Bristol Channel pilot cutter: Difference between revisions
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[[File:Joseph Walter - A Trading Brig Entering the Bristol Avon.jpg|thumb|right|250px|1838 painting by [[Joseph Walter]], showing a trading brig running into the River Avon, being fast approcahed by a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter]] |
[[File:Joseph Walter - A Trading Brig Entering the Bristol Avon.jpg|thumb|right|250px|1838 painting by [[Joseph Walter]], showing a trading brig running into the River Avon, being fast approcahed by a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter]] |
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A '''Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter''' is a specialist style and design of [[Cutter (boat)|cutter]] [[sailing boat]], developed for the needs of speeding pilots to ships |
A '''Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter''' is a specialist style and design of single-masted [[Cutter (boat)|cutter]] [[sailing boat]], developed for the needs of speeding pilots to larger ships entering and leaving the [[Bristol Channel]]. The design has been described as the best sailing boat design ever, for being both highspeed, higly manouverable and yet easy to handle by just two crew. |
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==Cutter== |
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When used to refer to sailing boats, a '''[[Cutter (boat)|cutter]]''' is a small single-masted sailing boat, [[fore-and-aft rig]]ged, with two or more [[headsail]]s and often a [[bowsprit]]. A cutter's [[Mast (sailing)|mast]] may be set farther back than on a [[sloop]].<ref name="Kemp76">{{cite book|title=The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea|editor=Kemp, Peter|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=London|year=1976|pages=221–222|quote=a small, decked ship with one mast and bowsprit, with a gaff mainsail on a boom, a square yard and topsail, and two jibs or a jib and a staysail.}}</ref> |
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==History== |
==History== |
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Revision as of 12:14, 7 July 2013
A Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter is a specialist style and design of single-masted cutter sailing boat, developed for the needs of speeding pilots to larger ships entering and leaving the Bristol Channel. The design has been described as the best sailing boat design ever, for being both highspeed, higly manouverable and yet easy to handle by just two crew.
Cutter
When used to refer to sailing boats, a cutter is a small single-masted sailing boat, fore-and-aft rigged, with two or more headsails and often a bowsprit. A cutter's mast may be set farther back than on a sloop.[1]
History
As most early pilots were local fisherman who undertook both jobs, although licensed by the harbour to operate within their jurisdiction, pilots were generally self-employed, and the quickest transport meant greater income. As their fishing boats were heavy working boats, and filled with fishing equipment, they needed a new type of boat; early boats were developed from single masted fishing cutter designs and twin masted yawls, and latterly into the specialist pilot cutter.
If legend is to be believed the first official Bristol Channel pilot was barge master George James Ray, appointed by the Corporation of Bristol in May 1497 to pilot John Cabot's Matthew from Bristol harbour to the open sea beyond the Bristol channel. In 1837 Pilot George Ray guided Brunel's SS Great Western, and in 1844 William Ray piloted the larger SS Great Britain on her maiden voyage.[3]
Preservation
Today, only 18 original cutters are believed to survive:
- Alpha
- Baroque
- Breeze
- Cariad
- Carlotta
- Cornubia
- Dolphin
- Frolic
- Kindly Light
- Letty
- Madcap
- Marguerite
- Marian
- Mascotte
- Olga
- Peggy
- Raider
- Vivacious
References
- ^ Kemp, Peter, ed. (1976). The Oxford Companion to Ships & the Sea. London: Oxford University Press. pp. 221–222.
a small, decked ship with one mast and bowsprit, with a gaff mainsail on a boom, a square yard and topsail, and two jibs or a jib and a staysail.
- ^ . BCPCOA http://www.bcpcoa.com/cutters.html. Retrieved 7 July 2013.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|title=(help); Unknown parameter|Title=ignored (|title=suggested) (help) - ^ "History of Pilot Cutters". Annabel J. Retrieved 2009-06-04. [dead link]