Wooden Ships Comments on this Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter Marguerite
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter built by Rowles of Pill near Bristol in 1893.
The build was commissioned by pilot Frank Trott at a cost of £500, she went on to be a very successful pilot boat and regatta winner in the annual pilot cutter races around the Bristol Channel.
In 1900 she became known as the ‘boat with the new boom’ after she was fitted with the first example of the famous Appledore roller reefing system which went on to become commonplace on all pilot cutters, enabling the mainsail to be reefed easily even in heavy weather. She still sports her original Appledore gear on the boom, overhauled and improved with grease nipples to enable regular greasing of the moving parts.
After retiring from her working life, she became a private yacht and then charter yacht, eventually ending up in the Caribbean as a charter vessel. She was sold here and moved to Covey Island Boatworks in Nova Scotia where a major rebuild commenced in the 1990’s involving all new frames and planking, new deck and refitted rig and interior.
She was sold in 2000 to the current owners, experienced wooden boat custodians and sailors, who have cruised her across the Atlantic and back, around Britain and taken part in numerous classic yacht regattas and events. She is a regular fixture around the West country coast spending recent years between Falmouth, the Scillies and Padstow.
One of the largest of the surviving original Pilot Cutters, a well respected and admired yacht with a great pedigree and history. She stands apart from many of the pilot cutters with her large and comfortable cockpit which is ideal for cruising, and her spacious homely interior which has far better headroom than most of her contemporaries.
Wooden Ships Comments on this Laurent Giles Vertue V131
Laurent Giles Vertue No. V131 built by Robertsons of Woodbridge in 1965.
This is another example of a long voyaging Vertue, yet again proving their worth as superb offshore cruising boats. Her second owner set sail from the UK for Cape Town via the French inland waterways and Suez Canal. She reached her destination but not after being hit by extreme weather in the Indian Ocean. She changed hands in South Africa, bought by a Ron Atkinson in 1071 who cruised and raced her extensively up and down the east African coast up to Mozanbique. He renamed her Zingela after a Zulu warrior.
In South Africa her rig was changed for an alloy mast to a more conventional masthead Bermudan sloop configuration, differing to the usual Vertue slutter type rig.
She was then sold back into UK ownership and shipped home in 1993 where she has remained, being cruised around the south coast.
31’ Dee 25 designed by Peter Brett and built by Allanson & Son, Lancashire in 1960.
Offered for sale at a nominal £1000. Recently the owner has found rot in several planks in the topsides, in the deck edge and in the beamshelf. He does not wish to undertake this work and is selling the boat as a project. Lots of positives to the boat, the right person could do these repairs and have her back sailing in quite a short time.
Peter Brett is best known as the designer of the famous Rival yachts, and he evolved the lines of the Dee 25 into his Rival 31 which was largely the same boat but with a little more volume and built in GRP.
He designed the first Dee 25, Fair Rover, for himself. The design was featured in Yachting World magazine in 1951 and she proved very successful in his local Irish Sea races. 10 more Dee 25s followed all built at the same yard in Lancashire with the class named after the River Dee on which they were built.
No. 2 Rondinella is a name many people will know, winning the Cowes-Dinard Race in 1959 and the only boat in Class 111 to finish the 1965 Channel Race which was hit by severe weather conditions. She featured in Adlard Coles book Heavy Weather Sailing because of her superb sea keeping qualities.
Such was the success of Fair Rover and Rondinella, the yard went on to build another 8 boats to the same design.
The design has not excessive draft with a long keel for good stability limited over-hangs and a generous beam for the period. It is said that the drying mud berth mooring near where Brett lived on the Dee Estuary was an influential factor in the design.
The interior rigid ply bulkheads with their signature keyhole design are an integral part of the design and contribute to her strength. She stands up well to her rig and is remarkably fast.
This yacht has been altered slightly with a cutter rig and a small bowsprit. Her staysail is self tacking on a boom with a roller furling jib making her easy to handle in all weather conditions.
She had a major professional refit in 2000 and another between 2014-2016. In the first refit the deck was replaced and the interior refitted. In the latter refit many cracked frames were repaired or replaced, the engine renewed and a new mast fitted.
Built in Sweden in 1938 to a design by naval architect Syersen.
It’s believed she was the result of a design competition run by the Royal Swedish Yacht club in the late 1930’s. The competition was designed to stimulate innovation in the design and building of cruising yachts from the countries then younger naval architects. The winning design she was built and then given away as the prize in the club’s 1939 annual raffle. The lucky winner was a Scottish sailor based in Edinburgh and the boat arrived in the UK shortly before the start of WWII.
A now familiar sight in Scottish waters the yacht has been enjoyed by owners based around Scotland with her being based on the East Coast originally before migrating to the waters of the west coast where she has been for the last 30+ years. Purchased by her current owners in 2022 she has benefitted from a rigorous maintenance regime in the last couple of years with some sensitive modernising and upgrading of her equipment. Now reluctantly offered for sale as her current owners look for a larger classic yacht
Peter Brett Dee 27 built by Allanson & Son, Lancashire in 1961. One of 4 yachts built to this design.
