Clovelly Picarooner

[DownWest]

Impressive and interesting to hear from someone who enjoys that style of hull which is very similiar to our Hylan Beach Pea...Light, quick, but sadly just so uncomfortable in anything but a whisper, you've only got to sneeze and it'll go over....very unstable and they used them for lobster potting, the mind boggles..

Umm. It is not unstable, just a bit tender in the gusts. With two up, very much less sensitive. A few KG of ballast would sort it out, if solo. While I had a couple of 'water over the gunnel ' experiences, not close to a capsize . They were caused by others . But, one has to prepared for them.

 

[peter radclyffe]

yes
unusually they are not clinker beach boats,so they may be spanish

 

[Clovelly harbour master]

Hi all,
What a great forum...wish we'd found it earlier. Anyway first post is a cheeky one I'm afraid. We're on the lookout for a Clovelly Picarooner. All info most gratefully received .
Thanks Ian /Louise

I work with a wooden Picarooner built in 2007 from the lines off an 1898 original. We fish, as she was intended, for herring. Picarooners were originally dipping lug rigged working boats so their sailing capabilities may not suit everyone. I haven't yet had the pleasure of sailing in a Heard built Picarooner.

 

[Clovelly harbour master]

Certainly a great deal of investigation.The Armarda refitted and set sail from Galician ports so probably carried a few Galician tenders probably of unknown parentage.The small boats here in Galicia are in the main like dories but there were a round bottomed small boats but whether there is a lineage I don’t know.

Herring fishing in Clovelly during the 1860's was in decline, the larger herring luggers were about 25ft and many were finding it difficult to make a living. A smaller vessel was developed which could set to sea quicker and return faster, therefore selling their catch before the larger boats returned. The term Picarooner was originally intended as an insult, but the smaller boats became popular and fished commercially until 1977. My Picarooner has been fishing commercially for herring since 2007.

 

[STATUE]

Sam Heard comes with the lineage of the Heard yard at the top of Mylor Creek - he has been making picarooners for many a year.
samheardmylor@hotmail.co.uk

 

[suthie69]

Hi all,
What a great forum...wish we'd found it earlier. Anyway first post is a cheeky one I'm afraid. We're on the lookout for a Clovely Picarooner. All info most gratefully received .
Thanks Ian /Louise

I have owned white plastic boats with bermudan rigs, yes they point higher and go a bit faster but i fell in love with Gaffers and luggers. im a dreamer and sitting there with a big square sail and a bow sprit, it just cant be beaten.

I own CP55, Crinker i saw her on you tube and her videos are still on there for all to see, i didn’t own here then. When i got her she was under canvassed and i frequently went out in F6 with full sail, she now has 40% more sail on the original mast/spars ands she performs much better, i went to Sanders Sails in Lymington and they checked it all out before agreeing to the sail plan, I now have a beautiful set of tan sails.

She is still very stable and i regularly sail her in the Solent from Chichester to IOW and camp aboard her, i have had a bespoke boom tent made to fit the whole boat and she is comfortable and gives a great sense of security.

She is not the fastest but who wants to get anywhere fast when you have a beautiful gaff rigged boat, it’s about the journey not the journey time. she will give me 4-5 knots in the right conditions, i have had more from her with stronger winds and favourable tide but who really cares, do your passage plan accordingly and enjoy the ride, if you want fast and direct get a motorboat.

Re tacking just back the jib in light airs and around she comes, who wants a boat thats easy, you have to learn her foibles and character and then she gives you a real treat, with her offset centreboard there is a bit to learn but thats the fun.
c
I have sailed her with her gunnells in the water and never once felt she wanted to go over, i sailed her in the Carrick roads and over to the Helford, she was amazing. she loves a force 3-4 but can handle much more.

I love her, so if you want a stable forgiving beautiful boat that is light on the helm and is happy in either light or heavier winds then give one a sail, if you are close to chichester, contact me and you can give her a go, you can actually hire one in chichester with the original sail plan. she sails out of itchenor.

 

[MisterBaxter]

I had a lovely daysail in a Picarooner once, very stable and solid but moved along in a purposeful fashion too. But I'd love to try one with a dipping lug. From all I read that's a very powerful rig, big area kept low so less heeling moment, but a clear luff like a Genoa so loads of drive. Awkward to tack, obviously...

 

[Wansworth]

I had a lovely daysail in a Picarooner once, very stable and solid but moved along in a purposeful fashion too. But I'd love to try one with a dipping lug. From all I read that's a very powerful rig, big area kept low so less heeling moment, but a clear luff like a Genoa so loads of drive. Awkward to tack, obviously...

I had a ten foot clinker dinghy with a Standing Lug sail…….no problem to tack

 

[MisterBaxter]

I had a ten foot clinker dinghy with a Standing Lug sail…….no problem to tack

Got to be more trouble than a gaff sloop though?

 

[Puffin10032]

I had a ten foot clinker dinghy with a Standing Lug sail…….no problem to tack

But a standing lug isn't like a dipping lug.

 

[peter radclyffe]

New wooden picarooner for Clovelly, 14 ft. fishing lugger Hawk BD61



​

When the work finished, I had by chance looked at a picarooner hull in nearby Clovelly, BD61

It was called Hawk, a beautiful little fishing lugger, maybe seventy years old.

