Fleet of 'gandelows' race in Shannon competition

As the river Shannon hosted its first “gandelow” regatta in 65 years, a legendary north American craftsman has said that there is no better “education for life” than learning how to build wooden boats.

Master shipwright Lance Lee, who has trained young people in US, Europe and Russia, has urged Government support for the Limerick project behind the weekend regatta.

Mr Lee was guest of the Ilen School and Network for Boatbuilding, which worked with school students and “river folk” over the past six months on building the five “gandelows”.

The fleet took advantage of a high tide to race between Sarsfield and Shannon bridges. The race followed a presentation and a series of talks with Mr Lee and Benedictine monk Brother Anthony Keane.

Described by one regatta visitor on Twitter over the weekend as a “gondola with a Limerick accent”, the carvel-sided fishing craft built of yellow pine are similar to the North American “dory”, but are unique to the Shannon estuary.

Lee commended the project as a “small pearl growing here on the banks of the Shannon “, and said it must be sustained financially. Inspired by Kurt Hahn and Joseph Conrad, Lee was reared on boat and sea craft during his childhood on Man O’ War island in the Bahamas, and believes education through using the hand and mind together can encourage “thought and action simultaneously”.