Requirements
To be authentic in design
and as authentic is construction
and materials as is
possible given money and skill restraints.
CURRACH
To be built on the
principles of the Boyne coracle but like a
double-ended Navog in
design. Covering could be of leather
but economics suggest a
textile covering sealed and waterproofed
by a tree sourced tar or
pitch. Though leather or hide is the material
spoken of in the tales of
old currachs there is a case for cloth.
Cloth was available in
Dark Age Britain and Ireland and in large
enough pieces to make
sails. Certainly in the 19th Century they used
flannel for coracles. The
resulting boat would be about half the weight
of a hide covered one and
more easily covered.
|
Basketwork skin or cloth covered
currach |
