Ullapool Lugger Fest 2024

New for 2024, Lugger Fest takes place at Ullapool Harbour, north of Inverness, this May.  

Lugger Fest is a festival of traditional boats and maritime heritage, including boat displays, dockside demonstrations, talks, live music, stalls, food & drink.  

The main focus of the festival is a gathering of traditional luggers to showcase the boats and their history, some light-hearted racing and a consolidation of links between the various lugger groups.  

Historic vessels already confirmed to attend include:

Barnabas (1881)

Barnabas will be coming all the way up from Cornwall for the festival.  She is the only survivor from St Ives of the thousand-strong fleet of lug rigged seine and drift net fishing boats registered at Cornish ports at the end of the 19th century.  Today, Barnabas is sailed, maintained and loved by members of the Cornish Maritime Trust.  Barnabas will be arriving ahead of the festival as she will will be under going some work at the Johnson and Loftus Boat Yard in Loch Broom, namely the installation of new masts and spars which are being made at the moment at the yard. 

Clan Gordon (1911)

Clan Gordon is a Loch Fyne Skiff built 1911 by Archibald Munro of Ardrishaig on the Crinan Canal.  The vessel underwent major restoration completed in 2023 by Isle Ewe Boats.  This involved replacing the keel, stem and stern posts and many new planks and frames.  This was a related project to St. Vincent which was restored nearby at by Johnson and Loftus boat yard in Loch Broom, for the same owner.

St Vincent  (1910)

St. Vincent is a Zulu Herring Lugger.  She underwent a significant restoration at the Johnson and Loftus boat yard between 2021 - 2023 for a local owner.  This included new lots of planking and frames , new deck and masts and the removal of her engine, making her restored to her original state, a dipping lug rigged boat.   Tim Loftus of Johnson and Loftus was awarded Runner Up for the 2023 National Historic Ships UK Excellence in Maritime Conservation Award for the restoration of St Vincent. 

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