The historical Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter - Part 1

Many consider the Bristol Channel pilot cutter to be the finest sailing boat design ever. Fast, seaworthy and beautiful to behold, the pilot cutter is the perfect combination of form and function - a thoroughbred perfectly adapted to a life in one of the Britain's most treacherous stretches of water. Sailor and writer Tom Cunliffe explores the life of the pilots and sails a perfectly restored cutter to find out just what drove these men and their wonderful machines.

Let us start a journey back in time. Back to the black and white films of history. The times have changed, but it is good to know what kind of things have changed and where are the roots of pilotage.

Look at Life Vol 01 Transport Pilot Aboard 1963
The story of Britain's pilotage services.

Raw footage of a an offshore Pilot transfer.
More pictures and an occasional video can be found at
https://instagram.com/sea_weathered?igshid=3qbu808ioyqf

APL Belgium in rough water near the Farallon Islands pilot station.

Shown here is some footage of a pilot boat that was recently expertly delivered by our driver Declan to A Coruna from Cork. This load was 4.85m high, 24m long and 4.2m wide overall. It takes a great team coordinating from our office to organise the shipping, escorts and permits here in Ireland and Spain in order to make Declan's job a bit easier. It then takes the drivers expert hand to ensure that the load arrives safely and you can be sure in using Whitten Road Haulage that our years of...

Briggs Marine announced its is adding a new pilot vessel to its fleet in response to demand for pilot services within the U.K.

In it´s August 2022 monthly safety scenario, the Swedish Club describes an accident where a pilot had fallen into the water, after one of the side ropes of the ladder broke.

Happy Holidays!
TRENZ wishes you a merry christmas and a happy new year!