Boats built for a job
Traditional Cornish boats were not designed to be admired. They were tools, built to suit a particular fishery, a particular stretch of water and the money the owner had to spend. A boat that worked well off an open beach could be quite different from one that spent its life on a sheltered river, and those differences produced the regional types that enthusiasts still recognize.
Because records of early boats are thin, it is wise to be cautious about exact dates and origins. What can be said with confidence is that by the nineteenth century a number of well-defined types were in everyday use, and many were built locally by small yards that passed on their methods by apprenticeship rather than by written plans.
Luggers
The lugger is probably the best-known Cornish fishing boat. It is a sailing vessel with a lugsail, a four-cornered sail hung from a yard that is set at an angle on the mast. Luggers were widely used for pilchard, mackerel and other fishing, and different ports developed their own versions. Boats from Mount’s Bay, St Ives and Looe, for example, are often described as distinct types, though the lines between them were not rigid.
Many luggers were decked or partly decked, which gave crews some shelter and a place to carry gear and catch. They usually carried a small crew and a good deal of sail for their size, which made them fast and weatherly but demanded skill to handle in rough water. Their sails were often tanned a reddish brown, a treatment that helped preserve the cloth, and that color is part of the traditional picture of a Cornish harbor.
Fishing luggers gradually gave way to engine-powered boats in the early twentieth century. A number of sailing luggers have been restored and still sail, kept going by volunteers and enthusiasts.
Pilot gigs
The pilot gig is a long, narrow rowing boat, traditionally with six oars and a coxswain. Gigs were used in many places on the Cornish coast and around the Isles of Scilly to carry pilots out to larger ships, and also to take people and goods between the shore and vessels at anchor. According to tradition, crews raced to reach an incoming ship first, because the pilot who arrived first often won the work, and that competition is the root of today’s gig racing.
Gigs are clinker-built, which means the planks overlap along their edges, a method that produces a light but strong hull. Traditional gigs were commonly made with elm planking, though other timbers and modern materials are now used as well. A few gigs built in the nineteenth century survive, and modern clubs build new ones to the same general pattern. Rowing clubs along the coast and on the Isles of Scilly keep the tradition active.
Estuary and river craft
Not all working boats were seagoing. On the Fal and other estuaries, shallow-water craft were used to gather oysters. Falmouth’s oyster fishery has long been associated with boats worked under sail or oar, and local rules are often said to have helped protect the oyster beds by limiting the use of engines. Details of the rules have changed over time, so it is best to treat that as a general tradition, not a fixed regulation.
Elsewhere, flat-bottomed barges and small boats carried goods and people along tidal rivers. Because these craft ran in sheltered water, they could be broader and shallower than a lugger. Their cargoes were part of the wider coastal trade between small ports. Smaller punts and dinghies, built in great numbers, served as tenders and for inshore fishing. The Fal estuary has remained a center for such small craft.
Materials and methods
Traditional boatbuilding relied on timber from nearby forests when available. Oak is widely used for frames and other strong parts, elm for keels and some planking, and softwoods such as larch or pine for planking and decking. Exact choices depended on cost, supply and the builder’s habits.
Typical stages in building a wooden boat include:
- Setting up the keel and stem, the backbone of the hull.
- Shaping frames or ribs, sometimes bent into place after being softened by steam.
- Fastening planks to the frames, either overlapping in clinker style or edge to edge in carvel style.
- Caulking seams, fitting the mast and rigging, and finishing with paint or tar-based coatings.
Much of the work was done by eye and experience, using hand tools such as adzes, planes and saws. Builders often worked from a half-model, a carved wooden half hull, or from lines drawn on the floor. Sail makers, blacksmiths and rope makers supplied other parts, so a boatyard was one node in a wider network of trades.
Why the skills mattered
A fisherman’s life depended on the boat, so quality counted. A hull had to survive heavy seas, open beaches and years of repeated use, and it had to be repairable with local skills. Boats were often repaired and rebuilt many times, which means an old boat may contain only a fraction of its original timber.
The same tradition fed into other maritime work. The craft of building sturdy wooden hulls links to the harbor work described in harbor design, and some of these skills appear in fishing villages where yards and sail lofts once stood next to net lofts and cellars. Many builders also made lifeboats and pilot boats alongside fishing craft.
The tradition today
Fiberglass and steel have replaced wood in most commercial fishing, and engines are universal. Nonetheless, some yards still build and restore wooden boats, and heritage groups keep working types afloat. Visitors can see traditional boats at harbors, regattas and gig races. Watching from the shore is usually best; stay clear of slipways, quay edges and moving boats, and follow any local instructions.