[logicerr]

During the build of Henriette Marie, the production of the first iron yacht was started at Charles John Mare's shipyard in Blackwall. Her designer, Thomas Waterman, had already produced commercial vessels, both steam and sail. To produce the racing cutter, he drew significantly on the published works of John Scott Russell, especially the waveline theory, so when the Mosquito was christened and launched in 1848, she became an immediate threat to larger yachts. Although she did not take part in the 1851 RYS £100 Cup, the Mosquito won the 1852 Queen's Cup and in that year beat the larger 178-ton America in another race 'round the Isle of Wight. The Mosquito's "easy and hollow bow, large displacement, well-raked post and deep keel" (in George Lennox Watson's own words) were proven right by her long and successful racing career; Watson followed: "If the Mosquito had been the product of a foreign yard, she would have created a greater sensation than the schooner America, for she exhibited quite as much ingenuity in her design". It is therefore unfortunate that she did not immediately or substantially influence cutter design, although it is important to note that 40 years after her launch, she became one of the very first yachts to be converted to pilotage. She served at Barrow-in-Furness and closely resembled other pilot cutters of that period.
body plan and half-breadth plan of the Mosquito (Badminton Library, volume 22, 1894)
the rig of the racing cutter Mosquito (print from Montague John Guest's memoirs of the Royal Yacht Squadron, 1902) Mosquito
year of launch: 1848
builder: Charles John Mare and Company (Blackwall, UK)
designer: Thomas Waterman
Length Over All: 21.44m
displacement: 49 tons
rig: fore-and-aft gaff cutter rig with square lug topsail and two headsails

[Golobulus]

The French pilot boats were increasingly performance-orientated thereafter, especially as the Société des Régates du Havre started organising races in 1891 which were open to these boats. Abel Le Marchand, an established pilot boat builder, produced a lighter, narrower and shallower vessel with more cutaway forefoot and finer entry for his 1890 design Marie Madeleine. A surviving 1894 sistership, the Marie-Fernand, is a fine example of these working vessels which started to mix with yachting.
body plan, sheer plan and half-breadth plan (with diagonals) of the Marie-Madeleine (collection Claudie Reinhart) Marie-Madeleine H25
year of launch: 1890
modeler/builder: Abel le Marchand (Le Havre, France)
Length Over All: 15.75m
Length between Perpendiculars: 13.85m
beam: 4.10m
draught: 2.50m
displacement: 33.4 tons. more

[rainerfox]

When the age of discovery developed into the modern age of commerce, with the shipping fleets of the French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British empires ensuring a global trade of exotic spices, the demands of an industrialised 19th century Europe required increasing tonnage, and the ships grew significantly in size, sail area, and in consequence, draught. With the largest trading ports inside the English Channel, scattered with rocks and extreme currents, or inside the shallow sounds, harbours and bays on the East coast of a fledgling American nation, fast pilot boats were developed specifically for guiding the increasingly large clippers to land and to port, and the advent of insurance companies made sure this became a generalised obligation. East and west, local experts on rocks and currents, these pilots could not be bypassed, and they advocated a "fiercely independent profession", in Tom Cunliffe's own words. They earned a commission for each commercial ship that they took to port - the larger the ship, the larger the reward. As a result, competition - to get to the larger vessels first - was indeed fierce.

[corwin78]

The long-term goal is to establish Rhoda Mary Shipyard as a hub for traditional boatbuilding: more apprentices (on my visit I met an evangelical 20-year-old who had never set foot in a marina before his traineeship let alone a traditional shipyard), perhaps a forge and a sailmaker. The hope is that Pellew will be the first of the big stuff.

[tabshift]

No chance of that for us coming out of Falmouth harbour. All sails flying – including the topsail for the first time – we make a respectable three knots towards the St Anthony Head lighthouse in a Force 3. [links]

[Expez]

Crew Kelda Smith (left) and Jess Clay tension a halyard. Photo: Nic Compton more

[CODERsp]

Perhaps only Powell would have had the nerve for such a project. Through his company Working Sail, managed by his wife Joanna, he has not only designed and built eight Scilly pilot cutters since 1993, but has also helped rehabilitate a genre of seakindly working craft that had been left to rot following the arrival of glassfibre. His largest previous cutter was Agnes, a pretty 46-footer currently sailing charters.

[DALDEI]

Pellew is embarking on a first charter season, cruising Cornwall and Scotland. Photo: Nic Compton [links]

[Mira]

Coming aboard Pellew in Falmouth’s Penryn river, although she’s almost from-the-wrapper new, her spars and blocks still as shiny as conkers, she appears timeless. more

[methodeux]

We used a mold for the entire deck and cabin top. The top was cored with ½” or ¾” marine plywood.

[Anaxagoras]

I have left out the details of a split mold, of course.” [links]

[zooko]

Nowadays I would use epoxy for lots of reasons. more

[bradford1Merrill]

When all were secured to each other I got Richard Porter (of precision yachts) to help me cover the frames with a product called something like “fabmatt” but I am not sure. I tried to look it up but can’t locate the reference. I only made the prototype plug from it so it is a kind of special product; a woven bi-axial material ( so as to do compound curves) with pre-formed glass rod about ¼” dia. Running longitudinally through the material about 4 inches apart. This allowed for a smooth fit and fair surface from frame to frame.

[Moredread]

Cabin Top Structure – From the Designer Frank Parish [links]

[cryptofo]

We stapled the material onto the frames. Afterward we wetted it out with resin and did a lay-up of mat and roving followed up with gel coat ( if I had planned to use this for a plug only I would have used regular paint and body putty for easy fairing but this was going to be my boat with no copies and no mold so we did it the hard way) and lots of sanding and fairing. more

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[ana]

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[wiskathecat]

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