Tiny little boat takes to mighty Windermere

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/the-northerner/2012/mar/22/currach-windermere-coppicing-sedbergh-farfield-mill

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Many strange craft have been launched on Windermere over the years, from Sunderland flying boats to a tourist submarine.

Now England's largest lake is to be host to an Irish currach which has been built from coppiced hazel and tarred canvas at Sprint Mill near Kendal and goes on display next month at Farfield Mill, near Sedbergh. This Sunday, it takes to the water near Bowness for the first time.

The little floating gravyboats look distinctly dodgy but they are reputed to have got St Patrick around the Irish coast and brought St Bea to Cumbria to the starting point of the Coast to Coast Walk. There's a statue of her with her frail craft in modern-day St Bees, just down the road from the station and level crossing.

The Windermere one is the work of three members of the Coppice Association North West, Edward Acland, Steve Tomlin and Ian Pettman, who have organised their maiden voyage to highlight a major exhibition on coppicing and woodland elf-work generally at Fairfield Mill. Working Woodlands: the Story of Coppice will see daily demonstrations of wood-turning, carving, chair-making, basket-weaving and fence-making, all crafts which preoccupied much of rural England for centuries.

Traces of coppicing can be seen in copses and woodland across the country, where trees with multiple stems now grow tall, instead of being harvested regularly for slim stems of wood. The practice is making a comeback because of its sustainability and friendliness to wildlife; active management of deciduous woodland allows more light which encourages plants, birds and insects to flourish.

Boats like the currach were a more specialised by-product but a sturdy one. Windermere's ten foot craft is based on one built in the 1950s by Jack Robinson of Dunfanaghy in Ireland which could cope with the roughest of Irish Atlantic coastal seas. It is also light and easy to transport; there could be a market for sailors or fishermen who find conventional sailing dinghies a bit of a faff.

Here is how the crew describe themselves:

Edward Acland began his love-affair with the currach in 1954 when he received his first craft from his uncle. Since then he has gone on to own and build a number of currachs while managing a two acre coppice of hazel and oak which provides the currach ribs. Steve Tomlin has been a greenwood craftsman for 10 years. Inspired by Scandinavian woodwork, the Shakers and creating beautiful, practical items for our everyday lives, he specialises in a range of ladder-back chairs and is one of the top spoon and bowl carvers in the UK today. Ian Pettman has sailed, canoed and rowed in the Lake District and in coastal waters. He also brought the whisky.

You can see the currach on Steve Tomlin's blog here. Meanwhile, Acland answers the big question:

Why build a currach? Because we all feel this traditional Irish craft, fashioned from renewable materials, represents sophisticated simplicity at its best. The currach's lightness, dexterity, beautiful lines and security in rough water provides the user with lively, unmatched delight.

Working Woodlands: the Story of Coppice runs from 31 March to 29 April. Farfield Mill is open daily throughout April, 10.30am-5pm (café from 10am). Admission costs £3.50 / £3 concessions (under-16s free) – and all proceeds go towards the upkeep of this historic building and its artefacts.