The Dee 27 was a development of the smaller Dee 25 which had proven itself in the previous decade with numerous offshore race participations and good results. Both the designs were inspirational in Bretts development of his famous Rival range of yachts. The Dee class was applauded by Adlard Coles in his book Heavy Weather Sailing.
This yacht was commissioned by Mr and Mrs Tomlinson who had previously owned a Dee 25 and wanted to step up to a larger and more capable yacht but with the same sea keeping qualities they had become used to.
Cruised extensively around Ireland, north west England and the west coast fo Scotland up to Orkney, the present owners of 15 years have enjoyed many long cruise and found her to be a superb boat, easily single handed if necessary.
Fairey Atalanta 26 built by Fairey Marine in 1960. Build No.A169.
The Atalanta design was developed by Alan Vines from Fairey along with their design consultant, Uffa Fox. The design was intended as an easily handled family cruising yacht with shallow draft that is light and fast.
More information on the boats and their history can be found on the Atalantas Owners Association website:
Bought by the present owner in 2011, this boat has been fitted with a Lynch 8.5Kw electric motor for smooth and silent cruising. Her twin dagger boards have been mechanised using an electro-hydraulic system for raising the plates.
Complete with a large road trailer, the Chichester Harbour mooring for this boat could be transferred to a new owner by separate negotiation.
Wooden Ships Comments on this Laurent Giles Dyarchy Gaff Cutter
Built in 1996 by the current family owners, professional shipwrights and highly experienced in the boat trade having project managed and built numerous ocean going racing yachts, including Maxi and Americas Cup yachts.
This Laurent Giles design is known as the Dyarchy after the first boat built to these lines based on the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. This is a stretched version of the original Dyarchy drawn up by Laurent Giles and Partners for the current owner creating a very fast, spacious and low maintenance classic yacht.
This yacht was designed and built from the outset to be a tough, low maintenance and capable cruising boat, her construction makes her incredibly spacious due to not having large frames inside the hull, strong and durable. With a thick strip plank hull, sheathed inside and out with epoxy glass cloth from new, the quality of the build is second to none. The scantlings of the construction, rig and fittings make her a very robust, tough and capable yacht that could sail anywhere in the world.
She has cruised extensively around the Bristol Channel, Ireland, Scilly Isles and English Channel. She has also taken part in plenty of classic race events with notable success including:
-Won the Cock of the Bristol Channel race twice
-Line honours in the Pilot Cutter Falmouth to Fastnet Rock Race
-Winner of Falmouth Classics large gaffers class 6 times and best dressed vessel
-Winner of Pilot Cutter review 2024
Whether it is family cruising and some regatta racing, or a full blown expedition adventure to a far flung corner of the world, this is a yacht which can do it all with ease. Her incredible strength and quality of build means she will take her crew anywhere in the world and will require minimal maintenance over the coming years. The modern wood epoxy hull construction has distinct benefits that will appeal to the modern classic yacht owner but with very traditional rig and looks.
Alan Buchanan Prior 37 designed by Alan H. Buchanan and built by R.J. Prior & Son in 1964 to Lloyds 100A1 classification.
Launched for a syndicate of 3 owners to compete in RORC races. Came 2nd overall in the 1966 Round Britain & Ireland Race with Leslie Williams as crew plus 3 Fastnet Races. Continued racing until the mid 1980’s and bought by the present owner in 2002 from the last of the syndicate owners. At the time she was clearly in a very poor state and was in need of a major refit.
This started with Tim Gilmore at Dolphin Quay Boatyard in Emsworth where the hull was stripped back to bare and the interior completely removed to access the structure. The coachroof was lifted off and the deck taken up. A major bottom up hull rebuild commenced, details below and the boat launched in 2005. Since then she has cruised extensively around the Channel, France and the West Country with continual maintenance and upgrades to an exceptionally high standard. She has also been raced regularly at Falmouth Classics and other classic regattas, proving to be a fast boat in all conditions.
In 2017 she had a major rig upgrade including sails and standing rigging, a new Vetus engine in 2022 and the varnish and paint work is kept up to an excellent standard every year.
This is a superbly presented yacht in turn key condition with a full and extensive inventory of equipment rarely seen with a yacht for sale. It is not common to find a classic yacht of this pedigree in such excellent condition, she is wanting for nothing and is a totally complete package ready to go cruising or classic regatta racing next season. It would be hard to find a better yacht of her era, and was said by a very experienced survey to be the best wooden yacht he had ever inspected.
New 2025 insurance survey.
