The Falmouth Working Boat is a type of small traditional sailing craft that evolved for fishing in the waters of Falmouth, Cornwall.
Falmouth working boats have a gaff cutter rig and a long keel hull. As well as being general purpose fishing boats they have a specific function of dredging the native oysters (Ostrea edulis).
In the summer months they are intensively raced, forming a colourful spectacle in the Cornish inshore waters.
Falmouth working boats range from about 22 feet (7 m) to 32 feet (10 m) long. [1]
In its traditional form the boats have a hull with a plumb stem and almost vertical transom, with a long straight keel. Typically they are internally ballasted. The working boats have a three-quarter deck, with a small cuddy forward. The single mast is keel-stepped.
The mainsail is raised on a gaff. [2] The staysail may be rigged to a bumkin which extends its foot past the stem head. The jib is hauled out on a long bowsprit, which is often tightened downwards with the bobstay giving it a slight curve. A topsail is frequently employed, which is raised on a yard rather than a topmast.
Local bylaws prohibit the use of engines when dredging for oysters. The Falmouth fishing fleet is thus one of very few fleets in the world that routinely fish under sail alone.
Oysters are dredged from the sea bed using a small trawl or drudge, which is a weighted net that is towed along the bottom. Under sail this is accomplished by using the mainsail with a small jib slightly aback.
The boat's speed can be controlled by slacking or tightening the jib, while the skipper handles the drudges, and sorts out the recovered oysters.
In the summer months the oyster boats are raced against each other. The boats have brightly coloured topsails.
The overall season's winner receives the "Silver Oyster" prize.
Many Falmouth working boats have been converted for use as yachts, and the type has inspired many successful yacht designs.
The hull shape has good seakeeping qualities, and the size of the boat is practical for short handed cruising.
The Heard 23 and 28 designs were based on a Falmouth working boat designed by Percy Dalton, and these have become popular yachts, while the same GRP hulls are also used for fishing and racing in Falmouth.
A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sails fore and aft, or as a gaff-rig with triangular foresail(s) and a gaff rigged mainsail. Sailboats can be classified according to type of rig, and so a sailboat may be a sloop, catboat, cutter, ketch, yawl, or schooner. A sloop usually has only one headsail, although an exception is the Friendship sloop, which is usually gaff-rigged with a bowsprit and multiple headsails. If the vessel has two or more headsails, the term cutter may be used, especially if the mast is stepped further towards the back of the boat.
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of 2 or more masts and, in the case of a 2 masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schooner also has a square topsail on the foremast, to which may be added a topgallant. Differing definitions leave uncertain whether the addition of a fore course would make such a vessel a brigantine. Many schooners are gaff-rigged, but other examples include Bermuda rig and the staysail schooner.
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
A sail plan is a description of the specific ways that a sailing craft is rigged. Also, the term “sail plan” is a graphic depiction of the arrangement of the sails for a given sailing craft.
A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig, to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put.
A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsails on a modern boat.
A topsail ("tops'l") is a sail set above another sail; on square-rigged vessels further sails may be set above topsails.
A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel.
A cutter is a sailing vessel which is distinguished from a sloop by having more than one foresails, and the main mast stepped slightly further back. Cutters are most commonly private yachts but the term may also be used for some rowing or power boats, for example, the United States Coast Guard Cutter.
Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the gaff. Because of the size and shape of the sail, a gaff rig will have running backstays rather than permanent backstays.
A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 17th century; the term Marconi, a reference to the inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, became associated with this configuration in the early 20th century because the wires that stabilize the mast of a Bermuda rig reminded observers of the wires on early radio masts.
Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars which are perpendicular, or square, to the keel of the vessel and to the masts. These spars are called yards and their tips, beyond the last stay, are called the yardarms. A ship mainly rigged so is called a square-rigger.
The Friendship sloop, also known as a Muscongus Bay sloop or lobster sloop, is a gaff-rigged working boat design that originated in Friendship, Maine around 1880 and has survived as a traditional-style sailboat.
A smack was a traditional fishing boat used off the coast of Britain and the Atlantic coast of America for most of the 19th century and, in small numbers, up to the Second World War. Many larger smacks were originally cutter-rigged sailing boats until about 1865, when smacks had become so large that cutter main booms were unhandy. The smaller smacks retain the gaff cutter rig. The larger smacks were lengthened and re-rigged and new ketch-rigged smacks were built, but boats varied from port to port. Some boats had a topsail on the mizzen mast, while others had a bowsprit carrying a jib.
The log canoe is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay region. Based on the dugout, it was the principal traditional fishing boat of the bay until superseded by the bugeye and the skipjack. However, it is most famous as a racing sailboat, and races continue to be held.
The bugeye is a type of sailboat developed in the Chesapeake Bay for oyster dredging. The predecessor of the skipjack, it was superseded by the latter as oyster harvests dropped.
The Polperro Gaffer is a type of fishing vessel used in Cornwall. The Great Gale of 1891 destroyed the fishing fleets of many of the smaller Cornish villages. The old boats were generally clinker-planked and lug-rigged. The new boats built after the Gale with government intervention and support were to a new design, carvel planked and with the "modern" gaff rig, boats we now know as typically West Country with straight stem and transom sterns though the lines varied from port to port.
A masthead rig on a sailing vessel consists of a forestay and backstay both attached at the top of the mast.
The Aquarius 24 Pilot Cutter, also called the Aquarius Pilot Cutter 24, Aquarius 24 Cutter and the Topsail Pilot Cutter, is an American trailerable sailboat that was designed by Frank Parish as a cruiser and first built in 1979. The design was based upon a Lyle C. Hess sailboat.
The Cornish Crabber 24 is a series of British trailerable sailboats, designed by Roger Dongray as cruisers and first built in 1974.