Sometimes I’ve looked at a boat and wondered if I’ll rebuild it. And so it happened with BD61. Separately the owner had contacted Hinks and asked if he’d repair it. He didn’t

want the work, and when the trawlers were finished he sold the yard and offered me the job. I went to survey the boat and was surprised to see that it was the same boat I’d seen. I looked it over in a shed and my conclusion was that it was too far gone; it would be a better idea and cheaper to build a new one. I had to think that that might be the last I heard of it, but the owner rang back and said, OK, build a new one. I took patterns with my mate Seb, photos and all the details I could before taking it apart. I took the frames and patterned the centreline. These boats were unusual for English beach boats, which were usually clinker planked and riveted for lightness. This was carvel, and may have been influenced by a Spanish small boat from the Armada later ending up on the North Devon coast. I asked Jim Lawrence if he’d quote for a rig. He sent me the quote, but the owner didn’t want a rig. He wanted the picarooner as a hanging static display in his village teahouse gift shop, tilted towards tea drinking tourists to remind them of Clovelly’s history of incest, cannibalism, fish, poverty, happiness, depravity. I got some larch planking from a guy in the forest. I’d got the oak from Hinks, who had got it from Barchards in Hull. It took me ten weeks to build the picarooner, and I painted it grey bilge, black underwater and white and varnish. It looked great. I hired a trailer, hitched it to my old green Rover P6, and my girl and I towed it to Hamble slip where we launched it and took photos. We then sculled it to the MFV, had a bite to eat, photos, then back on the trailer and to Barnstaple. We cleaned it after the road journey in a beautiful old market shed with cast iron decoration. We took it to Clovelly and the owner was happy. This boat was mentioned in the mag Classic Boat, What work to do next …

​

 

[winch2]

Hello again all, I totally forgot Id posted this.. anyway.
Well sadly the Piccarooner didnt materialise but the next best thing did.. a Crabber 17, and what a gem she is, heavy, slowish?, solid and strangely roomy and very 'little ship' like, and yes the maroon sails and cream and red livery is very nice.
Took her out in the channel swell under a stiff breeze with a reef in the main for the first time on Saturday and what a nice surprise. I had no idea how comfortable the Gaff rig is. The whole thing seems kinda laid back and planted. Think I must have spent more time gazing up at that beautiful mainsail than I did actually navigating....haha. But yes very happy, and I still really like the Piccarooner too.. but maybe its just a tad small for our purposes.

 

[srm]

Awkward to tack, obviously...

You may be thinking of the dipping lug. Lower the sail, pass the yard and sail around the mast, hoist the sail on the new tack. It can also be done by partly lowering the sail and dipping the yard and sail around the front of the mast.
Standing lug, put the helm over, just like a gaff or bermudan main. I sailed an old fishing boat with a standing lug mizzen, we never touched the sheet during a tack.

 

[MisterBaxter]

You may be thinking of the dipping lug. Lower the sail, pass the yard and sail around the mast, hoist the sail on the new tack. It can also be done by partly lowering the sail and dipping the yard and sail around the front of the mast.
Standing lug, put the helm over, just like a gaff or bermudan main. I sailed an old fishing boat with a standing lug mizzen, we never touched the sheet during a tack.

I certainly am thinking of a dipping lug and indeed saying so in the comment you quote!
Standing lug obviously no trouble as you say. But from what I've read, the dipping lug is a much more powerful sail, and it seems to me that a heavy, stable hull like the Picarooner would be ideal to try it out.

 

[srm]

I certainly am thinking of a dipping lug and indeed saying so in the comment you quote!
Standing lug obviously no trouble as you say. But from what I've read, the dipping lug is a much more powerful sail, and it seems to me that a heavy, stable hull like the Picarooner would be ideal to try it out.

It can be a much more powerful sail as is clear of the largely unstayed mast that carries it. The big east coast Scottish drifters carried it as they generally sailed out on a single tack and likewise when heading in to land the catch. However a large number were lost trying to enter harbour. If they failed to make it on the initial tack the largely agricultural labourer crew they carried could not drop and reset the sail quickly enough for a short tack. The practice was to tack with the sail then backed against the mast and, being very inefficient, led to running aground in or near the harbour mouth.

A number of these boats were sold to Shetland fishermen when the more prosperous Scots replaced them with steam drifters. The Shetland crews re-rigged them with gaff mains, headsails, and usually a standing lug mizzen as sailing between the islands required a vessel that could tack easily.

Having sailed with a dipping lug on a restored open fishing boat (without an engine) I would not recommend a dipping lug for leisure sailors. Its going to require two or three deck crew, plus the helmsman, to put in a tack and takes time shifting the sail and sheets around the mast. Might suit someone who motors most of the time but now and again, and only in good conditions, enjoys blowing along on a gentle reach or run.

 

[Aja]

Caught part of a programme on BBC2 this afternoon about Clovelly. There was a section on the Piccarooner with an explanation that it was used for being fishing and got out of the harbour before the bigger boats floated therefore getting the catch in quicker for a better price. Don't know the name of the programme but should be available on I-Player. It was about coastal villages?