Practical Boat Owner - February 2016

and reached more open sea, these sheets

of spray became waves which came

crashing over the bow and into the

cockpit. Much time was spent bailing

that day, but as we bedded down

on the sopping planks that night

our thoughts turned to the promise

of high pressure coming our way.

Sadly for us this was to be short-lived,

and Lughnasa’s fl oorboards remained

saturated until several days after

our fi nal return home.

At just 340kg, much of the Lugger’s

weight comes from her heavy

steel centreplate, which behaves

admirably in choppy water.

With most of the boat’s

weight here I was keen

to avoid risking the

centreboard crashing

through its casing in the

event of a capsize. Not

only would this damage

the boat, it would make

the job of righting her a

nightmare. As there is nothing

to hold it down (I’ve recently

heard of Drascombe’s

intentions to remedy this),

I attached a cleat to the teak

centreboard casing, to which

we could secure a line when

the plate was down. We

happily didn’t have to test

this one, although we came

as close as we dared.

After 11 hours of beating on

a 44-mile leg from Inishmore,

heading for Inishbofi n, we were

becoming accustomed to the heavy

sailing that came with squalls of Force 6

of the RNLI; an obvious choice, but
a worthy cause.
With Fergus stuck in school until the
end of May, Dad and I spent several
weekends down in Cork de-wintering
Lughnasa and making some minor
adjustments to her rigging and hull. I
was keen to keep our boat as original as
possible, but since the tragic capsizing
of a Drascombe Lugger in West Cork last
summer there were several important
changes I wanted to make. Our stock
vessel came with a fi xed mainsheet
block which always twisted when under
full sail, making spilling wind in gusts
almost impossible. Although the jib is
the most important sail to release in
squally conditions, fi tting a swivelling
block was the fi rst item on my list. This
initial job worked exactly as I’d hoped:
so far, so good.
Lughnasa’s original bilge pump had
developed a small split in its bellows over
years of use and had begun spurting water
into the aft locker, which we discovered
early on during our Easter shakedown
cruise. Likely to get worse under heavy
use, it quickly became a major item on
our to-do list. Twenty years of salt water
had well and truly seized it in place,
making every attempt at removing it
more and more diffi cult as the screw
heads became ever more rounded. With
all of the Ogdens lending a hand, it was
Fergus who fi nally got it unstuck. Not a
moment too soon either, as we set sail the
next day. With the benefi t of hindsight,
this proved to be one of our most valuable
pieces of work, and I’m glad we persisted
with it. The stormiest summer Ireland had
experienced in over four decades meant

our new bilge pump was as welcome as

any bit of new kit we had, and we wasted

no time putting it to use.

The fi rst leg

Our fi rst leg from Baltimore to

Crookhaven, just 14 miles, began in a

fresh Force 5-6 headwind, sending sheets

of spray across Lughnasa’s beam and into

our faces for the fi rst few hours of sailing.

Once we left the shelter of the islands

Lughnasa enters

Kilkeel Harbour

A stop for dinner

at Smerwick Harbour

John White

A Lugger round Ireland

➜

Kilkeel

CORK

DUBLIN•

BELFAST

Bangor

Kilkeel

John White

• 
  

  Clifden

  
  

  Belderrig

  
  

Portnablagh ••

Portsalon

Portaferry •

Malahide•

Rosslare

• 
  


• 
  

  Portrush

  
  

Bangor

Dun Laoghaire•

Dungarvan•

• Achill

Kilronan,

Inishmore •

Smerwick

Harbour

• -^ Portmagee
  Derrynane •


• Castletownshend

Baltimore

Crookhaven •

Dunmore East• •

Kilmore Quay

Crosshaven•

Kinsale•

START/

FINISH

• Arklow

Slyne

Head

Inishbofi n

(^) •
Donaghadee

• Carlingford

Aranmore •

• Kilbaha Bay