It is Identified by its Sharp

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The Galway hooker (Irish: húicéir) is a traditional fishing boat used in Galway Bay off the west coast of Ireland. The hooker was developed for the strong seas there. It is identified by its sharp, clean entry, bluff bow, marked tumblehome and raked transom. Its sail plan consists of a single mast with a main sail and two foresails. Traditionally, the boat is black (being coated in pitch) and the sails are a dark red-brown. From the late 20th century, there has been a revival of and renewed interest in the Galway hooker, and the boats are still being constructed. The festival of Cruinniú na mBád is held each year, when boats race across Galway Bay from Connemara to Kinvara on the border between County Galway and County Clare. The hooker refers to four classes of boats. All are named in Irish. The Bád Mór (big boat) ranges in length from 10.5 to 13.5 metres (35 to 44 feet). The smaller Leathbhád (half-boat) is about 10 metres (28 feet) in length. Th​is data has be᠎en ᠎do ne  by G​SA Content  Gen erat or Demover​sion.

Both the Bád Mór and Leathbhád are decked forward of the mast. These boats were used to carry turf to be used as fuel across Galway Bay from Connemara and County Mayo to the Aran Islands and the Burren. The boats often brought limestone on the return journeys, to neutralise the acid soils of Connemara and Mayo. The Gleoiteog ranges in length from 7 to 9 metres (24 to 28 feet), and has the same sails and rigging as the larger boats. They were used for fishing and carrying cargo. Another boat, the Púcán, is similar in size to the Gleoiteog but has a lug mainsail and a foresail. These smaller boats were entirely open. There was also a class fitted with a cockpit floor over the ballast used for fishing. When the Irish settlers at Boston in North America needed fishing craft, they built the hooker that they knew from home.

These boats became known as 'Boston Hookers', 'Irish Cutters' (in official reports), or 'Paddy Boats'. While a utilitarian boat, suited for the shallow waters of Galway Bay and being capable of being beached where necessary, the Galway Hooker is prone to being swamped and sinking in a short time in the absence of a cabin and high freeboard. Eighty-two shipwrecks are recorded in the unpublished 'Shipwreck Inventory of Wrecks for Galway Bay'. These wrecks date to between 1750 and 1938; of them, 59 are from the 19th century. No records are known to exist for the period prior to the 18th century. Cargo throughout this period would usually be held in wooden casks varnished with fish oil for waterproofing. The origins of the craft are not clear. A major spark in the revival of interest was the publication in 1983 of The Galway Hookers: Sailing work boats of Galway Bay (Richard J. Scott, https://solitarysales.fun d 24/01/08)-now in its fourth edition-in which for the first time detailed construction and sail plans were published. Sean Connery, playing the role of Irishman Michael McBride in Disney's 1959 film Darby O'Gill and the Little People, sings a song about "a pretty Irish girl" that includes the line "crimson sails of Galway Bay, the fishermen unfurl". The Solus operating system has a Galway hooker as its logo. Scott, Richard J (1983). The Galway Hooker. Chapelle, Howard I (1951). American Small Sailing Craft.

Last fall, in a church hall in Victoria, 20 women ranging in age from 30 to 60 gathered for a workshop in rug hooking. Midway through the class, organizer Sheila Stewart, owner of the Blue Heron Rug Hooking Studio in Victoria, leaned over and gave me an impromptu demonstration. It looked like a thick nail, bent at the tip to catch the loops of fabric. I mentioned a callus that I got during the summer I spent rug hooking and interviewing rug hookers across Newfoundland for my graduate research. Stewart wasn't convinced it was caused by technique. Stewart, it turns out, is serious about the craft. To her, and a growing number of women, the centuries-old practice is more than a passion. Rug hooking is business. That link between craft and commerce is the narrative thread that runs through Home Economics: 150 Years of Canadian Hooked Rugs, an exhibition on now at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto. The show displays early rugs, which tended to have geometric or floral patterns and were influenced by the decorative arts, alongside pieces by contemporary artists working in the medium - sometimes in surprising formats.

Take a three-rug sequence by Nova Scotia-born Hannah Epstein that's been digitized and runs in a continuous loop. In it, a human-ish cartoon being asks, "Am I an animal?" over and over. It's surely the only rug-hooked GIF in existence. The piece marks an eye-popping shift in aesthetics from rug hooking's early days. Compare Epstein's modern hooking to the work of Annie Hillier, the star rug hooker at Grenfell Handicrafts in St. Anthony, Nfld., and a fascinating trajectory takes shape. Hillier works eight hours a week for the century-old organization, pulling loops of fabric the size and width of linguine through the holes in a burlap or linen base that's stretched tight across a wooden frame. Hillier can hook 80 loops per minute, an astonishing speed, shaping images of her northern home - colourful clapboard houses, clothing flapping on a line, an iceberg on the horizon and maybe a polar bear or two. The pastoral scenes on Grenfell mats are hooked tight and low and the fabric is dyed to suit the pattern.