Boats belong in the water - Galway Independent

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Boats belong in the water

Written by Administrator

Wednesday, 17 January 2007

Dear Editor,

I found your cover photo of the Galway Hooker sailing into Galway tragic. Boats are for sailing not for being suspended from the ceiling of atriums in museums as decorative objects. Within a year or two of being inside displayed in the museum in this way her seams will open up and she will have deteriorated into a useless heap of desiccated timber that can't sail. Celebrating a vessel that is going to be laid up permanently in this way is akin to celebrating the birth of child, who you let out for a run, only to put her into prison for life. The proper use of this boat would be to moor her as close to the museum as possible and employ a person to take people out in her. She could be used to take young people out who might otherwise never have the opportunity of going sailing. Obviously, she could be 'laid up' in the museum for the winter months without any harm.

In England, Gipsy Moth (the vessel in which Francis Chichester circumnavigated the world) was laid up permanently, but, due to pressure from sailors, she was eventually put back in the water, at incredible cost to reverse the damage of being laid up. In Dublin the same mistake was made with the original Asgard, but now the error is being reversed at a high cost of restoration. The lesson from everywhere is the same: boats belong in the water.

Yours faithfully,

Mark Haugaard,
Mountscribe,
Kinvara,
Co. Galway

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