The Boats That Built Britain - The Pilot Cutter - Part 2

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.

Let us start a journey back in time. Back to the black and white films of history. The times have changed, but it is good to know what kind of things have changed and where are the roots of pilotage.

Look at Life Vol 01 Transport Pilot Aboard 1963
The story of Britain's pilotage services.

Official presentation video of the 57th EMPA Meeting Rome 2023
April 24th - 28th, 2023

There were some astonishing pictures in the press some weeks ago of a Royal Marine employing a jetpack to launch himself from a RIB to land on the deck of a ship with extraordinary precision. You cannot imagine that it would be a feasible proposition to equip pilots with such a device, but it did cross my mind after reading a horrible catalogue of disgraceful seamanship and poor design exhibited in what ought to be the simple matter of keeping pilots safe as they board and leave ships.

A valuable campaign managed by Chris Young, Kevin Vallance and others, which we found on Facebook .

In this video we can see how a pilot boat (probably Barcelona) approached the vessel to disembark the pilot.

The Alusafe 1620 Pilot is a special designed Pilot Vessel. The vessel is designed for harsh weather in open seas as well as in sheltered waters with high marine traffic.

Everyone said, "You can't do that!" Until someone came along who didn't know that. Then he did it:
What do you think about this mooring solution?