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