The popular sailing journalist celebrates the 19th century pilot cutters that operated across the UK and Northern Europe in this illustrated history. The pilot cutters that operated around the coasts of northern Europe until the First World War were some of the most seaworthy and beautiful craft ever built. With a hull and rig of particular elegance, their speed and close-windedness bought them an enviable reputation. Though many were lost, the few that survived have inspired yacht designers, sailors and traditional craft enthusiasts over the last century. Pilot Cutters Under Sail pays tribute to these remarkable vessels with a detailed history of their development and use on the rough waters of the European seaboard. Sailing expert Tom Cunliffe describes the ships themselves, their masters and crews, and the skills they needed for the competitive and dangerous work of pilotage. He explains the differences between the craft of disparate coasts—from the Scilly Isles and the Bristol Channel to northern France and the wild coastline of Norway. Woven into the history of their development are the stories of the men who sailed them.

The pilot cutters that operated around the coasts of northern Europe until the First World War were amongst the most seaworthy and beautiful craft of their size ever built, while the small number that have survived have inspired yacht designers, sailors and traditional craft enthusiasts over the last hundred years.??Even in their day they possessed a charisma unlike any other working craft; their speed and close-windedness, their strength and seaworthiness, fused together into a hull and rig of particular elegance, all to guide the mariner through the rough and tortuous waters of the European seaboard, bought them an enviable reputation.??This new book is both a tribute to and a minutely researched history of these remarkable vessels. The author, perhaps the most experienced sailor of the type, describes the ships themselves, their masters and crews, and the skills they needed for the competitive and dangerous work of pilotage. He explains the differences between the craft of disparate coasts Ð of the Scilly Isles and the Bristol Channel, of northern France, and the wild coastline of Norway Ð and weaves into the history of their development the stories of the men who sailed them.??Written to complement the recent histories of pilot schooners and open boat pilotage, edited and written by the author, this book will be an essential addition to the libraries of historians and enthusiasts of traditional boats.??As seen in the Wiltshire Times.

Tom Cunliffe is a well-known British writer and sailing enthusiast who's Bristol Channel Pilot cutter Hirta is familiar to TV viewers in the UK.

A handbook on sailing classic boats by the 'guru of gaff-rig sailors', replete with illustrations and clear descriptions of techniques that are unique to the classic boat world.