Pilot cutter Tallulah and Classic Sailing RYA school has been helping the Cornish Maritime Trust train their future skippers this year. Back in the Spring we subsidised 5 Cornish Maritime Trust members to gain their day skipper practical on traditionally rigged gaff cutter Tallulah. An important qualification step on their way to command a historic boat. It was so popular amongst members that 5 more potential skippers are due to sail Tallulah on a second 5 day RYA Day Skipper course coming up this autumn.
Cornwall Maritime Trust – Working Historic Fleet
Cornwall Maritime Trust run the following vessels.
Barnabas – (dipping lugger) the only survivor from St Ives of the thousand-strong fleet of lug rigged seine and drift net fishing boats registered at Cornish ports at the end of the 19th century.
Softwing – (gaff cutter rigged) – 1900 Truro River Oyster dredger
Ellen – 1882 original Gorran Haven Crabber (spritsail rig)
Silver Stream –replica of a 1992 Sennen Cove Crabber – an open boat and mini dipping lugger
They all have sailing rigs and hull shapes that will disappear if we lose the skills to both maintain them and SAIL them to their full potential. Like Classic Sailing, CMT want to see our maritime heritage out on the water sailing and not in a museum.
To achieve those aims we need the next generation to not only take the helm, but be confident to skipper those vessels.
RYA Practical Courses on Tallulah
Shared Objectives and Skipper Training Plan
Luckily the Cornish Maritime Trust were already laying the groundwork when Softwing’s skipper Ian Woodford came on Tallulah to gain his RYA Day Skipper Practical.
Whilst Tallulah is not a lugger, the skills she teaches aligned well with the Trusts ideas of how to train their members to sail and navigate on long keeled vessels with a mix of old skills and new. A meeting followed Ian’s voyage and plans were hatched for Debbie’s company and Cornish Maritime Trust to work together.
A Good Year for The Cornish Maritime Trust
The trust has been winning awards and recognition for its activities in the last 18 months.
In 2024 the CMT made the news by taking their biggest vessel – 143year old Barnabas -all the way from Newlyn to Northern Scotland – via 4 Celtic lands. The voyage was an inspired idea – to take delivery of a new mast from a sustainable source in Loch Broom – rig it and sail the vessel back. It was a great adventure which caught the eye of the media, all the way along their route. There were trust members young and old involved in sailing Barnabus to Ullapool with stops in Wales and Ireland.
Barnabas won the National Historic Ships Flagship of the year and in 2025 the historic lugger was also voted Classic Boat Centenarian of the Year. This in part was due to the trusts programme to train new skippers and crew with a mix of small and bit boat training sessions and modern day training like the RYA theory and practical courses.
CMT trustee and skipper Rob McDowell said:
“The Cornish Maritime Trust stands not just for preservation but also education of the next generation and the fostering of community.”
Saving Old Harbours Too
In addition to going out on the water members are heavily involved in the maintenance of wooden boats on the beach, and have been working to conserve the harbour walls and slips of old Newlyn harbour.
Did we find any budding lugger skippers?
Tallulah’s RYA instructor Debbie was impressed how the first course went. Considering the course was only 5 sailing days and all the students wanted to achieve Day Skipper we packed a lot of action in. The students had all done their Day Skipper theory recently with Jo Jo Pickering so they were well primed.
There was more than a smattering of the next generation with Theo and Olivia, and some great contributions from the older sailors who a bit further along in their sailing career like Paul, who was already the mate on Softwing, and Will who was the mate from Barnabas. Trustee Ian came along to take notes and see how some of the practical drills could be built into future training sessions on their own fleet.
