The Perfect Bristol Channel Boat

steveej said:
Each to their own but I want to go sailing not motoring. And as far as a bristol pilot cutter is concerned it must be close to the top of the list of the worst possible boats for cruising the channel. You would spend you whole life only being able to get into to 2 or 3 places. Boring.

I want to be able to visit places and the wife would prefer a newer AWB (and I would also prefer to go sailing rather than tons of maintenance and a dicky engine).

Maybe a shallow draft fin is the way to and just accept there will be no visits to Ilfracombe or Watermouth.
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You would be condemning yourself to missing all the nicest places. (not that Ilfracombe or Watermouth are in the top ten). Think Porlock, Lynmouth, Tenby and Saundersfoot, Solva, etc....

Now on the south coast I have a deep bulbed fin keel, but if based back in the BC it would be a boat with iron bilge keels. Even here there are times I would like a boat that can dry out easily. Possibly a good example of one of the later Westerlys, if I wanted bigger than a Sadler 32/34 or the brilliant 290.
 
oldmanofthehills said:
Completely overkill except for the RNLI. All those noisy motors drinking money at £60 or more an hour. Now a decent sailing boat enables you to turn that wretched noise off at least half the time and my more modest engine uses perhaps £4 an hour. And yachts are inherently more stable than mobos which is a great reassurance in rolling seas
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A sense of humour isn't a prerequisite for using this forum ... obviously! As for pilot cutters - remind me where they were designed to be used.
 
Kingfisher 3 said:
As for pilot cutters - remind me where they were designed to be used.
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They were designed to meet sailing and steamships midchannel to exchange pilots thus only ever came out of the all weather harbours or anchorages of Barry and such. Lovely craft but designed as a working boat for speed not comfort and not for actually getting into our many fine harbours. Useless for a leisure sailor who wants a cruiser not a museum piece.
 
Kingfisher 3 said:
A sense of humour isn't a prerequisite for using this forum ... obviously! As for pilot cutters - remind me where they were designed to be used.
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Pilot cutters were designed to leave Avonmouth or Barry and race down channel to pilot the merchant ships back up channel. They were never designed to visit the small drying harbours that a Cruising Sailor would want to visit nowadays.
 
The pilot cutters frequently used to wait out in places such as Ilfracombe, tenby, clovelly etc. whilst waiting for a pilot to pick up a return job outwards, and ended up staying in a variety of small harbours, including drying out against walls or in mud. Having the ability to wait out in most of the available harbours was a design consideration. The pilot cutter Breeze was laid up in Porlock for years more recently as well.
 
searj said:
The pilot cutters frequently used to wait out in places such as Ilfracombe, tenby, clovelly etc. whilst waiting for a pilot to pick up a return job outwards, and ended up staying in a variety of small harbours, including drying out against walls or in mud. Having the ability to wait out in most of the available harbours was a design consideration. The pilot cutter Breeze was laid up in Porlock for years more recently as well.
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Yes, but the harbours were more geared to this sort of working/fishing use, not leisure. Try turning up unannounced at Porlock in "Breeze" on a summers day now and trying to get into the inner harbour to put legs out ...

If you can't have a twin or triple keel boat in the BC a longish-keeler with legs is the next best thing: the one thing that really does not work well yet is a modern deep fin. I say yet as some harbours have been and are getting turned into marinas, though perhaps losing their character as a result. In some cases however (Burry Port) anything would be an improvement.
 
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