The "Drontheim" or "Greencastle Yawl" was once a familiar sight on Irelands North coast and the nearby Scottish islands as the traditional sailing fishing boat for generations of fishermen. The launch of the "James Kelly" in 1999, in honour of the last boatbuilder in Portrush, is evidence of a revival of these sleek and graceful crafts.

The Drontheim, descended from Viking ships, has influenced boat design from its home on the north coast of Ireland to the Great Lakes of North America and ultimately to the Pacific coast of Canada Its story links together a multiplicity of peoples, from the Scottish and Irish coastal communities who developed it to the Native American and French Canadian fishermen of the Great Lakes who changed and adapted it to suit their own circumstances, to the Japanese salmon fishing communities of British Columbia whose Columbia River Skiffs are directly descended from the Drontheim.

The Drontheim is therefore an ideal symbol for CCMHG and its purpose of bringing different groups of people together in pursuit of a common maritime heritage.

Follow the Voyage of the Drontheim