We’re building a skiff!

Join us

Led by writer, artist and boatbuilder Niamh Scullion, co-founder of our partners Lagan Currachs, this skiff will be one of at least three-large scale boats produced throughout the project.

Lagan Currachs promote heritage boat building of traditional boats. Anyone can join this open and accessible rowing club for people of all levels of ability and experience to row together. Their aim is for their boats to draw more attention to the River and its potential, and remind people that Belfast is a city on the water.

Find out more about skiffs and how you can get involved below. If you can’t make it along in person, we’re also posting weekly updates so you can follow its progress…

This project is supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players and is part of Our Future Heritage portfolio of projects which help us all enjoy and understand Belfast's heritage.

What is a skiff?

A skiff is a 4-oared rowing boat. The one we're building is a St Ayles skiff, measuring 22’ (length) with a beam (width) of 5’ 8”.

How do you build a skiff?

You follow some very detailed instructions! The skiff comes as a Clinker Plywood kit, courtesy of our friends at Jordan's Boats.

Where do you build a skiff?

In the former kitchen of a former Mission Hall on the Shankill Road of course! We are very grateful to our hosts/co-conspirators Vault Artist Studios and Belfast Tool Library.

Who can build a skiff?

You can! 88 people have signed up so far. To arrange a visit or to contribute to the skiff build, please contact Niamh or register your interest via the form here.

  • 1. You could eat your dinner off that floor now after much bleaching and wire brush scrubbing. Note the green and black buckets on right which catch drips.. the building is a bit leaky.

  • 2. Ali and the moulds and frames. There are 10 of these, plus the bow and stern pieces. Every other mould has a frame. The moulds are just to shape the boat while building (and can be re-used to build more boats), the frames are a permanent part of it. They are all made of marine ply and need lots of epoxy to assemble.

  • 3. Here, the frame is put together with great care and head scratching, and many right angles and much noisemaking with the drill. It's spruce, dressed (meaning it's planed and sanded) and the straightest truest pieces I could get. Sizes are mostly 45 x 95 mm. Long pieces are 4.8 metres. Cross pieces are 1.22 metres. Legs are 500mm (though they're not attached yet.)

  • 4. We borrowed tools from Belfast Tool Library, and fixed the building frame to the uneven floor with the help of Matthew and his laser level - see the red laser lines for spray paint to mark the exact frame foot locations, L brackets rawl-plugged into the floor so the legs are never moving again, and a great big carpenter's square. You're told to aim for within 3mm of absolutely square, and we're within 1mm the whole way. So that's good.

  • 5. If the frame is square, the boat rows straight and true. If the frame is off, everything is off. There's not very many straight lines on a boat, and it is absolutely maddening later on in the process if the angles aren't right at the beginning.

  • 6. We placed the moulds and spalls exactly on the buildin frame and screwed down thos pieces that didn’t need frames added. More laser action…

  • 7. We mixed the epoxy and hardener, and painted it across the joining surfaces of the frame. Each frame needs about 100g of epoxy so we ended up having to discard about 100g of it. Lesson learned. This is something that isn't covered in the instructions - like a lot of other stuff. The hardener is the rapid drying type, and is supposed to cure within 30 minutes so we had to work quickly. However, in our workshop environment, it took much longer to harden.