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Reviving the Fal River Pilots.

This month, one of Cornwall’s largest estuaries will come alive to the sound of beating oars and flogging sails as the inaugural Fal river Festival brings together classic Pilot Cutters and Pilot Gigs in a 16 day flurry of sailing, entertainment and culture.

By Jamie Smith
Photographs courtesy of Classic Sailing.
The Fal River Festival celebrates for the first time the rich diversity ogf life around the remarkable villages, towns and communities sprinkled along it’s banks.
It will also be the first time, since the heyday of sail in the 19th century, that Cornwall has brought together a large gathering of pilot cutters and similar classic boats like those that once plied the estuary for trade.
Pilot cutters – easily spotted by their traditional gaff rigs and distinctive racy-yet-seagoing lines with sweeping sterns – are the fast sailing boats of yesteryear, once used to transport harbour pilots out to incoming ships. Pilots still work today only now these experiences skippers with detailed knowledge of local waters have the aid of fast motor launches to get them out to incoming ships before climbing aboard to steer them in.
Pilot cutters had the task of getting the pilot to the incoming vessel – a similar job to pilot gigs only that the gig, with it’s open, narrow waist and six oarsmen, were less seaworthy and tended to stay further in. The cutters would often go out “on-station” to wait southwest of the Isles of Scilly, to catch incoming shipping.
Gigs that got as far as The Lizard without deploying their pilot, would often pull up on a beach for the night, sleeping uncomfortably on the sand with their boat upturned for shelter. That way they could be back on station at first light, with the hope of picking up a ship.
While pilot gigs have enjoyed a renaissance, pilot cutters have remained a little more low key, perhaps because the surviving boats are often hard at work paying their way on the charter market while the gigs can often be seen racing in the waters around the Cornish coast.

Debbie Purser, of Classic Sailing in Porthscatho, is organising the pilot cutter get-together for the festival. “We’ve invited original working pilot cutters and working replicas so we can recreate what it would have looked like in the 1870’s and 1890’s when there would have been 20 or 30 of these majestic boats kicking around in the Fal,” she explains, “it will be quite something to see so many pilot cutters together. It will be a blast from the past and a chance to see what the Fal would have looked like back in the heyday of sail. These are very special boats – I think one thing that’s so good is their ability to back their foresails and heave-to, effectively putting the brakes on at sea, which allows them to sit out rough weather.”
Pilot cutters were built very much as fast, functional boats and they needed a very chunky tender in order to drop the pilot on the ship in any conditions. “Once the pilot was dropped off, his lad would either row back to the cutter, or they would tow it behind until the job was done,” explains Debbie. “It must have been a horrendous task in rough weather, certainly no job for the faint hearted. Down below they weren’t fitted out for cargo, they were designed for people which is why they make such good charter boats.”
Pilot boats were built to be fast because the first pilot to an incoming ship won the contract. While rowed pilot gigs and fast sailing Cutters existed at the same time, little is known about how they worked in competition whit each other says Tony Pawlyn, head of the Bartlett Library at Falmouth’s National Maritime Museum. “We’re not quite sure how gigs and pilot cutters worked alongside. There’s no real evidence of how the pilot gigs and pilot cutters worked together. The pilot cutters would have had four or five pilots on board and a couple of hands who just worked the boat. They came back into port to pick them up again once they had completed a job. Gigs were certainly more inshore boats – that is unless they were going smuggling in which case they went some distance.”
David Barnicoat, one of today’s Falmouth pilots, says even with today’s equipment it’s a challenging job. “It has constantly changing parameters – one moment you could find yourself on a small coaster going into the Porthoustock Quarry on the Lizard, the next you can find yourself bringing a 300m cruise ship into the Carrick Roads. When you think back to how the job used to be done, there are many differences, but the one thing that remains the same is that the force of the weather is such that it can never be ignores – you must watch it and be aware of it all the time. Even on a clear day with the sun shining you have to pay close attention to what a ship is doing and what it might be about to do.”
The Fal River Festival aims to raise awareness of the role not only of the port of Falmouth but also of the other villages scattered along it’s length. The picturesque fishing village of St Mawes, for example. Was home to many pilot cutters. Despite bearing the Falmouth “F” registration on the mainsail, they weren’t based there. The first two pilot licences granted in the Fal were to St Mawes families and in 1887 there were as many as 30 licensed pilots working on pilot cutters out of St Mawes – nearly half of the total for the whole port of Falmouth.
As well as a parade of sail and rowing, the festival will see pilot cutters and gigs taking part in special events such as pilot dash to be the first to a ship. In between it is hoped the boats will raft up to make the estuary look like a scene of old. Many of the pilot cutters will also be offering day sails. The festival will see a fleet of pilot cutter replicas – some, Eve of St Mawes, Lizzie May, Hesper and Agnes, were built relatively recently by Luke Powell at his boat yard in Gweek.
The French pilot cutter Jolie Brise, built in 1913, and now owned and run by a school in Wiltshire will be hot-footing it from the Round-The-Island-Race to be there. She is a classic example of an original pilot cutter still working today taking charter guests. Her name comes from the romantic French description of what the English call ‘Force Five of the beaufort scale’. Run by Dauntsey’s Scool, she sails 250 days each year.
Jolie Brise skipper Toby Marris told Cornwall Today “The Fal River Festival is going to be fantastic and we are very much looking forward to being able to take part in this gathering of historic boats and in such  beautiful surroundings. We’re especially looking forward being able to race the other boats, which should be great fun. We’re looking forward to showing people what pilot cutters are all about. They were built to be very accommodating and at the same time very fast boats. They are breathtaking to sail but they can also be breathtaking to watch. “
West Country trading ketch Bessie Ellen will also be attending. The restored 1904 wooden coaster – a star in her own right – will act out the part of an incoming ship for the cutters to practice getting a pilot to.
“The Fal estuary is an amazing area”, adds chairman of the Fal River Festival Chris Curtis. “It has a unique culture, a vast maritime and industrial history, and part of it has been recognised as a Special Area of Conservation – much of which can only be appreciated from on the water. The festival focuses on one of the thing that Cornwall does extremely well – various bodies and organisations working together to deliver exciting opportunities for enjoyment. I am sure there will be something in the programme for everyone to enjoy.”
The aim of the festival, he adds is to give people more of an opportunity to find out about the Fal through a range of activities both on and off the water. “We hope people will travel by boat to as many events as possible not just because we want to promote sustainable transport but also because we know they will be blown away by some of the views along the river which are simply stunning,