BCA Boats

Arwen

An open Memory 19, built in 1975 by her first owner Hugh Harrison.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3066

Baggywrinkle

Baggywrinkle is a Tideway 12 foot gunter rigged dinghy built in wood. Owned by Roger Barnes, she made many voyages of discovery in the Bristol Channel before being sold some years ago. 

Blue Jack

A Cornish Shrimper Sail No. 277, built at Rock by Cornish Crabbers in 1988. Previously named Nutmeg.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3469

Capraia

A Heard 28 Falmouth working boat built in 2000. From her home port of Milford Haven she has cruised extensively to the Scilly Isles, Scotland, Ireland and completed the Round Britain circumnavigation Challenge in 2013.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3143

Charlotte

Morecombe Bay Prawner built by Crossfield of Arnside in 1893. She was in the Bristol Channel for fifty years but has now left for major restoration.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 1615

Chloe

The mould for Sou’wester18 was taken from a wooden 'Cove Boat' of uncertain vintage in Cadgwith Cornwall. Sou’westers were originally built in Penryn, but by 2008 production had moved to Salterns Boatbuilders at Hamble. Purchased as a blank GRP hull, Chloe was fitted out by Charlie Harris in a workshop in Barry Docks, and launched in Oct 2009.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2995

Corrinda

A large gaff ketch about which we know next to nothing. The photograph has the caption Corrinda racing in Cardiff Regatta, September 27th1913. It is part of an archive relating to Shearwater, a copy of which is held in the OGA BC Archives currently held at Cardiff Bay YC.
Bristol Channel.

Dipper

Dipper is a Yachting Monthly Senior built by Keith McIlwain and first launched in May 2022 at Cardiff Bay Yacht Club. The YMS was designed by Kenneth Gibbs, a Thames boatbuilder, in the 1950's. Dipper is shallow draught due to her lifting centreboard, 16' long and weighs less than 500kg. A cabin provides adequate stowage and accommodation for venturing near and far.

Eleanor B

40ft Looe Lugger replica built in steel in Bristol by Bristol Marine in 2002. Designed by Alan Pape, it is understood that she was inspired and built by her first owner Barry Hobbs.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2429

Ester

Oysterman 22 25’6” LOA, Built by Oystersailors Ltd, Penrhyn.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 1701

Ffion

A gaff sloop open dinghy, built by Salterns Boatyard, Burlsedon in 2009.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2940

Golden Vanity

Golden Vanity was built in 1908 for the artist Arthur Briscoe by J Sanders & Co, Galmpton, near Brixham.  38ft length with a beam of 12ft, she was built for steadiness along the lines of the 'Mumble Bees', the fishing boats that worked around the Mumbles near Swansea. Derelict, rescued and restored in the 1980s, she started a new career in youth experience, sail training and holiday charter.
Bristol Channel, OGA No. 511

Grey Dawn

A 38ft Watson Lifeboat No. 530, built by Thames Ironworks Co. in 1904. Named Oldham and first stationed at Abersoch. Records show she saved many lives. Sold out of service, she won the Barry YC’s Bristol Channel Race in 1937 (D.Lewis) and 1960 (E.G. Lewis, son).

Happy Quest

David Grainger began building Happy Quest in 1978 at Pembroke Dock, Milford Haven. She was completed in 1995 as a traditional wooden topsail gaff cutter with no engine. She cruised, raced and sailed as far afield as Holyhead, Dublin Bay and the coast of Brittany for twenty-five years. In 2010 she won the inaugural Dublin Bay Askard Trophy race.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2994

Hetty Pegler

Mark 1 Cornish Crabber modified with a Mk 2 rig. Designed by Roger Dongray and built by Cornish Crabbers at Rock in 1979.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3443

Hildebrand

A high peak gaff sloop open dinghy kept at Lake Clywedog in mid Wales.
Bristol Channel OGA

Jack Heron

Designed by Herbert W, White and built in Southampton in 1900 by White Brothers, this 36ft (LOD) gaff yawl was converted back to gaff rig and extensively restored at Landshipping, Milford Haven around 2008. She is on the National Historic Ships Register (No. 2455).
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2908

Jezebel

A Cornish Crabber 17, sail number C65, designed by Roger Dongray, built in 1998 by Cornish Crabbers at Rock. Her home port was Cardiff.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3309

Lapwing

A Francois Vivier design (Jewell Class) 6m gaff yawl constructed from 9mm clinker ply with a Torqeedo outboard. Built in 2016 by Rob Green, she is kept in Somerset when not on the road or the water - so far she has enjoyed the delights of Lake Windermere, Ullswater, Norfolk Broads, Cardiff, Poole Harbour, Weymouth, Plymouth Sound, Helford River & Carrick Roads.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3299

Lowly Worm

Lowly Worm was a 31ft ferro cement gaff cutter built in the grounds of Atlantic College in Glamorgan by Alan Glanville in the 1980s.  Later sailed to Sweden, she has since been broken up.

