Master carpenter paul nets new opportunities
HAND-crafted landing nets have proved a huge catch for master carpenter Paul Walsh. So too have bespoke wooden canoes, kayaks and paddles, writes Tom Gillespie.
Dubliner Paul has his workshop, The Boat House, on the banks of the River Moy at Moygrove, Foxford. In 2011 he set up Kingfisher Craft and he has seen the business expand over the years.
Prior to that Paul was an aircraft mechanic with the Aer Corps and later a carpenter in the US, where he conceived the idea for his wooden craft. His career as a wooden boat builder started as a hobby and has over the last number of years become his passion.
Paul told me: “I have been a carpenter for the last 25 years. I worked in America for eight years. I used to go to upstate New York and I was looking at the boats they were making and that is where I got the idea of building these boats when I came home.
“When I came home, Ireland was busy. It is just in the last few years that I started to build the boats. It started out as a hobby and it has grown from there really.
“I started out building canoes. Then I built a few surfboards, and now I am doing landing nets and paddles as well.
“The nets are a unique item. They are my biggest seller and the paddles would be next.”
The canoes, he admits, are expensive, anything from €3,000 to €6,000. “There is a lot of work attached to them and it is a hard enough market. It is all hand work and it is very demanding work because everything that you do is on show.
“It can take from four to six weeks to complete a canoe because I buy cedar in planks or in beams and I have to cut it down to the size of the strips needed. It is mostly cedar I use for the canoes and kayaks because they are lightweight. For paddles and the nets it can be oak, bog oak or whatever is around. I use a lot of local beech, local ash or whatever local harvest I can get really.”
The nets are priced from €100 to €150 and they are all different.
Paul is married to photographer June Kelly and he has been coming down to the west for over 30 years. He is also a member of Foxford Red Cross and is involved in establishing a Blueway - a Greenway on water - along the River Moy.
Paul added: “Kingfisher Craft is unique in its approach to its craft, which has been described as ‘functional art’ and ‘too beautiful to put in the water’.
“All our craft products, no matter how beautiful, are fully functional, hard wearing and built to last.”
Kingfisher Craft can be contacted at The Boat House, Moygrove, Foxford, on (087) 3578601, email info@kingfishercraft.ie, or see facebook.com/kingfishercraft.
Do you have a story to tell about your business? If so, contact Tom Gillespie at (087) 9680780 or gillespietom49@gmail.com.