Captain's Blog

The Bow Sprit and the TramThe Bow Sprit and the TramI had the pleasure of skippering the gaff ketch Brian Ború into Grand Canal Dock last night, through the sea lock on the rising tide at around 6pm. Traditional vessels can be tricky to berth, as the bowsprit can...

As someone who did not grow up around boats, nor has large family ties to yachts, yacht clubs, or marinas, or frankly any seamanship history at all,  working and training aboard The Brian Ború is something I never expected to do. I sail a mirror, one I reconstructed with my friends over lockdown, and have only started becoming really invested in sailing in the past year. The week working and training on The Brian Ború was an unparalleled experience for me and I could not have enjoyed it more. The Brian Ború is a vessel of breathtaking beauty, in its historically picturesque facade.

I still remember how I learned to read the Dublin Bay winds on that day. When construction cranes across the city, to the west of the bay are not in use, the crane operators let them swing in the wind with the short arm pointing towards the wind. As Old Salt said, “watch the swing of the cranes”.

At that point it was time to put up the sails. We started with the sail at the back of the boat called the mizen sail and Hugh demonstrated how to hoist it. It took four of us to heave it up to the top of the mast. There were two ropes used, and two people pulling each one. One person was sweating; pulling the rope to lift the sail, and the other person was tailing; pulling the slack off the rope as the person sweating released.