Lune Fox

A 12' 6" Lune Pilot built by Character Boats. Acquired by BC member Dee Holladay in 2008 and kept and sailed regularly on Ullswater, taking part in several OGA rallies and local events. Sold on in 2021.
OGA No. 2643

Mignonette

Maurice Griffiths design gaff sloop, built be Seacraft and launched at Leigh-on-Sea in 1949. She is 28' 4" LOA, 25' 0" LWL, 10' 0" Beam and draws 3' 0". Currently thought to be in Bristol Docks, she has been in the Bristol Channel since 1969.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 816

Moon River

A gaff-rigged Yarmouth 23 built Wimbourne in 2001. She completed the 2013 OGA Round Britain Challenge, sailed single-handed by her lady skipper! An exceptional voyage that included a stopover at Dale in Milford Haven.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2618

Moya

A yacht on the lines of a Morecambe Bay Prawner by Crossfields of Arneside in 1910. In 1976 she took part in the Fastnet Race. Currently kept in the Mediterranean.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2334

Nona Me

Bayraider 17 built in ply and epoxy in 2012 by BC Area member Steve Jones from a Swallow Yachts kit. She has been trailed and sailed extensively, and has attended small boat events, including the OGA 55 celebration on the River Medina, IoW in 2018.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 3270

Ostara

Somerset Flatner built by the late Gilbert Mayes towards the end of the 1990s. One of three small double-ended sailing fishing boats built during a revival of interest in similar vessels once used on the Somerset Levels and the coasts of Somerset and North Devon.
Bristol Channel OGA

Piglet

Piglet, was originally a standard Skipper 17 bermudan-rigged pocket rocket, but recently got not only a new name but a whole new persona. She morphed into a gaff-rigged topsail yawl with bowsprit and staysail and a lowered coachroof. Pretty slippery too!
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2654

Playmate

Poole Harbour Fishing vessel (originally open) built c.1898. (Broken up).
Bristol Channel OGA No. 1087

Pooh Bear

A Drascombe Long Boat now in the hands of Roger Flambert. She is based at Cardiff Bay YC and will doubtless soon be having a re-fit. She is believed to date from 1972 and had the name Curlew in the early years of the 2000s.
Bristol Channel OGA

Puffin

Winklebrig 15 Sail No. 91 built by Eric Berqvist 1996.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2957

Quest

As a lug-sailed Coble from the north east coast of England, Quest was something of a rarity in the Bristol Channel. She sailed out of Bristol for a while before being gifted to the West Wales Maritime Heritage Society at Pembroke Dock where she awaits restoration.
Bristol Channel OGA 

Rawanah

A 35 ft Maurice Griffiths designed gaff ketch double-ender. In 2007 and 2008 she won the Cock of the Bristol Channel Race (Barry Yacht Club) in the capable hands of John Cochrane from Bristol and his crew from Underfalls Yard. She was later sold away and returned to her roots in Scotland for which she was entirely suited. Built at Pin Mill by Harry King and Sons in 1935. She was an early member of the OGA.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 141

Sally J

Heard 28 built 1981 by Mylor Bridge Gaffers & Luggers. Her home port has been Milford Haven. In 2000 she took part in the Celtic Voyage linking Ireland with Wales and Cornwall to Brittany, to celebrate the new millennium. She won the gaffer class in a race organised in the newly enclosed Cardiff Bay. 
Bristol Channel OGA No. 1468

Sapphire

Swale Pilot built by JEP Marine (on the Swale).
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2837

St Piran

Built in 1994 at Wadebridge, and cabin later added by Roger Hall at Penarth. Her design is based on the Galway Pucan.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2479

Tir an Og

Cornish Crabber Mk 1 built at Rock in 1977 (sold away).
Bristol Channel OGA No. 870

Torhilda

Originally Torfrida, a wooden gaff cutter, 28ft on deck, designed by A. Collins and built in Looe in 1933 by Steve Griffiths. She spent some years on the East coast at Burnham on Crouch where she fell into a state of considerable disrepair. Perry Crickmere carried out a long restoration project, taking her to Milford Haven soon after the Millenium.

