Looe bound:The giant French bisquine,La Cancalaise,will be among three three-masters attending this summer’s Cornish Lugger Association Regatta in Looe Bay


Smuggling days set for regatta reprise


A trio of three-masted sailing vessels will be the stars of the show at this summer’s biennial regatta of the Cornish Lugger Association in Looe Bay.


In centuries gone by, three-masters would often race in French sailing regattas but, as Paul Greenwood, of East Looe, explains, they almost certainly never sailed in competition on this side of the Channel.


‘It would have been illegal,’ said the chairman of the Cornish Lugger Association, whose plans for


by JOHN COLLINGS Sunday Independent


this year’s June 13-16 regatta weekend are well advanced.


‘The only three-masters off our coasts would have been smuggling ships or the Revenue, so while the smugglers might have “raced” to get away from the authorities, you wouldn’t have seen them at regattas.


‘If you had, you can almost picture the scenario of the Revenue crossing the line first and then saying to the smugglers: “Thank-you very much, you’re nicked!”’


Weather-permitting two of the three-masters, La Cancalaise and the Carontin, will be travelling from France.


An impressive three-masted lugger of 60-ft overall, La Cancalaise is owned and operated by the Assosiation Bisquine Cancalaise, of France, and has visited Looe before.


She was built in 1987 at Cancale as an exact replica of La Perle, the last of the original bisquines.


Catch the wind:George Dart’s Polperro gaffer,Elizabeth Mary, closes on Nick Gates’ 50ft Scottish lugger,Ocean Pearl, during the last regatta


The Carontin, though, will be making her first visit from the Breton port of Bénodet.


Also in attendance will be the Millbrook-built, Grayhound, one of the most exciting new-builds of the 21st Century.


Marcus Rowden and Freya Hart’s replica of a 1776 three-masted Cornish smuggling lugger was launched on ‘Super Saturday’ last year – Great Britain won six gold medals that day but more than 2,000 people turned their backs on the Olympics to see the huge vessel take to the water.


She is 64-ft on deck and 108-ft overall and her shipwright was Chris Rees, the man also behind Pete Goss’ Spirit of Mystery project.


The original Grayhound is thought to have been built at Cawsand by John Parkin, who would famously take orders for cutters and luggers from both the Revenue and the smugglers!


The Grayhound was probably commissioned by John Knill, Collector of Customers at St Ives, and might have carried as many as 14 carriage guns, three pounders and eight swivel guns and been manned by a crew of 47.


Today’s Grayhound will have a crew of between eight and 12. Charter bookings are being taken through Adam and Debbie Purser’s Classic Sailing company of Portscatho (01872) 580 022; by e-mail at: skippers@classic- sailing.co.uk or through the website: www.classic-sailing.co.uk


More than 30 former fishing luggers over 30-ft in length have indicated that they will be attending the Looe event, together with 20 or so smaller luggers. It promises to be some spectacle.


Out of the traps:Grayhound,a replica of a former Cornish smuggling lugger,takes to the water at Millbrook. One of her first public appearances will be at June’s Cornish Lugger Regatta in Looe Bay.


LOOE NEWS MAY 2013 9


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