Return of the Kinsale hooker

AN ICONIC ship that last sailed the seas more than a century ago is to be painstakingly recreated by a team of craftsmen in Co Cork.

A replica of the all-but- forgotten Kinsale hooker, which once dominated the seas off West Cork, will be meticulously built from scratch by a team of skilled shipwrights over a two-year period.

The project will mark the first chapter of an ambitious long-term plan to create a sustainable boat building industry in Kinsale which will employ specialist shipwrights to build a number of the eye- catching vessels, which closely resemble the more well-known Galway hooker, and relaunch them into the Atlantic for commercial use.