The upper reaches of the River Truro are not an obvious source of sailing innovation. No foiling cats fly over its shallows as at nearby Carrick Roads. The high-tech superyachts of Falmouth’s Pendennis yard are unlikely to appear anytime soon. Yet it’s here, among light-industrial units and auto-mechanics playing Radio 2, between a metal scrapyard and gas storage tanks, that one of the most interesting recent launches in British sailing has emerged.
In February 2020 the 68ft hull of the Pellew was lowered into the river from the Rhoda Mary Shipyard. When I visit a year on from that momentous day – the culmination of over four years’ work and goodness knows how many more planning – the frame of a similar 19th-century cutter stands on the hard mid-restoration.
“She’ll cost her owner a million quid to restore,” Luke Powell says. “But there’s no logic to wooden boats. Building one is just cavalier and mad, a romantic idea that it’s something worth doing.”
Grasp that and you’re halfway to understanding why Powell built Pellew, the largest Falmouth pilot cutter launched in Britain for more than 150 years. With 2020 lost, she begins her maiden charter season this summer.
Perhaps only Powell would have had the nerve for such a project. Through his company Working Sail, managed by his wife Joanna, he has not only designed and built eight Scilly pilot cutters since 1993, but has also helped rehabilitate a genre of sea kindly working craft that had been left to rot following the arrival of glass fiber. His largest previous cutter was Agnes, a pretty 46-footer currently sailing charters.
WORKHORSES OF THE SEAS
Denne historien er fra July 2021-utgaven av Yachting World.
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Denne historien er fra July 2021-utgaven av Yachting World.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
wallywind 110 launches
The first example of Wally Yacht's new wallywind performance cruising range launched this summer, during the iconic Italian brand's 30th anniversary year - and in time for its debut at the Monaco Yacht Show in September.
Irish skipper wins Figaro
Irish solo skipper Tom Dolan took a historic victory in this year's La Solitaire du Figaro Paprec, winning the solo multistage offshore race overall only the third non-French competitor ever to do so.
Youth AC puts on a show
Luna Rossa Prada Pirelli's team won the UniCredit Youth America's Cup after a highly absorbing series comprising 12 international teams racing the one-design AC40s off Barcelona.
ATLANTIC BEYOND
SAILING THE SECOND EXPLORATION 60 ON A WEST-TO-EAST ATLANTIC CROSSING WAS IDEAL FOR A RIGOROUS TEST OF GARCIA'S NEW NOWHERE YOU CAN'T GO FLAGSHIP
UNCONTROLLED
HELPLESSLY APPROACHING AN UNINHABITED ISLAND IN THE GALAPAGOS WITHOUT ENGINE OR ELECTRONICS, JON VAN TAMELEN FEARED BEING IMMINENTLY SHIPWRECKED
SECRET ISLAND
BEYOND THE FORBIDDING ENTRY RULES OF TAIWAN IS A CULTURE RICH IN SEAFARING HISTORY AND STUNNING LANDSCAPES, FINDS CAMERON DUECK
LAND OF THE BIRDS
SKIP NOVAK DESCRIBES THE PERILS, CHALLENGES AND JOYS OF A CRITICAL EXPEDITION VOAYGE TO SURVEY SOUTH GEORGIA'S ENDANGERED WANDERING ALBATROSS
FIRST STEPS TO BLUEWATER
YOU CAN GET INTO WORLD CRUISING FROM A STANDING START AND EXPERIENCE THINGS NO OTHER TRAVELLERS DO. CATHERINE LAWSON AND DAVID BRISTOW TALK TO FOUR COUPLES WHO PROVE IT
HARD CHOICES
IN AN EXCLUSIVE EXTRACT FROM HER NEW BOOK, PIP HARE REVEALS WHAT DROVE HER ON WHILE RACING THROUGH THE SOUTHERN OCEAN IN THE 2020 VENDÉE GLOBE.
INTO BATTLE
COULD THIS BE THE MOST COMPETITIVE VENDÉE GLOBE EVER? HELEN FRETTER FINDS OUT WHAT THE SKIPPERS WILL BE FACING.