Length on Deck 36’9” / 11.3m
Length Waterline 26’6” / 8.08m
Beam 10’ / 3.05m
Draft 6’ / 1.83m
Sail Area 567sqft
Thames Tonnage 12TM
Refit History
2002 – 2005
Ballast keel removed, shotblasted and replaced with new bronze bolts
Galvanised strap floors removed and replaced with new bronze floors and bronze bolts
Broken frames replaced as necessary
Various shifts of planking replaced as necessary
Hull splined and long boarded for a perfectly fair finish
Some deck beams replaced
New sheathed plywood deck laid with new covering and margin boards
New sheathed plywood coachroof deck
New cockpit
New interior joinery
Transom and stern knee replaced
New Z-Spars mast and boom
Winter 2017/18
New standing and running rigging
New Raymarine ST 60 wind speed and depth with Airmar bronze transducer
New berth cushions
Replacement planking fore and aft port and starboard in way of floors
New Simpson Lawrence 2 speed windlass
New main and Genoa in vektron by Dimension polyant ( Kemp sails )
New asymmetric with blue Saluki sewn logo with snuffer ( Kemp sails)
Winter2018/19
More replacement planking including two long lengths port and two starboard in way of mast step. All the planking affected by the original iron floors has now been replaced
Winter 2019/20
Topsides stripped to bare and re-finished in pale blue
Summer 2020
Boat mothballed due to Covid
Autumn 2020 to Autumn 2021
Boat stored undercover and brightwork stripped to bare and re-finished, window glass replaced with polycarbonate, widow surrounds re-chromed
Wooden Ships Comments on this Arthur Robb Bermudan Yawl
Designed by Arthur C. Robb and built by Port Hamble Ltd in 1959.
Built for the Royal Military Academy Sailing Club and funded by the Nuffield Trust with an £8000 donation towards the build. She was named Wish Stream after a small stream running through the grounds of the Sandhurst Academy.
She spent her early years racing with the military, taking part in numerous Fastnets and other offshore races. She was then sold to the CEO of IBM Europe and was based in Denmark, before being sold in 1983 to sculptor Clark Murray from New York who kept her in Maine before sailing south in 1995 to the Caribbean and then on to Europe.
The present owner acquired the boat in 1997 after falling in love with the lines of her sistership. Since then she has been professionally maintained with much structural refit work carried out when necessary and cruised extensively from Denmark down to La Rochelle and over to Ireland. She has taken part in the regular Classic Channel Regatta winning the cross channel race overall in 2009.
This is a well proportioned and well set up yacht, easily handled with her split rig making her an excellent cruising boat, but also a tough regatta competitor when required. A fine pedigree yacht that has covered tens of thousands of ocean miles over the years.
Rossiter Curlew 32 designed by H.T. Rossiter and built by Rossiter Yachts, Christchurch in 1981.
Built for the current owners father following on from his larger previous yacht built by the same yard, the present owner has been the custodian of this yacht since 1990. Cruised extensively over the years with trips to southern Brittany and Belle Isle, Ireland and up to Stockholm. The experienced owner has spent many years fine tuning this yacht for extended and comfortable cruising so that she is now a very well equipped and well set up boat, proving herself as a capable and comfortable sea boat over thousands of sea miles.
Her cockpit is large and spacious, but also set well down into the hull giving a feeling of security while still being easy to move about. The raised topsides forward hugely increase the interior volume giving a large and comfortable cabin for a boat of this length with 6’ headroom and up to 6 berths.
Her hull design is very shallow draft for the length, together with the bilge keels she can easily take the ground and dry out allowing her to access anchorages off limits to deep keel yachts. This feature opens up the cruising options around the coasts of the UK and France and invites exploration of some wonderful parts of the coast.
This is a very well presented yacht in superb condition, absolutely ready for her next owner to continue the voyaging she has excelled at so well.
Grim old autumn day in Dartmouth today, although hoping for a last sail of the season this weekend with some fine weather forecast. ... See MoreSee Less
The Peter Brett designed Dee 25 was his forerunner to the famous Riva range of yachts, proved by several notable inclusions in offshore yacht races including the Fastnet where the design performed exceptionally well even in very adverse conditions.This yacht has been in present ownership for many years and has had significant refit work carried out. However very recently some rot was discovered in the topside planking and the owner has decided he cannot continue with the boat as he does not have the time or inclination to get involved in another big period of refit work. The boat is being offered for £1000. She is currently stored in a shed at a boatyard near Dartmouth, the cost of storage is £320/month. She can remain here and be worked on once sold, or can be taken away on a lorry to a new owners choice of destination.The work will involve replacing several shifts of planking including most of the sheerstrake each side, a section of beamshelf midships and addressing some areas of rotten plywood subdeck on the outer edges of the deck. Photos in the post taken recently of the areas that have been uncovered. The boat has an excellent Sole diesel engine, good rig and a smart interior, she is well worth saving and it would be a shame to see her broken up.Any sale will need to be completed quickly and the price is non-negotiable. below is a link to her current advert with full specification and more photos.woodenships.co.uk/sailing-yacht/peter-brett-dee-25/... See MoreSee Less
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