Brixham Heritage Rally (1 Jul 2024)

August 12, 2024

Earlier this year me and Falanda moved from our winter berth in Penryn to Sailors Creek in Flushing where my friend Jake Whyte was restoring his new boat ‘Radiance’. She is a 37’ gaff cutter, larch on oak frames built in 1936. Radiance was built in a Smack yard in Boston, Linkinshire as a yacht, so is massively overbuilt with 1.5inch planking and 4” frames, she is 13 tonnes.

Radiance had been sitting against a wall in Gweek for 10 years before Jake bought her in March, so after a quick scape off at Tremaine quay, up the helford, he put the sail back on and attached all those bits of rope that assesorise the gaffers. She looked lovely sailing back, touching 7kts with the wind behind us, however on return to Flushing Jake proceeded to make the most worrying holes in the hull as he dug out all the rot.

More holes were made in the deck, and we had fun learning how to scarf in new bits of wood before the whole deck and coachroof was sanded and repainted. Having left the boatbuilding course in January for whatever reason, it was good to be doing something both practical and productive.

With the help of Jake’s friends and family from Penryn, the interior was sanded and painted, the beam shelf refastened, half of the interior shelving ripped out, various parts of the engine looked out and a bed frame made. With a deadline of 2 weeks to Brixham heritage regatta, replanking became the biggest priority so new wood was put in the hole in the front cabin and mid ships by Jake and his Dad Spike.

The holes either side of the stern post didn’t quite get seen to so were patched with half inch ply and a load of sika flex. This was a certain type of look even in the creek next to Spikes 80’ project ‘Keewaden’, however amoungst all the freshly painted boats at Brixham, she definitely stood out.

A plank had been put in the previous night and when we left for Brixham on Wednesday there were still 12mm studs sticking out. A new anti boarding policy.

Radiance flew downwind at 6kts all the way to Berry head where we motored the last few miles to the breakwater. The engine seemed to pushing her along well at around 4kts so down came the sails before we came to moor up. At around 11pm we were about 100yards to the pontoon when the engine cut out twice, and we were left, drinfting bowsprit first into ‘Provident’. Jake pushed off from the end of the bowsprit and we avoided direct collision, mooring up alongside the Brixham Trawlers for the night. The trip was 15 hrs in total.

The next morning I jumped on the train back to Falmouth, only getting back to Falanda at 5pm, just in time to get 10l of fuel into her empty tanks. I slipped her lines and we headed off down the channel, sailing at 5kts with a forecasted dwindling W wind.

Around 3 hrs after sunset, we were half a nm off the Eddystone when the wind died completely. I decided to motor in order to catch the tide around start point in the morning.

It was that time of night when your just starting to loose it, and on ignition, the engine produced a very loud squeal that didn’t seem to go away no matter what I tried. We were drifting slowly towards the Eddystone which was by then about a quarter of a mile away, and I was out of phone signal so decided that it must be and electrical fault.

We motored on at 3kts for about an hr when there was a loud bang on the hull and the engine cut out for 20 seconds. At this stage I was sure it was either the kraken or some other mystical sea creature however I reassured myself it was probably just a crab pot. We were still moving at 3kts and the engine sounded fine so we continued on.

Another 2 hrs later I spotted the start point lighthouse, so altered course and headed towards it. 20 minutes on this course proved that the lighthouse was infact moving. After consulting the AIS, I realised that it was instead a cruise ship.

The wind picked up so off went the engine and we rounded bolt head as it got light, by 6.30 we had rounded start point, with 3.5 kts of tide with us and at 9.30am we moored up alongside Jake. Soon my Dad slipped in between Jake and the pontoon on his new boat ‘Nora’.

Nora is a realitively famous 40’ Colin archer, oak on oak with teak decks, and although a wonderful boat, she is famous for perhaps not such amazing reasons.

Brixham Heritage Sailing Regatta and Rally was great fun, as always, and it was great to be rafted up alongside my dad and other local boats again. On the day of the course it was forecasted to be blowing 25kts and a mast check had not yet happened onboard Radiance, so I had crew, for one of the first time ever. Although a bit of a terrifying prospect, having crew for the course proved to be almost enjoyable experience.

Jake was very handy even in such a small cockpit, and despite a slight disagreement on which was starboard tack we got on well together. Falanda got first in class and we didn’t even crash into anyone!