When Fred Ternan died in February last year, Lough Erne lost one of its greatest champions.

Few people in the county revered and respected the river more than this proud son of Fermanagh.

An island man through and through, Fred was born and brought up on Inish Conra on Lower Lough Erne.

The waters of the lough flowed through his veins and his regard for the second-biggest lake system in Ulster only increased with the passing of the years.

Anything that I know about the great tradition of boat building in Fermanagh is because of Fred.

His lifelong interest in boating and sailing led to the formation of the Lough Erne Heritage group.

Fred was a font of knowledge on all aspects of the maritime history of the Lough.

His grasp of sailing was second to none, and he inspired many people to take up the pastime that he loved so dearly.

Fred worked tirelessly to promote the history and heritage of boating and island life and left no stone unturned in his quest to highlight and pass on the many stories associated with this precious legacy to future generations.

He was passionate about Lough Erne cots, snipe sailing dinghies and especially his beloved fairy yacht.

He lived on the Valley Road in the townland of Rossclare in Killadeas, Irvinestown for more than 30 years in a house that had been there since well before the ordnance survey maps were drawn.

Fred talked proudly as he showed me some of the old maps that did eventually reference the lane past his house which led down to the lough shore.

In Fred’s company, there was a sense of calm, perhaps born out of his deep connection to and understanding of the place where he came from.

His eyes twinkled as he told me about spindrift, when the wind from the south west hits the lough and creates a spray from the water that on occasions could soak the front of the house.

One day, technically, we stood chatting at the back of the house, but Fred was quick to explain that really the side facing the lough was always called ‘the front’ because it looked to the lough.

This was a calm morning with barely a ripple to be seen on the water as he pointed out the old watermark – a reminder of when the lough was higher before the drainage that happened in the 1880s which levelled the water.

With this in mind, he recalled the time that one of the steamers on Lough Erne was assembled on the grass close to his house, and then manoeuvred effortlessly into the lough.

This boat became the Lady of the Lake, and had a starring role in the annual festival for many years before eventually becoming the Pandora.

Fred and his wife Florence’s springer spaniel, Molly, was in especially bouncy form on that winter day as she repeatedly prevailed upon me to play games of catch with her and her cherished wedge of wood.

Perhaps she sensed Fred’s delight in the good news from the National Lottery Heritage Fund about a grant that would help with the promotion of the story of boat building, island living and this specific aspect of the social and cultural history of the county.

This kind of recognition was what Fred had been working towards for a long time.

His knowledge of the history of this stretch of water is encyclopaedic. Fermanagh is landlocked and there is no access from Lough Erne to or from the sea.

Boat building developed here on a needs-must basis to facilitate access, transport and the movement of goods and livestock.

A tree on the other side of the fence from us stood guard, sentry-like, overlooking Fred’s own jetty at Rossclare.

This was a man who learnt the intricacies of skippering boats as a youngster when Inish Conra island and the water around it was his playground.

In later years, his brother, George, acquired a clinker boat which they worked on restoring together.

Throughout the Nineteenth Century and up until the 1930s, double-ended clinker-built boats – or yawls – were a regular sight on Lower Lough Erne.

These historic crafts were 17 or 18 feet in length, approximately 5 feet wide, and propelled by oars or a four-sided sprit sail.

I suspected though that Fred’s pride and joy was a fairy boat that for now was a temporary resident in the workshop at his house.

This class of yacht was designed in the early 1900s for use on Belfast Lough, and the name was given by the Royal North of Ireland Yacht club.

Known fondly as the 'Fairies', these beautiful boats have been sailing on Lough Erne for well over 100 years, and were incredibly successful in competitions in the early part of the Twentieth Century.

This particular ruby-red Fairy boat positively gleamed and glistened in the stream of winter sunshine that flooded through the open garage door as Fred explained that he and George initially planned to rebuild a genuine Fairy-class boat that they had sourced.

Sadly, after expert inspection, they agreed that it was too far gone, and so began the task of creating a new one instead, using some parts of the original including the authentic cast-iron keel.

It took several years, but was launched to great acclaim in 2010.

In sailing days gone by on Lough Erne, crews were often called paid hands. Any money involved would not have amounted to much, and Fred recalled a paid hands race taking place at the end of the year when, in a reversal of roles, the person who crewed, now steered the boat.

It was highly-competitive and there was great rivalry among the newly-appointed skippers.

To this day, across the county, many people use boats in the same way that open water-deprived town and city dwellers rely on bikes and cars.

The smaller crafts are largely the preserve of keen anglers. Traditionally, these would have been berthed on the shores around the lough, but Twenty-first Century trailers now facilitate their removal and ease of transport.

Fred was ever the optimist and convinced that the mindset towards Lough Erne and its central importance in the heritage of the county was changing for the better.

He believed that people were starting to realise that there is more to the Lough Erne Heritage group than just people who like to talk about boats.

His feeling was that the river is coming into its own, and slowly but surely being given its rightful place as a grand and majestic presence that should not be overlooked.

Fred delighted in any opportunity to encourage and support like-minded people and associations; that included the West Island Cot Heritage group and Belleek Men’s Shed situated in the western part of lower Lough Erne.

With Fred’s assistance and reassurance, both organisations got involved in a traditional cot boat building project, supported by the Lough Erne Landscape Partnership, the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Fermanagh and Omagh District Council.

Cots are flat-bottomed, keel-less boats with rising ends enabling them to cut through water like a knife through butter.

For many years, they were the preferred mode of transport used for travelling to church services, courting, visiting, house dances, wakes and weddings, funerals and, on occasions, smuggling.

Family cots were usually 18 foot long by four foot wide. Reliable work horses, they served the people of the Erne system, with its myriad of islands, for almost a thousand years until the early Twentieth Century when the construction of many bridges signalled the end of an era for the cots.

Fred was immensely proud of what both groups had achieved and visited the West Island group on Belle Isle estate on the northern tip of Upper Lough Erne shortly before he passed away.

He marvelled at the respect and homage paid to the old traditional skills now clearly on display in the painstaking recreation of these ingenious boats.

His pride in where he came from was matched only by a deep-rooted respect and admiration for his ancestors, and their resourcefulness and wisdom.

In numerous chats and visits with Fred over many years, I never ceased to be impressed with his quiet determination to tell the story of his place.

And for that, I am eternally grateful. And so, I suspect, is Lough Erne and county Fermanagh.