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John
M. MacAulay - Flodabay, - Isle of Harris. - HS3
3HA.
Tel:01859 530340
Builder
of the Hebridean`Birlinn` model
`COASTAL
AND ISLAND BOATS`
The
following is an article written by John MacAulay
or
eight crewmen. Ness may well have been the last fishing community
where the womenfolk carried the men on their backs through
the surf to get them on board dry! Strangely, there was no
marked transition from sail to motor in the history of the
Sgoth Niseach. Their noble era abruptly ended with a dire
shortage of able crewmen following the ravages of the Second
World War. Subsequent fi shing effort was to be carried out
from the main island port of Stornoway on larger drifters
and liners.
A thirty three foot Sgoth has recently been built for the Sulaire Trust of
Stornoway by John Murdo MacLeod, the last of that Ness family of Sgoth builders.
Although now retired. John Murdo still keeps his hand in and continues to build
the occasional rowing boat.
In
May 1999 a one-day exhibition and conference to celebrate
the 'Grimsay' boats was organised by Mary Norton on the Isle
of Grimsay. North Uist. Three generations of the Stewart
family had been boat-builders who devoted their working lives
to building one specific type of boat. Many fine examples
of their craft can still be seen working the island shores
for lobster and crabs, but the old boatyard at Kenary is
silent since Angus. the last of that line of craftsmen, died
suddenly in June 1994 after finishing his day's work on a
new boat His brother William. also a boat-builder but who
chose to spend most of his working life as a fisherman in
his self-built boat, is now retired but hopes to see the
family tradition revived. and to that end he is actively
encouraging a nephew to convert his skills as a joiner to
a nobler use.
The
Grimsay boat is double-ended and varies in length from....
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