Vera

A 12’ 3” balanced lug-sailed dinghy built in Bristol in 2002. Her home port is Instow.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 2833

Walkabout

Gaff ketch 33 ft. Built in Freemantle in Western Australia in 1952. She also spent a long period of time in Africa.
Bristol Channel OGA No. 227

Windfield

23ft gaff sloop clinker built by Peter Rundle, Penarth Boat Building Co. 1993, she remains at home in Cardiff. She won the 2009 BCA Race that took place in the Channel.
Bristol Channel OGA 

Working Yacht 1

Built between 1987 and 1991 on a farm near Bristol by John Laband, WY1 has a ferro hull and is 43’ ft (53’ l.o.a.) She is a Hartley & Brookes designed double-ended gaff ketch and has cruised extensively in the Bristol Channel and beyond and recently spent several years in Portugal.

Alpha

Built by William Stober of Liver & Wilding at Fleetwood in 1904 for pilot William Prosser at Newport. 60ft LOA, she was not typical of the Bristol Channel form, being based more on the lines of a Lancashire Shrimper.

Baroque

Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter built by John Hambly, Cardiff 1902. 50 foot, worked out of Barry. Later owned by Bill Tilman. Sunk Iceland 1977, later raised and restored. In 2002 in Swedish ownership in Stockholm. 2016, still in Scandinavia partly restored and up for sale at £75K.
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter OGA No. 895

Breeze

Built by Coopers of Pill in 1887 at 37ft 6in in length, Breeze was one of the smaller pilot cutters and thought to be the only surviving example of a Coopers’ built cutter. She languished for many years before being rebuilt from the bottom up in a total restoration between 2014 and 2016 by RB Boatbuilding of Bristol. As of 2022, she is up for sale.
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter

Carlotta (was Solway)

Built by at Gloucester by Wm Halford in 1899, supervised by a pilot and built to pilot cutter lines. But she worked as a fisheries police boat in Maryport. Later she passed through many hands including those of a pilot, before undergoing a 7 year refit in Canada. She can currently be found in the River Hamble. Every boat has a story, Carlotta’s is as fulsome as any. 
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter OGA No. 469

Dolphin

Built by John Bowden of Portleven in 1909, at 39 feet she is one of the smallest pilot cutters.  She won the 2016 Cock O’The Bristol Channel passage race organised by Barry Yacht Club, racing along with the pilot cutters Agnes, Dolphin, Mascotte and Olga and the non-pilot cutters Jan Rolean and the gaff ketch Working Yacht 1.

Frolic

Built in 1905 at Bideford by J. Westacott for Cardiff pilot Alf Edwards. She was an advanced design with cutaway forefoot, long, narrow and with outside ballast keel. Designed for speed she was one of the top pilot cutters of the period. She is most famous as a yacht for taking part in the first “Cock of the Bristol Channel” race in 1936 when owned by Major J.S. Crosthwaite Eyre.

Marian

(Also spelt Marion and Marianne). A Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter, (LOA 50ft) built in 1889 by J. Hambly in Cardiff. She was in service sailed by John Henry Morse until 1915. Said to have the most beautiful lines of any pilot cutter. In the 1920s she was converted into a yacht and renamed Colaba. She has since been re-built, deliberately sunk and re-built again.

Mischief (1st)

Built in Swansea by John Mason 1876. Reg. No: 89199 Pilot: William Morgan. Working in Cardiff: 1885. Sank after collision off Barry 1888. No known photo.
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.

Mischief  - (Modern Replica)

Built by RB Boat Building, Underfalls Yard, Bristol 2007. Spent time in Scotland (charter work) & Spain. Back in Bristol in November 2017.
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter.

Peggy

Originally The Wave, Peggy was built for pilot Arthur Case at Pill in 1903 by Edwin Rowles. Converted to a yacht by Moodys at Swanwick in the 1920s, she underwent a major restoration in the 1970s and 1980s. She took part in several Bristol Channel OGA races in the 1980/90s. Registered on National Historic Ships UK.
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter OGA No. 1070

Rene B

The Bristol Channel pilot cutter Rene B was built in 1910 at Porthleven for pilot Bennet of Cardiff. Later re-named Raider she has for decades been in storage at Capt. Bob Douglas’ cement warehouse in Vineyard Haven. Late in 2023 she was laboriously rolled onto a landing craft and subsequently taken to Wickford Shipyard in North Kingston, Rhode Island.