It came as a bit of a shock, or more of a thunder bolt actually, when Mike agreed with me. I wondered first if he had actually been listening to what I had been saying. It wouldn't bother me if this was the case, as Mike usually gets it in the ear as soon as he walks into the yard, mostly about what I had been dwelling on for the past week, since I last saw him, a rant that can continue for some time. But this time at least, he had been forewarned, as the conversation about sails has been the only topic that could lift the pace of work and the adrenalin needed to help sew on the remaining leather plates. 

       From an artist's perspective, the sails add life, energy and movement to the project. If the skin currach was to be a 'Welch Dragon', turned over on the beach, then the sails set outstretched on their tripod masts must have looked like its wings. The picture slowly grew from the account of a captain of a whaling ship who bartered a metal knife in exchange for a substantial sail made from platted walrus bladder. The bladder, first being inflatted then dried and sliced into long panes of transparent material, which the inuit used for a multiple of uses including window panes for their igloos. A very old painting depicting skin boats hunting wales around greenland has a triangular lean-to pitched on one of the islands.

The first sail I attempted came from a similar process of thought after wondering if the wicker mats that covered the floor of the craft could be linked together to form a sail and if the sail had to be reduced in size, you would simply unhook the required number of mats. Instead, we wove a full wicker sail and its obvious draw back quickly became apparent, that being that it was of no use once lowered and acted as an awkward obstruction for all on the vessel, because it couldn't be stowed away. Surley a competent crew of sea voyagers would have had a dual purpose for all things on board, or else would have made it so that it could be sucessfully stowed away. A triangular type shape fits into the contours of the bow of the craft, possibly acting as a spray sheet  to accomodate tired crew resting beneath, or when the  boat is beached, a fast shelter could be made from the sails and a tri-pod mast erected on the beach would make the temporary camp more comfortable.  There is an account of American Indians using the poles of their wig-wam to reinforce the sides of a tempory canoe in which to travel. Therefore couldn't we use our sails and oars to make a tempory wig-wam when needed.  It seems to be a touchy subject, usually beginning with a statment impling that square sails are traditional to  the North Atlantic, but nothing is known of sailing in these waters before 1,000 BC. I always loved that image of when the Roman invaders tried to bring to heel the fleets of ships owned by the Vanetti tribe in Morbian Bay, Brittany. Their boats, crafted of wood, similar to that of the Phenesian merchants who traded with them for tin. But the Vanetti sails were made of leather and could tack into the wind, something the Roman fleets couldn't do. Historically  triangular 'Lateen' sails come from Persia, but triangular style shapes have been used  throughout the Pacific and square sails have been used all around Africa. Of course, least we forget, the people that were meant to have brought farming to Ireland 5,000 years ago, originated in Turkey and the Mediteranian. A wig-wam works for me, if it has multi purposes and after consulting with Mike who always gave thumbs up for the tri-pod mast, explained that the value of having a triangular shape is, that like the Vanetti tribe of Brittany, you can use it to tack into the wind.