A 143-year-old, unique wooden boat, the only one of its kind in the world, is heading for the Crosshaven Traditional Sail festival.
Maintaining traditional boats is demanding, and when it’s the only one of its kind in the world, the last of what was once a fleet of a thousand vessels, it is even amazing that it can be actively sailing. But so it is, and it’s on a ‘living heritage’ voyage linking the ancient Celtic lands – Cornwall, Scotland, Wales and Ireland – which will bring it to Crosshaven Traditional Sail from June 14 to 16.
It is the double-ended dipping lugger - ‘Barnabas’- from the Cornish Maritime Trust, a voluntary charity which preserves Cornwall’s maritime heritage. Needing new masts, she sailed from Cornwall to get them from a tree in Scotland, which gave the impetus for the ‘Celtic lands’ voyage.
The Historic Cornish lugger, the 143-year-old mackerel boat, Barnabas, is heading for the 2024 Crosshaven Traditional Sail Festival
Tristan Hugh-Jones, a member of the Trust whose family is developing native oysters at Rossmore in the north channel of Cork Harbour, told me the story.
Listen to the Podcast below:
You can hear more about this on my monthly Maritime Podcast on all major platforms. Tristan, living now in Cornwall, told me about ‘Barnabas’:
