Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters

Alpha sailing off Staffa island - original watercolour

Seeing all the gorgeous photographs of the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters racing these last two weekends has set me to thinking about our long relationship with these beautiful old boats. We have strong connections with Peggy and Alpha,  and Dolphin to a lesser extent.  In fact we went  to look at Peggy in 1973 before we bought Britannia, as we were looking for a boat that we could sail off shore but would be comfortable to live aboard.  Pilot cutters were designed for the pilots to live aboard for periods of time whilst waiting for ships to pilot up the Channel, so we figured that one of these would suit us well.  Peggy was for sale at the time and was on a mooring in Penarth.  We travelled from our home in Somerset to take a look, but decided against buying her - can't remember why now - maybe she was out of our price range!  Anyway, not long after that we came across Britannia and Sam fell in love. And then we heard that Peggy had been bought by Mark and Diccon Priddy and was based in Bristol, so we caught up with her again in 1974 when we took Britannia to Bristol.

Peggy had an almost catastrophic accident in 1980, whilst waiting for the tide to get back into Bristol docks.  The crew had been instructed by the lock keepers to lay alongside the quay, and as the tide dropped, and she was drying out, a baulk of timber that was waterlogged and submerged,  pierced her hull, leaving a hole a couple of feet across.  When the tide came back in, she rapidly filled with water and despite many people baling and pumping for hours, she didn't lift. Bristol Docks Authority gave them 24 hours to move the boat or they were going to dynamite her as she was blocking the entrance way to the dock.  So Sam decided that the only solution was a coffer dam, which would contain any water coming in and allow Peggy to float again.  He designed and constructed a coffer dam in the few hours before the tide came in again, working with Martin Cornes as his mate. They worked in the dark, fitted the shaped box, sealed it to the hull, and when the tide came in, up she popped!  They were then able to move her to a safe place where she was patched before eventually getting into the safety of the floating dock.  Sam remembers being interviewed by a news team and defended the crew against some allegations that they had caused the disaster through negligence, which was not the case at all..When we left Bristol, Diccon and Mark gifted us a beautiful tender which was the first fibreglass boat out of a mould taken off a 19th Century American boat that Mark had brought back with him from the States.  We still have her!

Alpha - photographed by Beken's of Cowes

Alpha was very much part of our lives when we were in Scotland.  Sam organised and sailed her on a delivery trip from Lowestoft where she had been stored for 18 years.  The owners then were Neil and Pauline Pettefar and they, having watched us sailing Britannia from Portree, decided that they wanted Alpha brought up to Skye.  Unfortunately, Neil suffered a major stroke just after she arrived in Portree and they were never able to sail her.  They sold her to a good friend of ours, Dr Michael Humphries, and then Sam led a major rebuild of her in Corpach in 90/91.  We then became involved in chartering her with Mike, her owner, from Portree, and managed and skippered her chartering in the Canaries for a winter's season.  Sam has skippered her in one of the Bristol Channel races but we cannot remember the year!  Despite loving Britannia, he says Alpha is the most sea-kindly boat that he has ever sailed and it has been a privilege to have been given the opportunity to do so.

Our relationship with Dolphin is a little more tenuous.  One of her previous owners, Ken Briggs, sailed with us as crew for a week on Britannia around the islands so that he could become more proficient sailing a large gaff-rigged boat.  He got on well with our skipper at the time, Tim, who then worked for Ken for a season, skippering Dolphin.  We also met the present owner, Roger Capps in Bristol at the Festival of the Sea in 1996 when we had Britannia up for sale.  Delighted for Roger that he won this year's Cock of the Channel race in Dolphin - well deserved.   It is a small world isn't it - traditional wooden boats?  So many connections.

We have a facebook page, britannia sailing trust, and a website - www.britanniasailingtrust.org for anyone interested in Britannia's progress.

Why we are doing what we are doing..

Well, it's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote anything and because of that I have had time to think about what we are taking on and exactly why!  Why are we doing this now?  We don't need stress in our lives, who does?  Having anything to do with boats again was not on our agenda or lifeplan, as we gently descended into our "third age"! We sold Britannia in 1996 because of other forces that demanded attention, but it had been a very difficult decision and for a while we were not sure whether we had done the right thing. Life was very different and quite tough at times without her, and dare I say it, a little less interesting.

Britannia had been at the centre of our lives for 23 years and she left a large hole.  We had spent much energy, time and all our resources to get her to the beautiful condition that she was when we sold her, and we were proud of her.  She had been our home, giving shelter to our growing family; she had looked after us when we were at sea keeping us safe; she has shown us that you can still tread lightly on this beautiful planet and lead a decent life, albeit simple, with no electricity, scarce fresh water, and learning to distinguish between the important things in life and the frills.  She taught us to live in the now, in the moment, currently a popular practice known as mindfulness.

She allowed us to make a living during our years of chartering in Scotland, for which I am very grateful.  She had been the catalyst for us meeting some amazing people whom we would never had met had we not lived the life that we did; she changed lives and saved lives - literally. Separate chapters are to come of the Romances of Britannia and Life-saving Skills of Britannia!  She has brought people together from totally different backgrounds showing them an alternative lifestyle and the abundance of wild life in the sea that is hard to forget.  The exhilaration of sailing at 10 knots with just the strength of the wind - no noise or smells from an engine, just the swish of her slicing through the waves and the wind whistling in the rigging, is an unforgettable experience.  People who sailed on her had often never sailed on a boat before, let alone sailed in the wild places of the Highlands where we took them, and they loved it, and fell in love with her - as can be seen from the numbers of people who are helping to support her now when she really needs it.. and for us, getting back in touch with our sailing friends has been a wonderful experience and a real bonus in taking on this project.  Another huge positive is meeting new people who have been attracted by the Britannia magnet and are touched by her story.


We sailed at night sometimes, by moonlight, watching the phosphorescence in the water and shooting stars.  We were in awe of the power of the sea and the wind and sometimes fearful - but oh how it made you feel alive!  The smell of a wooden boat, like an old aeroplane, is so evocative  and individual - linseed oil, stockholm tar, woodsmoke from our little pot stove, delicious food and home baking in the galley, - the sea itself, so fresh and pure.  But, and here is the rub, the sea is no longer the cleansing environment that it once was.  In fact it is being poisoned by humanity's unsustainable lifestyles.  Waste pollution, chemical pollution and now the rising sea temperatures should be a flashing red light. If the seas die, our species will have no future.  The UN resolution passed in triumph last year, may be too late.  We have to act now and force our governments to make unpopular and difficult decisions, for example a total ban on fossil fuels.  But oil companies are very powerful, as are the countries that supply them.  And some governments are in their thrall.  Thomas Jefferson said "the care of human life is the only legitimate goal of good government"  How true.

When Britannia came back into our lives in September 2013, Sam and I were very reluctant to get involved again.  We were of the opinion that It was  a chapter that was over, finished.  We weren't sure what we were going to do in our retirement, but it would not have anything to do with boats we thought!  But Britannia tugged at our hearts and we could not turn our backs on her once we saw the poor condition that she was in.   What is interesting though, is that we now have a focus instead of being a bit aimless - a sad condition that can prevail in retirement!  What we have been thinking about lately is that Sam and I are very fortunate to be healthy and fit for our ages.  At 72 and 68 neither of us feel our age, and we still have energy.  We don't want to waste the years that we have left being a bit irrelevant and looking for things to fill our day.  So having the opportunity to save Britannia for a second time is now our focus for the moment, but also,  the purpose of saving her this time is maybe her most important role yet.  To broaden her influence, using her magic and the attraction she holds for people, to try to spread the word about the terrible damage that we are doing to our planet, particularly the oceans.  She was built as a sailing boat without an engine a hundred years ago.  We want her to sail again as a flagship, with a zero carbon footprint if we can, raising awareness of global warming and climate change, the biggest threat to our civilisation today.  


We have led busy lives working to raise our family, and we are lucky to be retired now, with no responsibilities but we are in the privileged position, like many of our generation, of having time, energy and the fitness to spend the small time that we have left, (hopefully they will be years!) to do more for our beautiful planet.  And maybe spread a little happiness and have some fun on the way?  So thank you, Britannia for giving us this opportunity...

Days 3 and 4 of the Restoration

Today saw the removal of the  rail, pin rails and bulwarks from the starboard side.  



Sam and Gareth managed  to remove the Lumsden  strake in one piece - rare these days to have a 60 foot plank of Scottish larch!  Doesn't sound much when written down, but Britannia is a large vessel and as said before she was constructed to last, so removing this timber took much sweat and a little ripe language.  She is the largest boat in Gweek boatyard.  How Sam managed the construction on his own in the Eighties is remarkable..but he was a lot younger then!!!

                                                                                          

 Completed removal of the transit rail - sadly only a  third can be saved but it looks like we may have sourced some oak to replace it. 

Need to visit the woodyard and see for ourselves.  Sam is always very particular about choosing the timber very carefully.

Part of the oak transit rail

Day 4

Today was spent patiently removing the covering board along the starboard side.  The covering board which surrounds the stanchions will be completely removed and renewed, the design of which will allow the hood ends of a new deck to be fitted into it.   This is reference to a very old ship-building formula to be found in notes relating to the building of HMS Victory, and it is 

“ When the snape of the plank is more than twice the width of the plank, it should be joggled into the spirketing.”!! 

So there you have it.  Who can argue with that? 

So far the stanchions are looking good..

Next time

Next stage to be done in the next few weeks will be to scaffold the port side and do exactly the same thing – remove rail, pinrail, chain plates, and covering board.

more work...

Day Two

Today work started in earnest on removing the rail, pin rail and starboard bulwarks.  With Sam having made a really good job of constructing this in the eighties, the work is hard as well as heart-breaking - the feeling being that it shouldn't have been necessary.  The good news is that some of the wood can be salvaged, and most of the rail can be refurbished.  Just need to be sure that all the rotten pieces of wood are removed.

Starboard chain-plates have now been removed and stored on deck.  There is a possibility that they can be reused, but they are in poor shape.  Some of the stainless steel screws have been saved and can be used again.

plateful of screws

The spars that had been suspended in the roof of the tent were taken down by block and tackle and are now safely stored on deck.  Some dead eyes which we had made in the seventies are still around and can be reused.  Sadly, the standing rigging which we renewed in '93 and had expected that it should have been good for fifty years because it had been greased, wormed, parcelled and served properly, was all gone -  most likely when her mast was cut down by ten feet. The current standing rigging which is bare wire, will need work if it is to be reused.  Her running rigging and blocks were gone which will all have to replaced in the future.

The day ended with the rail and palings being completely  removed from the stern.  The centre piece of the rail was removed in one piece, and most of the rail can be saved with some love and care!   Work began on removing the beautiful oak transit rail at the stern - not an easy task! One section can probably be used again, but the port side is rotten.

The photos may look rather shocking, but we are confident that the situation is mostly cosmetic - fundamentally, her hull and frames are still sound, due to her extraordinary builders, the Worfolk Brothers, and the quality of the timber used 100 years ago.  She still has 100% of her original grown oak frames, and 70% of her planking.  

Showing off her very fine lines!

Happy in their work!

Day One of Restoration work 2016

First day doing some positive work of restoration at last.  Feels good to me to be doing something practical instead of admin and funding bids.

Storm Imogen raging last night and still quite fierce today.  Very cold and windy - see video footage!  But a  very successful day with Gareth and Sam putting up scaffolding that has been loaned to us by James Youngman, owner of the yacht "Lutine" - thank you very much James!  So it took most of the day to find all the scaffolding, and get enough boards.  Had to be a bit creative at times - pallets fit quite well too.  So by the end of the day the stern and whole 60 feet of starboard side are now scaffolded ready for work to start in earnest.

Everyone feels happier to be able to start some restoration at last.  The last two years have been spent mostly trying to remove rotten timber and stabilise her to prevent any further deterioration. Also raising funds to pay for her storage.   Hopefully this week we will be removing the pin rails, bulwarks and rail so that it can be restored, salvaging most of the hardwood with which Sam built them all in Bristol docks over 30 years ago...

Britannia's stern was also raised up another 2 inches where she had dropped and remedial action to right her was not taken, so she has been that way since the new deck was laid a few years ago.  3 Acros and a lot of muscle went into raising her.  I guess she must be feeling better already with her backache relieved.  Off to the pub now to quench a thirst with a pint of Doom Bar!

1976 - setting sail from Highbridge in Somerset to Cornwall

1975 Bristol docks, cabin just completed. Before going to Highbridge

Have just found an old diary from 1976 - the only time in my life that I have kept a daily record and that was for just four months.  It makes interesting reading, for me anyhow, as I have forgotten so much over the years!  The summer of 1976 was very, very hot and there were water shortages, droughts and households were being asked to use standpipes.  For us, the boat was moored against a very long wooden jetty, - the rise and fall in the Bristol Channel is 40 feet - which was at least a half mile trek from the tap by the bridge, down the towpath beside the river Brue at Highbridge in Somerset. We had to carry our water in 5 gallon containers and when you have to do this, it becomes very precious, and we did not waste a drop!  Surprisingly, we managed extremely well on 5 gallons a day, so when others went on standpipes, I am afraid to say that we became rather smug..   

Haydn adding his opinion!

I finished work on 5 August - still very hot - and we started to make preparations to sail Britannia to Salcombe in South Devon.  All through the excruciatingly hot summer whilst I had been at work, Sam was busy installing an engine and gearbox in Britannia - very hot difficult work, particularly when you are not anywhere near any facilities such as a quay wall or a workshop.  We fired the engine up for the first time but it was surging and emitting much smoke from the exhaust.  It then ran backwards, burning Sam and I broke my big toe in my haste to escape!  It took a week to sort out the engine, having checked everything that he could, including injectors, pump, tuning etc etc.  Turned out to be simply two pipes between the governor and the venturi that were on the wrong way round.  Hurrah no surging, knocking, running backwards or black smoke.... what a relief.  

This took Sam a week's work, sun still shining and whilst that was happening I was busy stowing gear and clearing up, buying binoculars and hand-bearing compass.  Bought 20 galls of diesel for £6.00, new calor gas cylinder and filled as many 5 gallon water containers as we could.  By the end of August, all gear was stowed, jobs all completed and we were ready to go, but the weather had changed and the forecast was bad.  We warped the boat around and frightened Haydn, who was two and a half, and playing on the bank with Bonnie, our lovely German Shepherd.  Poor boy thought we were off without him and had a little panic!  

Two days of bad weather and then the sun came out again and we set off at 10.30 am on 31 August to navigate down the river on a rising tide out to the muddy Bristol Channel.  Next setback - a very hot gearbox whilst motoring out to Burnham.  Couldn't trace the fault, so decided to have a sail for the day and then return to Highbridge again to fix it.  Big disappointment, but we enjoyed a good sail, anchoring off Watchet at 7 pm.  The wind was fairly strong and I did an anchor watch between 2am and 4 and enjoyed it.  Clear sky, westerly wind, quite a choppy sea, but we made sail at 6.30am and had a great sail back, making 9 knots at times. Wind became fluky off Hinckley point and died away altogether off Burnham.  Motored back up the River Brue with the gearbox still getting very hot, but thankfully it kept running!

Our jetty between '75 and '76 in the Brue

Next day, Sam stripped the gearbox and took it to a workshop where we discovered it was left-handed, which meant that when in forward gear it was geared up for going astern.  Luckily nothing wrong with the gearbox, just needed to transfer gears - starting with  scrapyards.  New jib arrived today. - Sam very pleased with it and we are much less concerned now about leaving and sailing the boat, now we have this new sail.  Having tried several scrapyards for a transfer gear box and failed, we decide to go with the one we have and get a friend to assemble one for us this winter.

South westerly gale blows for 3 days and more rain!  Sam is off to the scrapyard (again!) to find another gearbox to fit into our old A35 van. Old one just died. Seems to be the week of the gearbox.  In the evening I had a problem with the mooring lines as a southerly gale was blowing us off the jetty and I was worried about the condition of the jetty where our bowline was attached.  Had to get it sorted before the tide went out as we would have been lying in the mud with no way of getting on and off the boat!  Drenched, but gale and rain stopped about 11pm.  Very glad to see Sam come home having successfully put the new gearbox in the car.  

It's now mid-September and cold and blustery.  Haydn and I pick lots of blackberries whilst Sam is making a roof fitting for the flue to go through the cabin roof. we have a wonderful cast iron pot bellied stove that we bought for a fiver from a scrappie in Bristol.  Weather getting much chillier and ready for the first of our winter fires.  We are waiting to get a crew together to set off again for Salcombe when our friend comes to tell us the bad news that the mooring that had been arranged in Salcombe had fallen through.  Decided to continue with our plans for going south anyway.  Whilst waiting for the weather to improve and our crew to arrive, Sam re runs the exhaust system through the hull to make a "proper job".  Also bought a copper indirect cylinder for £10 which will give us hot water when we have the fire lighted.  Sam fits a lighting system on deck and below as we had previously been managing with oil lamps.  Another cold, showery day and I go shopping for food for the voyage.  This takes all day, walking a mile with a two year old who will NOT travel in a pushchair!


Our 3 crew members sleep on board on Friday night as weather forecast for the weekend is poor - rain and little wind.  Set sail again at 7am on Saturday 25 September, heavy rain and no wind - lovely!  Only made as far as Lynton on the good tide so anchored for an hour as we were being driven backwards up the channel by a bad tide - Bristol Channel has the second largest rise and fall of tide in the world - makes interesting sailing.....We sailed all night, still raining and wind fluky.  At 2.30am we decided to shelter in Ilfracombe harbour to wait for a good tide.  Sam and I stood the 2-4am watch and he supervised me helming Britannia into Ilfracombe harbour where we anchored for a couple of hours.  Set sail again at 7am, this time in a good stiff breeze and a clear sunny day - super sailing weather.  Left the Bristol Channel at about 9.30am and entered Bideford Bay where we sailed across to Clovelly to wait for a good tide to take us into Bideford.  Tied up at the Quay at 7.30pm on Sunday evening.

Haydn about to swing round the mast! (Now at 42 he works at a height using rope access..)

a bit more of an introduction

My friend Cindie has persuaded me that we should start this blog, although I do feel slightly uncomfortable writing about my life and experiences - why would anyone be interested?    We have been privileged to be part of Britannia's long history for 25 years. We are calling the blog Crew Britannia because she is not just a very special boat, but has brought us in contact with some wonderful people whom we would never have met if we hadn't had Britannia in our lives.  So this blog isn't just about boats, it's about people and life and love and loss.. and dogs.   You can stop reading now if you want!

Sam and I fell in love with Britannia  in 1973,  and bought her on a whim from a dentist in Lowestoft.  Having just sold our house in Somerset, we had cash burning a hole in our pocket, more than we had ever had.  We wanted to buy a boat to sail on and live aboard, and had been looking around for something suitable for a few months.  Ideally, we were searching for a wooden boat with character, about 40 foot long, and seaworthy so that we could sail away and have an adventure.  Britannia was advertised in Exchange and Mart, was within our price range, and although larger than we wanted, sounded interesting.  She was lying against a quay in Lowestoft docks, so we journeyed from Somerset to Suffolk, with our two German Shepherds squashed in the back, to take a look.  Had Sam managed to put the car in reverse a little quicker, we would never have bought her.  Superficially she looked like a wreck, - just a wooden hull, covered in tarpaulins with loads of “junk” on her deck.  She looked a total mess. But the owner, a New Zealand dentist, heard us arrive and popped his head through the hatch so we couldn't escape.  Down below there were no bulkheads and you could see all her beautiful grown oak frames from stem to stern.  It was love at first sight for Sam, and we had to have her.  The whole deal was completely impractical, -  she was a much larger vessel than we had anticipated buying, but we had no doubts and the deal was done.  

We then went off and bought a brand new long wheel base Landrover, which in 1973 cost us £1,800. That was most of our money gone... No-one at the time was driving four by fours, we were looked on as being rather peculiar.   I was 7 months pregnant at the time and Sam thought that a Landrover was the only safe vehicle to be driving. He was right I think, but ironically he didn't seem to think that living on a wreck of a boat in a dock might be slightly unsafe or unusual!  We looked a bit scruffy when we went to the showroom and asked to buy the vehicle that was in the window.. the salesman, looking down his nose a bit, asked how we were going to pay, and was a bit taken aback when we asked if cash was OK!

This blog will not be chronological, so bear with me.  Just memories as they occur, but the main objective now is to try to raise awareness and support to restore Britannia, again, second time around,  to her former glory, so that more people will have the opportunity of learning how to sail a traditional, historic Gaff rigged Cutter.

After we sold our beautiful boat in 1995, on which we had lived and brought up our sons, twenty years went by and then we heard that she had hit hard times again and was in need of care. So, we couldn't let her founder, - we got her back again, and have now set up a Charitable Trust to try to restore her and get her sailing again, the very best way to keep these old boats, on the sea where they belong.. 

We celebrated her 100th Birthday in Gweek last September, and photos will soon be posted on our Britannia Sailing Trust  Facebook page.

This is a model of Britannia which is now in Kings Lynn Museum.

So, keep reading if you want to, we will be sharing our own stories plus others who have been inspired by Britannia....

Introducing ourselves

Hi there.  I am Vicki Samuels, chair of the Britannia Sailing Trust which was set up in December 2014 to try to save Britannia - a 1915 Gaff Cutter, one of the last of her kind.

 Arriving in Gweek in Sept 2013 after eventful trip from Brixham

Britannia sailing in Loch Carron, Highlands of Scotland in 1988