Galway Hooker
By George Houde
The Irish American Post Chicago Bureau
The dream sounded crazy: Build a wood sailboat by hand from a 300-year-old
design, launch it into the Chicago River and sail it across the Great Lakes
and the North Atlantic to Ireland.
It didn’t seem so crazy to Steve Mulkerrins. His 47-foot Galway Hooker
made her public debut this spring, slipping into the blue of Lake Michigan
and flashing out a set of red sails.
"A lot of people didn’t think I would be able to do it," said Mulkerrins,
a native of Galway who has resided in the U.S. for the past 20 years.
It was a dream come true for Mulkerrins, albeit one fashioned with his
own money and sweat over a period of four years. The dream was born while
he navigated Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive on his way to and from work. It
was coupled to warm and misty thoughts of his youth in Ireland, where he
and his father would sometimes sail the rugged West Coast of Ireland and
Galway Hookers were a piece of maritime history.
The Galway Hooker is a sturdy workboat built from good Irish oak and
powered by canvas. The design dates back about 300 years and the boat takes
its name from its role as a hook and line fishing boat.
The St. Barbara was christened by Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley in
June in a ceremony attended by Mulkerrins mother, for whom the boat is
named. Barbara Mulkerrins flew in from Ireland for the occasion. From its
temporary base in Montrose Harbor, the St. Barbara sailed to the upper
reaches of Lake Michigan when she accompanied the sailing fleet on the
famous Chicago to Mackinac regatta at the end of July.
Mulkerrins and crew are then cruise her to Milwaukee for its famous
Irish Fest in order to show her off in a display of Gaelic pride and craftsmanship.
Those will be only the first of many shakedown cruises for the St. Barbara
as Mulkerrins prepares her for her true calling -- a crossing to Ireland
next year, a voyage that will take the boat and its crew across the Great
Lakes, up the St. Lawrence Seaway and out into the North Atlantic.
"I’d look out at the lake and think, wouldn’t it be a glorious sight
to see a traditional Galway Hooker sailing Lake Michigan? That’s how it
started," said Mulkerrins. "It’s the first one ever built in the United
States and the largest one that I know of."
Not a sleek racing yacht, St. Barbara is a heavy 26-ton vessel with
thick oak planking, a solid deck, and a roomy cabin with berths for as
many as six crew members. Mulkerrins built her on traditional lines, with
a high sheer and an upswept bow to handle breaking seas. She has a 16-foot
beam. With her hull painted black and sails that seem to glow in the sunset,
she presents an image that recalls an earlier time when ships were made
of wood and men were made of iron, as the saying goes.
A carpenter and cabinetmaker who expanded into condo developments, Mulkerrins
also has done a lively business in Irish curios. He has finished the cabin
in handsome craftsmanship with modern accoutrements, such as a refrigerator,
three-burner stove and a stainless steel sink in the galley. He also has
equipped the boat with radar and a GPS navigation system. Another acknowledgement
to modernity and creature comfort – air conditioning – is being considered.
"I was looking forward to doing the Mac on this," said Rene Rivero,
a crew member who joined the cause of St. Barbara about a year ago. "Usually
we try to do it fast, so this will be a different experience."
At 52,000 pounds, the St. Barbara was no match for the relatively fast
Mac fleet, but she may afford a more contemplative look at the spectacle
of the lake and sky Rivero acknowledged.
On a recent evening, Rivero, Mulkerrins and Pat Joyce, an experienced
sailor who will serve as captain, prepared the St. Barbara for a sunset
cruise out of Montrose Harbor on Chicago’s north shore. A small group of
invited passengers were on board, as well as Ronan Adams and Willie Lynch,
two Irish crew members.
Adams, from Co. Offaly, and Dublin-born Lynch work at the Chicago Sailing
Club and volunteered for temporary duty as deck hands. Jim Ryan, a former
cameraman with CBS Channel 2 television news in Chicago, stood dockside
to get video footage of the boat under sail. He and Mulkerrins are planning
a video documentary on the building of St. Barbara. Retired from CBS, Ryan
is an Irish-American taken with things Irish and currently is building
a home in Ireland.
"A guy from another station came up to me and said he had met this crazy
man who was building a boat to sail to Ireland," laughed Ryan. "He was
building it in a warehouse on 22nd Street and that’s where I found Steve
two years ago."
Mulkerrins has footed the entire cost of the project himself and will
sell the video to raise some cash and as an enticement to potential sponsors.
He took out a second mortgage on his home to help finance construction
costs. His wife, Agnes, has encouraged him, he said. He has three children,
ages 3, 5, and 8.
"My wife does a lot of sailing. She pushed me to get the project going,"
said Mulkerrins. "My kids can’t relate to it yet. At school when they ask
them what their father does, they just say, ‘He’s building a boat to go
to Ireland.’"
Construction of the St. Barbara took four years. Mulkerrins began with
a simple drawing of the boat. There were no blueprints or detailed plans.
He hired other carpenters and handymen to help with the project. He ordered
oak and larch from Ireland, building extra heavy ribs and planking in the
keel area. The mast and spars are red oak from Wisconsin. Asked if special
tools were needed, Joyce quipped, "Yes, a lot of chain saws."
A 150-horsepower diesel marine engine was installed to power the boat
into and out of harbors and through calm weather. It also provides electricity
for refrigeration and other equipment. More complicated was importing the
wood from Ireland. Mulkerrins had to obtain a federal import license and
clear U.S. agricultural policies.
At the helm with about a dozen on board, Mulkerrins started the engine
and eased the boat out of the crowded harbor. Joyce, Rivero, Adams and
Lynch gathered at the mast to raise the sails. It is a gaff-rigged cutter,
meaning it has two sails on the bow and its mainsail has booms on the bottom
and top, much like an old schooner.
"It needs a bit of wind to get her moving," said Mulkerrins.
"You’ll need about 18 knots to get her going," added Joyce.
Mulkerrins and Joyce speak Gaelic interchangeably with English, switching
back and forth in conversation. The effect makes the St. Barbara seem truly
Irish. The video will include a version in Gaelic for sales in Ireland.
An intense man, Mulkerrins seems to revel in the tradition of the Galway
Hooker, so named for its role as a "hook and line" fishing boat, as opposed
to a boat using nets. The red sails were made of Dacron by North Sails
on special order, he said. A larger mainsail is on order and roller furling,
a device which simplifies the working of the jib sails, will be added.
Traditional sails on the boats were varying shades of brown.
"The mayor of Galway was the only one who could carry white sails,"
said Mulkerrins. "In the old days, the sails were boiled in a mixture of
tree bark and butter to protect them against the weather. These boats were
the pickup trucks of their time."
Guests on the St. Barbara seemed to appreciate the vessel and the work
that went into it. "It’s amazing to imagine the ambition and drive it took
to build this," said Kate Bliss, a Chicago resident along for the cruise.
Galway Hookers were used to transport passengers, cargo and sometimes
livestock to isolated communities along the rugged west coast of Ireland
before roads and automobiles made the wind-driven boats obsolete. A revival
of interest in them has led to a small recreational fleet of restored boats
in Ireland. The St. Barbara may join them in the future, if Mulkerrins
dream plays out. It would be the first Galway Hooker to sail from America
to Ireland.
"We have pretty much everything we need now," cracked Mulkerrins as
he steered the boat on a calm Lake Michigan. "Except for wind."
 
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