The Portaferry and Strangford Trust (PAST) is a charity, based in Portaferry at the mouth of Strangford Lough in Northern Ireland, which aims to promote an awareness of the rich maritime heritage and natural environment of the Lough and the sea in general.

The Trust recently hosted a talk by Orlagh Thompson titled 'Three years building boats in the Basque country. Orlagh was an enthusiastic speaker. She is in her third and final year learning traditional boatbuilding at Albaola, the Basque Maritime Heritage Association in Pasaia in the Basque Autonomous Community of northern Spain. It is a fishing community and commercial port.

Albaola, the Basque Maritime Heritage Association in Pasaia, where Orlagh Thomson is building a Foyle Punt

Currachs

Orlagh rowed currachs with the Causeway Coast Maritime Heritage Group on the North Coast. In 2003, she took part in a circumnavigation of Ireland in the 12-metre currach, Colmcille, which was accompanied by the traditional Basque fishing vessel Amerikataktik. A past student of languages at University College Cork, she has been involved in other rowing voyages.

Traditional boatbuilding in Albaola, the Basque Maritime Heritage Association in Pasaia

Albaola

Orlagh started at Albaola in 2021. It consists of a maritime museum, a traditional boatbuilding school and a project to build a replica of the 16th-century whaling ship, the San Juan. Its boatbuilding philosophy is based on 'thought and action’ and requires self-motivation. The course is free, lasts three years and is based on a 5-day week. The students are from a variety of countries, and many friendships are made. The week begins on Tuesdays with a walkaround to receive an update on all the projects.

Orlagh Thompson has spent three years building boats in the Basque country and she told her story recently to The Portaferry and Strangford Trust 

Patatxe

Orlagh has been involved in a number of builds with the first being an Ala - a flat-bottomed river boat. She helped build the mast and oars for a Patatxe, an 18th century, 15-metre-long boat with 20 rowers. She described the process of lofting - the conversion of a lines plan to a full size one so that full-size components can be cut. Her task was to cut the rabbets at the stem posts, and the hull is a mixture of clinker and carvel construction. The wood is bought by the Albaola shipyard from local forests.

Traditional boat restoration in Albaola, the Basque Maritime Heritage Association in Pasaia

Txalupas

After this, she moved on to Txalupas - these are eight metres in length, were carried in whaling ships and used to catch whales. The plan is to make five of them to be carried aboard the replica San Juan, a three-masted, 27-metre, 300-ton vessel that sank in Red Bay in Labrador, Canada in 1565 in fairly shallow water. It took archaeologists thirty years to excavate and study the wreck. The parts were restored to their resting place when the process was complete. The beech keel for the replica was laid in 2014 and the remainder of the vessel will use 200 oak trees.

Foyle Punt

The Foyle Punt is a familiar sight on Lough Foyle in the northwest of Northern Ireland. The boats built at Albaola are usually from the Basque region but Orlagh has persuaded them to allow her to build this Irish boat in her remaining time there. To research the Foyle Punt, she visited to McDonald’s boatyard in Greencastle Co. Donegal. They have built Foyle Punts and Drontheims, the latter being replicas of Norwegian yawls carried as deck cargo on ships importing timber to the North coast of Ireland in the mid-18th century. They were copied and built as fishing craft in Co Donegal. Orlagh also visited the Inishowen Maritime Museum. Her dream is to then build a Drontheim for which she has line plans drawn by Harry Madill.

James Elliot from the Trust was delighted with the interest in Orlagh’s talk. “I think it may have been the best attended we’ve ever had. Orlagh was enthusiastic and really grabbed everyone’s attention and imagination. We look forward to hearing about progress with the Foyle punt”.

Over the years she has changed hands between Dutch and UK interests for recreational use. Several years ago she starred in the RTE TV reality show 'Cabin Fever' where she replaced the show's first ship Camaret of Cornwall (branded as 'Cabin Fever') after it ran aground off Tory Island.

During the two-day festival (11am-5pm) the boating community at the event will include the Coleraine Yacht Club, Foyle Paddlers, Foyle Punts, Lough Foyle Yacht Club, Lough Swilly Yacht Club, Moville Boat Club, RNLI and the Foyle (SAR) Search and Rescue.

Visitors to Foyle Days can call to the Clipper stand and learn more about the city's entry of the Derry~Londonderry boat in the 2011-2012 Clipper Round the World Race. Learn more about the countries the crew will visit and also how to get involved in the event. For more information about the race, at 40,000 miles is the world's longest race go to www.clipperroundtheworld.com/

Running alongside the festival a continental market with 40 stalls will be open to all at the recently revamped Guildhall Square. For further details about Foyle Days click here.