under the watchful eye of qualified shipwrights.
SilverCircle.ie
Big Boat Build
An Account of a Workshop Participant
by Eugene Pratt
Traditional Wooden Boats & Sustainability
Anthony Keane OSB
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