Description
From the Loft Floor to the Sea is photographer and designer Christian Topf’s exhaustive visual and verbal journal of the building of the 68ft Pilot Cutter Pellew, by Luke Powell and his team in Cornwall.
She is the largest traditional wooden sailing boat to be built in the UK for decades – and this is probably the largest and most gorgeous book ever to record the process.
Chris visited the yard at Truro almost every week throughout the build to bring us this mouthwatering production, in which you can almost smell the sawdust, the hot pitch, and the linseed oil.
One of the most successful of the Cornish pilot cutters was Vincent, built in 1852 for the Vincent family of St. Mawes. At 61ft on the water-line, 68ft overall, and 90ft over her spars, Vincent was a substantial vessel displacing 74 tons. With a total sail area of 2,290 sqft, her mainsail alone was 1,500 sqft, requiring both skill and brawn to sail and manoeuvre. She worked for seventy years and finally retired in 1922.
But, while her passing went almost unnoticed, she was not entirely forgotten and, in 2015, when a group of enthusiasts sought a suitable large pilot cutter to build anew, Vincent’s plans were unearthed…
In May 2017, 165 years after Vincent was launched, the keel was laid. Three years later, Pellew — named after Edward Pellew, a great Cornish frigate captain of the late 1700s — set sail from Falmouth, Cornwall.
A testament to the skill and enthusiasm of all who worked on her. This is the story, in words and pictures, of her build.
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