This is Paddy Rooney, Coxswain of the Carlingford Pilot Boat, on the lough which separates County Down and County Louth. The boat operates out of a small jetty at Greencastle - so called after it's Norman castle near the shore and not far from the town of Rostrevor with it's beautiful park and colourful streets. In this film Paddy and his crew rendezvoused with a cargo ship at Greenore Port - which is also a uniquely preserved 1800's railway village .
Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.
