Guiding Star came second! Weather kept several regular boats away and stopped us racing on the first day, but we managed two races on the second day.
Crew from left to right: Candice, Theo, Alan, Paul, Alan
Many thanks to the Looe Sailing Club for the video on YouTube, and for their wonderful welcome to all the crews during the weekend. Watch Guiding Star at 8 minutes 27 seconds into the film.
Waiting for high tide to leave Charlestown
Berthed in West Looe
The lugger fleet
Looe dries twice a day
Guiding Star back in Looe for the 2017 Looe Lugger Regatta
Finally, we raced on Sunday
Tramping along
Model luggers
Midnight low tide, time to pick strands of rope out of the prop tube
When I bought Guiding Star, the surveyor suggested replacing the keel bolts. Once we hauled the boat out in Bristol in December 2016, it was clear he was right. Martin from RB Boatbuilding lifted out five tons of lead to get at the bolts.
Old keel bolts removed in December 2016. Some might have dated from 1907
New keel bolts in place
That was just the start of the winter work.
Joe, Eric and I repainted the hull
Relaunching Guiding Star…
It was a cold winter
I rented a workshop to varnish the spars
Martin built a spurning pipe for the anchor chain
Jay replaced almost all the standing and running rigging
Jay’s new Dyneema backstays
New running rigging
New name on the stern after struggles with a stencil
Nineteenth-century technology to haul out an early twentieth-century boat. Underfall Yard in Bristol is still using the slipway installed in 1890, restored in the 1990s.
Guiding Star Looe Lugger 1907 