Sir, - the hardy annual of the last few Decembers of renovating the Asgard 1 has, like the solstice in Newgrange, appeared like a beacon again - a beacon to the sentimental and the self-interested.
Asgard has an honoured place in history and her name is carried proudly by her successor Asgard II to the high seas with Irish Sail trainees.
The £850,000 "restoration" project that is intended to allow the original Asgard to sail again is not a restoration, it is a rebuild to make her sea-worthy and little of the old Asgard will remain to be correctly honoured.
In 40 years' time, a wax-work of Keith Wood, Ireland's great captain of rugby, may be constructed to commemorate the field-playing deeds of this Limerick phenomenon. But it will not be Keith Wood - his neck will be plasticine instead of teak; his shoulders will be glutinous wax on a spaghetti space frame rather than the muscle and bone which, if macerated, would defy the appetite pangs of Ned O'Keefe's most ravenous pig; his head instead of a shining battering ram of bone and skin will be a politely polished construction of egg shell and wire mesh. In short, the effect may look like Keith Wood but it will not be Keith Wood!
So with the rebuilding of Asgard, surveyors' reports of work required to enable her to sail safely will mean that something like 50 per cent of her wooden structure should be replaced.
Don't please try to replicate this old lady. Honour her, make her respectable and build a structure on Howth Pier where she can be kept in perpetuity. As an inspiration to port visitors both with historical and maritime interest, and an evergreen memory which will not become a dangerous liability on the high seas when maintenance funds run out and interest wanes. - Yours, etc.,
John Gore-Grimes, Ted Crosbie, Howth, Co. Dublin.